Commission newsletter: Winter 1982

W?adys?aw Czapliński (ed): The Polish Parliament at the Summit of Its Development (16th ‐ 17th Centuries): Anthologies (Polish Historical Library, no. 6, Marian Biskup ed.). (Zaklad Narodowy imienia Ossolińskich, Wroc?aw, 1985; pp. 214; ISBN 83 04 01861 6; pb, z? 200).

Ulrich Lange: Landtag und Ausschuß. Zum Problem der Handlungsfähigkeit landständischer Versammlungen im Zeitalter der Entstehung des frühmodernen Staates. Die weifischen Territorien als Beispiel (1500–1629). (Hildesheim: Lax, 1986). 278 pp. (Veröffentlichungen der Historischen Kommission für Niedersachsen und Bremen XXIV: Untersuchungen zur Ständegeschichte Niedersachscns. Bd. 6. DM.68).

Gerhard A. Ritter (Transl. Kim Traynor): Social Welfare in Germany and Britain: Origins and Development, (Berg Publishers, Leamington Spa and New York, ISBN 0–907582–49–4 xi, 300pp. £30; 1986).     

‘Venona’: the British dimension

‘Venona’ remains the greatest secret of the Cold War yet to be declassified, and offers the pieces of a jigsaw that, when assembled and interpreted, reveals the identities of dozens of Soviet agents who participated in GRU and NKVD networks across the globe between 1940 and 1948. Among them, operating in London, were Professor J.B.S Haldane, codenamed ‘Intelligentsia’, and Lord Swaythling's son, the Honourable Ivor Montagu, appropriately codenamed ‘Nobility’. Contained in the sometimes partially decrypted texts are clues to hundreds of other, as yet unexposed, spies, active in Australia, Mexico, Sweden, the United States, Britain, and numerous other countries. Betrayed by William Wiesband and Kim Philby, the ‘Venona’ project failed to find the traitor known as ‘Baron’ inside the wartime GCHQ, but was responsible for the arrest of Klaus Fuchs, confirming the guilt of Alger Hiss, Donald Maclean and the Rosenbergs, supporting the allegations of Whittaker Chambers and Elizabeth Bentley, and sparking off molehunts on three continents. ‘Venona’ sheds important new light on the assassination of Trotsky, Soviet penetration of the Manhattan project at Los Alamos and Berkeley, and reveals high-level espionage in the White House, OSS, the State Department and virtually every government department in Washington DC.     

State supported segregation? Examining migrant clustering in schools in Ireland

Recent education policy debates in Ireland have focused on whether the dominance of the Catholic Church in primary school provision is an appropriate model for an increasingly diverse population, rather than concern with migrant clustering and/or segregation per se. Efforts to ensure that students from a range of religious or non-religious backgrounds are catered for in education contexts are to be lauded. However, this research provides clear evidence of migrant segregation as a result of how school choice impacts attendance patterns on the ground. This is not surprising, given the evidence from research on school choice which highlights the fact that it can exacerbate socio-economic and demographic segregation. As such, enshrining parental choice as the corner-stone of school provision in Ireland is flawed since it, intentionally or otherwise, builds an educational infrastructure that encourages school segregation.     

Testifying theory: Womanist intellectual thought

Sheila Rowbotham, A Century of Women: The History of Women in Britain and the United States, London: Viking, 1997, £20.

Joan Raphael‐Leff and Rosine Jozef Perelberg (eds.), Female Experience: Three Generations of British Women Psychoanalysts on Work with Women, London: Routledge, 1997, £17.99.     

Offense Type as Determinant of Revenge and Forgiveness After Victimization: Adolescents’ Responses to Injustice and Aggression

Victims of injustice and aggression may have strong feelings about the perpetrator(s) that may impede their efforts to cope with the victimizing experience. We examined to what extent adolescents’ interpersonal responses to victimization in terms of revenge and forgiveness depend on offense type. Of 455 Dutch students from various educational levels, 379 participants reported being victimized by incidents of injustice, aggression, or violence. These incidents were categorized according to type and related to respondents’ self-reported revenge, avoidance, and benevolence toward the perpetrator. Victims of criminal offenses (physical and sexual violence, theft, and threat) reported less forgiving motivations than victims of noncriminal transgressions (bullying, ostracism, and other forms of indirect aggression). Sexual violence primarily elicited avoidance, rather than revenge. Gender differences in responses to victimization depended on offense type, too. Hence, to enhance our knowledge about revenge and forgiveness after victimization, future studies may need to take offense characteristics into account.