Excavations at UR, 1929–30

Asia and the Road Ahead: Issues for the Major Powers. By Robert A. Scalapino. University of California Press, 1976. Pp. x +337. Map. Index. £7.10.

A Peace Denied: the United States, Vietnam, and the Paris Agreement. By Gareth Porter. Indiana University Press, 1975. $15.     

The Emergence of the Lithuanian Radical Right Movement, 1922–1927

The article discusses the origins and development of the interwar Lithuanian radical right-wing movement before the coup d’état of December 1926. During the second half of 1922, the first sporadic outbreaks of Lithuanian ultra-patriotism occurred. They were carried out by veterans of the independence wars and students – both representatives of the “tautininkai (patriotic) stream.” In parallel, during the period 1923–1927, another two separate groups started operating as right-wing political parties: the pro-fascist movement coordinated by the Christian Democrats, and the “Secret Officers Union” allied with the “Lithuanian Nationalist Union” (Tautininkai). These three groups and their interrelations comprised the core of the early Lithuanian radical right. By focusing on the destabilizing role of war veterans, the author is explicit about the connection between the war and the radicalization of politics in interwar Lithuania.     

Churches at War: The Impact of the First World War on the Christian Institutions of Jerusalem, 1914–20

The purpose of this article is to discuss the role and status of the Christian churches in Jerusalem from the beginning of the twentieth century until 1920 when British Military Administration of Palestine came to an end, with a particular focus on the First World War period. The first part of the article provides some historical background on a number of crucial issues: the history of the Christian churches in Jerusalem, the relationship between the churches and the Ottoman authorities, competition with the European powers for the control of the Holy Places, the Status Quo and the capitulations which were the most important political features of Christian Jerusalem until 1914. The case study of the Custody of the Holy Land explains the impact of the war on Christian institutions during and after the conflict, particularly in 1918 when the Custody rebuilt its influence in the city and on the international stage. The second part of the article focuses on the war period and the creation of the Christian–Muslim associations which, to an extent united the Arab population of the city providing a different example of the impact of the war on the Christian institutions of Palestine and Jerusalem.     

The Origins of the Soviet Oil Crisis, 1970–1985

Soviet oil production peaked in 1983 and declined in 1984, chiefly because the growth of West Siberian output has nearly stopped. The root of the problem is two decades of unbalanced policy favoring near-term payoff over long-term preparation. Exploration has been systematically neglected in favor of development, and the West Siberian oil industry has been built on too narrow a base. Despite warnings from local officials as early as 1970, this led to a first crisis in 1976-1977. Moscow responded with an emergency increase in development drilling. This approach prevented output from dropping between 1978 and 1983 but only aggravated the deep-seated imbalance, preparing the way for a new crisis in 1983-1985. The underlying causes of this near-sighted approach are analyzed and the implications for a deeper understanding of Soviet decision-making spelled out. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: 052, 124, 721.     

Lawrence of Arabia: The life,the legend. A review of the exhibition at the Imperial War Museum, 14 October 2005–17 April 2006

Biography and Autobiography

Wilfrid Scawen Blunt. A memoir by his grandson, The. Earl of Lytton. Macdonald, London. Pp. 357. Index, illus. 30s.

Gertrude Bell. From her Personal Papers. 1914–26. Vol. II. By Elizabeth Bur‐goyne. Benn, 1961. Pp. 399. Illus., index. 45s.

The Yoshida Memoirs. By Shigeru Yoshida. Translated by Kenichi Yoshida. Pp. 291. Heinemann. 30s.

Kuniyoshi. By B. W. Robinson. Published by the Victoria and Albert Museum. 1961. Pp. 71. Plates 98. 27s. 6d.

Mao Tse‐tung and I Were Beggars. By Dr. Siao Yu. Hutchinson. Illus. Index. Pp. 253.

The Boss (The Story of Gamal Abdel Nasser). By Robert St. John. Arthur Barker, Ltd. London. 1961. Pp. 288. Index. 21s.

