The First World War as Catalyst and Epiphany: The Case of Henry P. Davison

The experience of the First World War was central to the emergence of a trans-Atlantic elite committed to close collaboration and an international alliance, either formal or de facto, between Great Britain and the United States. The reactions to the conflict of Henry P. Davison, dominant partner in J. P. Morgan and Company, illustrate the manner in which the First World War was catalytic in the creation of an Atlanticist elite. Davison, moreover, experienced something like a personal epiphany during the war, metamorphosing from a hard-driving businessman into an international philanthropist who developed ambitious schemes to remake the world. For seven years, Davison energetically sought to affect the course, outcome, and consequences of the First World War. Fundamental to Davison's worldview were the desirability and necessity of Anglo–American collaboration, on which all his other plans were predicated. When the war ended, Davison proposed almost visionary schemes, on the one hand to provide massive American governmental and private economic assistance to finance European postwar relief and reconstruction efforts and, on the other, to establish an international Red Cross organization that would mount a massive campaign to eradicate global public health problems. Although abortive in the short term, in the longer run his plans proved prophetic, anticipating the post–Second World War Marshall Plan and World Health Organization.     

Mandates As Both Hardship And Benefit: The Clean Water Program In Small Communities

No other intergovernmental policy has been so costly and difficultfor small local governments to implement as the 1972 versionof federal Clean Water legislation. This legislation has requiredthousands of localities to construct new or upgraded sewagetreatment systems. Rural governments have been hard pressedto cope with the demands of the anti-pollution standards, becauseof limited fiscal and managerial capacities and local valuesoften in conflict with national and state policy goals. Yet,as this study of eight rural California communities suggests,implementation can bring local benefits as well as hardship.As a result of their decade-long experiences with the CleanWater program, the small municipalities generally improved theirsewer system finances, acquired new organizational skills andresources, and increased their capacity to accommodate populationgrowth and stimulate economic development. These were long-runimpacts, occurring after initial problems and delays in theplanning, funding, and construction of the new plants.     

Men,women, and persons

Abstract. Like the rest of the work world, the Canadian public service was designed as a system of manpower utilization. Achievement in the world of work has, in industrial societies, been more than a masculine pursuit: it has been a basic criterion of manliness. It is not surprising that the civil service has refused to accept women on the same grounds as men for most of its history, nor is it surprising that some of the barriers erected in earlier years have been institutionalized in the current structure. Throughout history we have concentrated and elaborated on the differences between men and women, but the tide of social change set in motion by the industrial revolution has led to a situation where it may make life easier to stress our similarities as human beings rather than our differences as men and women. The traditional roles of women have lost much of their absorptive capacity and meaning, so more and more women will move into jobs that have in the past been defined as male. As they do so, the traditional roles of men also lose meaning: it is hard for achievement to symbolize manliness when women also achieve. But if we were to recognize that both male territory and female territory are quite limited, we could move on to the territory of common humanity and to the opportunities it offers not only to find meaning but to create it. Sommaire. Comme le reste du monde du travail, la function publique canadienne a été conçue pour être un système d'utilisation de la main-d'euvre masculine. Dans les sociétés industrielles, les réalisations dans le monde du travail ont été plus qu'une activité masculine: elles ont été Ie critère fondamental de la masculinité. Il n'est done pas surprenant que la fonction publique ait refusé d'accepter les femmes sur la même base que les hommes pendant la plus grande partie de son existence et il n'est pas étonnant non plus que certains des obstacles égés au départ aient été institutionalisés dans les structures actuelles. Pendant toute notre histoire, nous avons insisté et élaboré sur les différences entre hommes et femmes mais l'évolution sociale dont la révolution industrielle a été raponsable, a créé une situation dans laquelle la vie est simplifiée si I'on insiste sur nos similarités en tant qu'êtres humains plutôt que sur nos différences en tant qu'hommes et que femmes. Les rôles traditionnels des femmes one beaucoup perdu de leur caractère absorbant et de leur sens, et des femmes de plus en plus nombreuses occuperont des posts qui avaient été définis autrefois comme étant des occupations masculines. Du même coup, les rôles traditionnels des hommes perdent leur signification: il est difficult de faire da réalisations le symble de la masculinité lorsque les femmes en ont aussi à leur crédit. Si toutefois nous reconnaissons que le territoire masculin, comme le territoire féminin, sont très limités, nous pourrons envisager le territoire commun de l'humanité et les occasions qu'il nous offer non seulement de trouver un sens à notre vie mais de lui en donner un.     

Motives for suicide--a study of Australian suicide notes

Analysis of a large sample of suicide notes from 262 suicides in Australia found that men less often had escape from pain as a motive for their suicides and more often had love/romantic problems. The suicides of older persons were more often motivated by escape from pain and less often had love/romantic problems.     

What is a good post-separation relationship? The perspectives of Australian parents

Socio-legal research has established the importance of a ‘good’ post-separation parental relationship; however there is little work addressing the definitions and experiences of parents themselves. Thus, we have few insights into how socio-legal expectations align with those of separated parents. This paper draws on interview data from 27 separated Australian parents to explore the question: how do parents define a good post-separation parental relationship? Our analysis indicated a typology of three relationships: allied, arm’s length and autonomous relationships. These were differentiated by parents’ emotional connection, practical interdependence and deliberate co-operation in caring for their children. They shared in common parents’ focus on the wellbeing of children, which both motivated parents’ on-going connection and informed their definition of a good post-separation relationship with their former partner. Our findings indicate an alignment between socio-legal expectations of good relationships and those of parents, albeit in sometimes unexpected forms.