Integration and social networks: Lutherans in revolutionary Paris, 1789–1797

Using the wedding registers of the Swedish embassy chapel in Paris during the years of the French Revolution, the article analyses patterns of integration among Lutheran immigrants who had come to reside in Paris. Using the network paradigm but not restricting the analysis to kinship networks, the identified relationships show that geographical origin played a significant role in the creation of networks, as did occupation. People with common geographical origins, and within the same trade, built up social networks lasting many years. Residential proximity was also present in network ties. In most of the weddings analysed, these different factors were intertwined, suggesting that the process of social integration often demanded both time and space as necessary elements. Moreover, the evidence suggests more generally that examining only kinship ties in the study of historical network analysis is unnecessarily restrictive if sources permit the examination of other bases on which networks can be formed.     

Bourgeois Myth versus Media Poetry in Prime-time: Re-visiting Mark Frost and David Lynch's Twin Peaks

This article explores IVIark Frost and David Lynch's television series Twin Peaks from the perspective of the two dominant world-views it dramatized. The world-view based in bourgeois myth can be described as employing significations that are always present in naturally and mythically transcendent terms. The other world-view is generated by media poetry, which is a virtual mode of signification that re-mediates linguistic/audio/visual phenomena with contingent capacities for meaning. That generative potential for signification is an aspect of all media use, but media poetry specifically highlights and exploits the capacity of new multi-media to enhance “poetic” possibilities for meaning-making. This may occur through either the actual use of virtual media, through a critical ambiguity with regard to official ideologies and formal/generic con-straints, or through thematic content that destabilizes fixed meanings/representations and entertains possibilities for alternative significations. The article makes the case that the adolescent characters in the show specifically embody the productive world-view inherent in media poetry, and the “poetic” challenges they present to adult, mythic society allow for the continual re-mediation of any and all bourgeois myths. Those adolescents, especially Laura Palmer, embody cultural meanings that refuse ideological codification; that is, that can still become. Twin Peaks, as the article demonstrates, is a striking example of media poetry since it was aired on prime-time network television; it still deserves attention for the stunning ways it remediated the mythic nature of American, middle-class society.     

Democracy,Economic Wealth and Social Capital: Sorting Out the Causal Connections

There is widespread agreement that democracy, economic wealth and culture are causally linked, but there is sharp disagreement about the degree to which each of the factors influences the others. We contend that a society's culture, in the form of social capital, remains largely unchanged for long periods of time and that it leaves an indelible mark on the society's politics and economics. Using the 1990 World Values Surveys (WVS), we develop national-level social capital scores for the populations of 11 countries. We also use the cumulative General Social Surveys (GSS) to develop social capital scores for Americans who claim to have ancestral ties to these 11 nations. The WVS and GSS scores are strongly correlated, suggesting that social capital is durable and portable. Moreover, the GSS scores, which serve, in effect, as instrumental measures of 19th-century social capital, prove to be better predictors of contemporary politics and economics in the 11 WVS nations than commonly used 19th-century measures of politics and economics.     

Ambush at Kamikaze Pass

Abstract

“I was visiting an Indian school and a movie was being shown in the auditorium about the cavalry and the Indians. The cavalry was, of course, outnumbered and holding an impossible position where the Indians had chased them into the rocks. The Indians, attempting to sneak up on the cavalry, were being killed, one every shot. When it finally appeared that the Indians were going to overrun the army position the ubiquitous cavalry appeared on the far horizon with their bugle blowing, and charged to save the beleaguered few. The whole auditorium full of Indian students cheered.” Our Brother's Keeper: The Indian in White America.     

Struggling on the World Scene: An Over-ambitious EU versus a Committed Iran

Abstract

In 2003, the EU was hopeful to convince Iran to give up its nuclear programme. Five years later, most signals point to an accelerated nuclear programme in Iran. This article first aims to sketch an overview of the EU efforts, and secondly to make an interim assessment of the effectiveness of the EU's approach vis-à-vis Iran. While the final assessment may be different, the current evaluation is disappointing from the point of view of the EU. The Iranian case does not enhance the EU's strategic reputation in the world.     

The dimensions of Fianna fail rule in Ireland

Politics in the Irish Republic derives its special party orientation from a bitterly‐contested civil war waged relatively early in the nation‐state's history. In Ireland, as in America, the loser in the civil war has turned out to be the most successful political party. Fianna Fail is a national coalition of regions, interests, and classes which has rarely been out of power thanks to the professionalism of its electoral machine and its understanding of the importance of localism in Irish politics. Until recently, Irish political expectations were relatively low. Today, in the wake of major cultural and economic change, nascent class conflict may challenge the conservative status quo.     

Fianna Fail's Troubled Anniversary

De Valera and the Ulster Question 1917–73. By John Bowman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982. Pp.369. £17.50.

The Age of de Valera. By Joseph Lee and Gearoid O'Tuathaigh. Dublin: Ward River Press, 1982. Pp.216. £4.95.

De Valera's Finest Hour 1932–59. by T. Ryle Dwyer. Cork: Mercier Press, 1982. Pp.205. £4.50.

Sean Lemass and the Making of Modern Ireland 1945–66. By Paul Bew and Henry Patterson. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1982. Pp.224. IR£15.00.     

Regional nationalism and party system change: Italy's Northern league

La Lega Lombarda. Edited by Renato Mannheimer. Milan: Feltrinelli, 1991. Pp.203. L.20,000. ISBN 88–07–09023–6.

I Lombardi Alia Nuova Crociata. By Daniele Vimercati. Milan: Mursia, 1990. Pp.vii + 167. L.25,000. ISBN 88–425.

Vento Dal Nord, La Mia Lega, La Mia Vita. By Umberto Bossi with Daniele Vimercati. Milan: Sperling & Kupfer. Pp.xiv + 204. L.24.500. ISBN 88–200–1309–6.

Che Cosa Vuole La Lega. By Giulio Savelli. Milan: Longanesi, 1992. Pp.187. L.23,000. ISBN 88–304–1091–8.

Tutti a casa, terroni. By Salvatore Scarpino. Milan: Leonardi, 1992. Pp.126. L.14,000. ISBN 88–355–1064–3.

Brigate Rozze, A Sud e a Nord del Senatore Bossi. By Max Ottomani. Naples: Tulio Pironti Editore. Pp.163. L.23,000. ISBN 88‐.

Le Parole della Lega. By Stefano Allievi. Milan: Garzanti, 1992. Pp.115. L. 18,000. ISBN: 88–11–65055–0.

Gli Stati Uniti d'Italia, Antologia dei Federalisti Italiani. Edited by Renzo Del Carria & Claudio De Boni. Messina: G. D'Anna, 1991. Pp.258. L.20,000.