King Mongkut of Siam. By A. A. Griswold. Published by the Asia Society. New York. Pp. 60. $1.

Memoirs of a Bengal Civilian. By John Beames. Chatto and Windus, 1961. Index. 30s.

Religion and Philosophy

A Short History of Islam. By S. F. Mahmud. Pakistan branch O.U.P. i960. Pp. x + 724. Maps 24. 35s.

Studies in Islamic History and Civilisation. Ed. by Uriel Heyd. (Scripta Hierasolymitanc, vol. IX). Jerusalem, 1961. Pp. 228. 40s.

Yoga. Union with the Ultimate. The Sutras of Patanjali. By Archie J. Bahm. Published by Fredk. Ungar Publishing Co., N.Y. 1961. $3.50.

The Confucian Persuasion. Edited by Arthur Wright. Published by the Stanford University Press, Stanford, California, U.S.A. Index. 68s.

Selected Chinese Sayings. Translated and annotated by T. C. Lai, M.A. Published by University Book Store, Hong Kong. Pp. 191. U.S. $3.50 or 20s.

A New Selection from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. By John C. E. Bowen. Published by The Unicorn Press, London, 1961. Pp. xv + 136. Illustrations. 21s.

Asia (general)

Blueprints for Independence. By Dr. R. C. Winter. Djambatan (Amsterdam). Pp. 351. Bibliography and Annexes.

Far East

The Japanese Seizure of Korea, 1868–1910. By Hilary Conroy. Pennsylvania Press (London: Oxford University Press). Pp. 507. 60s.

East Asia: The Great Tradition. By Edwin O. Reischaucr and John K. Fairbank of Harvard University. Published by George Allen and Unwin, Ltd., London, i960. Pp. 690. Illus. Index and Biblio. 55s.

Contemporary China—Volume III, 1958–59. Ed. by Professor E. Stuart Kirby. Published by Hong Kong University Press. 1961. 45s.

Communist China Today. By S. Chandrasekhar, with a foreword by Frank Moraes; Asia Publishing House. 1961. No illustrations. Pp. 199. 21s.

South‐West Asia

The Emergence of Modern Turkey. By Bernard Lewis. Oxford University Press. Pp. 495. Biblio. Index and maps. 48s.

Crisis in Lebanon. By Fahim I. Qubain. The Middle East Institute, Washington D.C. 1961. Pp. 235. Map, appendices and index. I5.

A Modern History of the Sudan. By P. M. Holt. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. Pp. 240. Illus., index, biblio. and maps. 27s. 6d.

South Asia

The Soul of India. By Comtc Amaury de Riencourt. Jonathan Cape. Pp. xvi + 431. 25s.

The National Culture of India. By S. Abid Husain. Asia Publishing House, London, 1961. Pp. xi + 237. Index. 32s.

Indian Economic Policy and Development. By P. T. Bauer. Allen and Unwin, 1961. Pp. 152. Index. 16s.

The Quintessence of Nehru. Selected and with an introduction by K. T. Narasimha Char. Allen and Unwin, London, 1961. Pp. 271. Index. 21s.

Pakistan, the Formative Phase. By Dr. Khalid bin Sayeed. Pakistan Publishing House, Karachi, i960. Pp. xii + 492.

A History of the Freedom Movement. Published by the Pakistan Historical Society, Karachi. 1957–1960. Volume I, 1707–1831. Pp. xiii + 630. Volume II, 1831–1905. Pp. viii + 332.

Central Asia

The Changing Map of Asia. A Political Geography. Edited by W. Gordon East and O. H. K. Spate. 4th Edition. Revised. (London: Methuen and Co., Ltd. New York: E. P. Dutton and Co. Inc.). Pp. xviii + 436. Maps, tables and index. 36s.

The Slno‐Soviet Dispute. Edited by G. F. Hudson, Richard Lowenthal and Roderick MacFarquhar. Published by The China Quarterly, London. 5s.

Between Oxus.and Jumna. By Arnold Toynbee. O.U.P. 1961. Pp. 202. Illustrated, map and index 21s.

The Snowman and Company. By Odette Tcherninc. Robert Hale. ? 1961. Pp. 174. Biblio. Index. Illus. 18s.

In the Kirghiz Steppes. By J. W. Wardell. Published by the Galley Press, 1961. Pp. 182. Illus. Maps. Indexed. 25s.

Everyman's Concise Encyclopaedia of Russia. By S. V. Utechin. London: J. M. Dent and Sons, Ltd. New York: B. P. Dutton and Co. Inc. Pp. xxvi + 623. 30s.     

The Policy of Strategic Demobilisation: The Social Policy of the Christian Democratic–Liberal Coalition, 2009–13

This article addresses two research questions: which course did the CDU, CSU–FDP coalition government choose to follow in social policy from 2009 to 2013? And what relationships exist between social policy in this period and the Bundestag election in 2013? The analysis of primary and secondary data reveals both continuity and discontinuity in social policy in the 17th legislative period of the Bundestag. The decisions and non-decisions on social protection and labour market regulation in this period mirror a wide variety of determinants. These include partisan effects, electoral cycles, co-governing judges and anonymous social policy of market forces. The data also suggest that the CDU/CSU has been relatively successful in its strategy of ‘asymmetric demobilisation’, the strategy of changing its social policy profile to one more similar to that of its social democratic opponent, in order to demobilise the SPD's voters rather than mobilising them. More ambivalent has been the electoral outcome of the FDP's role in social policy. The FDP's first foray into leading a large welfare state ministry, the Federal Ministry of Health, in 2009 to 2013 did not prove to be a winning proposition for the Liberals electorally. Social policy in general and welfare state recalibration in particular thus seem to be an electorally especially risky project for a liberal party such as the FDP.     

The hand of Glubb: the origins of the Trucial Oman Scouts, 1948–1956

This article discusses the origins and formative years of the Trucial Oman Levies (renamed Trucial Oman Scouts in March 1956), a small force that was established by the British in Trucial States in 1951. The establishment of the Levies highlights a myriad of issues including who was going to command the force, how and where to recruit soldiers, the financial cost of the levies, and the diplomatic and strategic implications of raising a small force in a region whose strategic value grew immensely due to the exploitation of oil. Recent operations in Afghanistan and Iraq highlight the contemporary importance of understanding the historical experience of trying to raise indigenous armed forces.     

The Impact of the Palestinian Refugee Crisis on the Development of Amman, 1947–1958

Amman has been relatively underexplored in the literature on Middle Eastern cities. Using a broad range of primary and secondary sources, this article addresses the impact of the 1947–1949 Arab-Israeli War on the Jordanian capital during the late 1940s and 1950s. A number of themes are examined: Amman during wartime; the settlement of the Palestinians; change and continuity in terms of Jordan's centralization process and Amman's urban growth; and, finally, the city's transformative socio-economic structures and political forces. This article argues that the influx of Palestinian refugees transformed the public culture of Ammani society, which became much more politicized than before. It is also argued, however, that the political developments of the late 1940s and 1950s were not sufficient to overturn the defining characteristics of Amman as it had existed before the 1947–1949 Arab-Israeli War.     

The Dead Hand of the Treasury: The Economic and Social Development of the Trucial States, 1948–60

This paper addresses an aspect of British policy in the Trucial States that has received scant scholarly attention. It examines British attempts to promote economic and social development in the Trucial States, and places this policy within the context of British attitudes towards the economic development of the colonial empire. During the 1950s Britain's interest in the Arabian Peninsula expanded, in notable contrast with the rest of the Middle East. One aspect of this expanded role was British efforts to improve the economic and social conditions prior to the discovery of oil in Abu Dhabi in 1958. British officials on the ground were concerned to improve the lot of the population of these impoverished shaikhdoms for a combination of political and strategic and ethical reasons. This article shows that attempts to introduce a modicum of economic and social development in the Trucial States were hindered by the Treasury's refusal to provide adequate funds, and because of inherent problems in finding suitable development projects. Nonetheless, the plans put in place during the 1950s did provide the foundations for subsequent development programmes, which, in turn, drastically expanded as a result of oil wealth.     

Turco-British Diplomatic Manoeuvres on the Mosul Question in the Lausanne Conference, 1922–1923

Despite its crucial place in the history of international relations in general, and that of Turkey in particular, the Lausanne Peace Conference of 1922–1923 has rarely been the subject of scholarly investigation. In particular, the factors influencing the attitude of the delegations, the instructions they received from their respective foreign ministries and the process of formulating their strategies remain to be investigated. Here, we shall describe the negotiating strategies and diplomatic relations between Turkey and Britain, focusing on the irreconcilable aims of Britain and Turkey concerning the fate of Mosul Vilayet during the first phase of the Conference. Events occurring between the breakdown of the conference and its re-opening will be investigated and finally the negotiations before the issue was taken to the League of Nations examined.     

The Origins of the Redemption in Occupied Suburbia? The Jewish-American Makings of the West Bank Settlement of Efrat, 1973–87

Founded primarily by Jewish-American immigrants after the 1973 Arab–Israeli war, Efrat has emerged as one of the most highly recognizable settlements in the occupied territories. Drawing on archival materials, the periodical press, and interviews never before brought to light, this article both explores the untold history of this ‘city on a hilltop’ as the product of a quadrilateral relationship between American–Israelis, the Israeli government, the native Israeli settler movement, and local Palestinian communities, as well as reconstructing the discourses in the making of Efrat, which combine religio-political imperatives alongside a deeply Americanized vision of building new, utopian, suburbanized communities in the occupied territories, during its formative years between 1973 and 1987.     

Professor John Roskell,FBA: The re-birth of the British Sub-Committee of the Commission and the History of Parliament, 1948–1960

SUMMARY

In this article J. Agirreazkuenaga examines the events in the Basque provinces of Spain during the attempted Carlist coup d'état of 1833. Essentially the coup was a failure, although its partial early success did give the Carlists a territorial basis substantial enough to sustain six years of civil war. The result of the coup was not the intended instant displacement of the legitimate, constitutional authorities throughout the region. The Carlists had made their preparations in advance, in anticipation of the death of the absolutist Ferdinand VII, and the threat of the introduction of a liberal constitutionalist regime under his daughter. They had recruited a local militia, the ‘Armed Countrymen’ which carried out the actual coup. But although these units were mainly volunteers, and paid for their service, they proved unreliable in action, being unwilling to engage in serious combat. In consequence during the first 100 days of the uprising, the early successes, based on the absence of serious resistance from the constitutional authorities, were reversed when they were confronted by troops loyal to the government. The article presents some conclusions about the state of development of traditional Basque society which were revealed by the failure of the original coup and the beginning of civil war.     

The British Mandate and the crisis of Palestinian landlessness, 1929–1936

This article examines landlessness among Palestinians as a facet of colonial policy in Mandate Palestine before the 1936 revolt. The growth of what was sometimes called a ‘landless class’ came into official view after the violence of 1929. Subsequent investigations indicated that landlessness was a significant problem and that it threatened to destabilize the Mandate. The effort to ameliorate the crisis of landlessness, however, clashed with the dominant colonial conception of settler developmentalism, the notion that Jews, not Arabs, were the agents of modern economic development in Palestine. The first part of this examination revisits the contest over the 1930 White Paper, focusing on its relationship to the advent of mass landlessness. The rapid defeat of the new policy via the MacDonald letter left the landlessness problem to fester while simultaneously obscuring it. As the situation in the Arab countryside continued to deteriorate, the onset of the fifth aliya temporarily reinforced erroneous assumptions about the potential to rectify the problem through the yishuv's development. By the time mass landlessness was ‘rediscovered’ and new land controls designed to protect Arab smallholders were on their way to promulgation in 1935–1936, the Palestinian countryside was just months away from determined revolt.