This thesis addresses two specific moments in the professional career of the French surgeon and anatomist Charles Nicholas Jenty (?-at least 1777) whose biography includes long residencies in both England and Spain. While generally being studied in the context of the illustrations included in his anatomical atlases Jenty's biography and the extent of his scientific activities are marked by notable gaps. This thesis focuses on Jenty's membership in The Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce and the chemical experiments he performed in London in 1761. It introduces for the first time in English an analysis of his surgical treaty published in 1766 in Spanish during his initial career in Spain. Finally, new biographical information is provided as a preliminary study for further investigation. / Le présent mémoire porte sur deux moments concrets dans la carrière professionnelle du chirurgien et l'anatomiste Charles Nicholas Jenty (?-au moins 1777) dont la biographie comprend de longs séjours et en Angleterre et en Espagne. Bien que la vie professionnelle de Jenty a été étudié dans le contexte des illustrations qui font partie de ses atlas anatomiques renommés, sa biographie et l'étendue de ses activités scientifiques se distinguent par des lacunes notables. Le mémoire se concentre sur l'adhésion de Jenty dans la Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, et la réalisation de ses expériences chimiques en 1761 lorsqu'il se trouvait à Londres. Le mémoire présente pour la première fois en langue anglaise l'analyse de son traité de chirurgie publié en 1766 en langue espagnole au moment où il a débuté sa carrière en Espagne. De nouvelles informations biographiques sont également présentées dans le cadre d'une étude préliminaire qui mènera éventuellement à une étude plus approfondie.

Following World War II, new institutions were created to manage international health issues and assist developing nations in addressing their public health problems. Bilateral aid agencies and multilateral organizations designed, promoted, financed and implemented various programs to alleviate the burden of disease in the Third World, but also pursued political goals. In this dissertation, I analyze the development of international health activities of the Communicable Disease Center (CDC) from 1948 to 1972, from the first overseas assignment of a CDC officer until the end of major global public health campaigns at the beginning of the 1970s. My focus is on the role and motivations of CDC leaders and field epidemiologists who aimed and worked to transform the public health agency from a marginal international player into an important actor in the institutional constellation.In extending activities from the U.S. to the international arena, the CDC, as a national health agency, faced legal and political obstacles which limited its access to foreign localities where international health programs were being implemented. I argue that if expertise in field epidemiology existed in Atlanta and CDC leaders expressed a desire to see their agency take a more prominent role, the deployment of CDC personnel overseas remained problematic. To circumvent these obstacles, the CDC utilized development agencies, public health technologies and multilateral health organization as conduits to get access to foreign environments, procure international field experience to its epidemiologists and make an impact on the control of infectious diseases. As I show, it was especially during the 1960s that these three trajectories coalesced to ensure CDC's place as a public health actor of international reach and contributed in establishing its credibility. The exploration of the CDC's relationships with these international health actors and technologies also demonstrates the tensions deriving from the arrival of a new actor of international health, the limits of expertise when opposed by political considerations and the various tactics employed to secure a role in the design, implementation and management of public health programs abroad. / Après la Deuxième guerre mondiale, de nouvelles institutions sont créées afin de gérer les dossiers de la santé internationale et d'assister les nations en voie de développement dans la prise en charge de leurs problèmes de santé publique. Les agences d'aide bilatérale et les organisations multilatérales ont imaginé, promu, financé et implanté plusieurs programmes dans le but d'alléger le poids des maladies dans le Tiers monde, mais aussi à des fins de politique étrangère. Dans cette thèse, j'analyse la construction des activités de santé internationale du Communicable Disease Center (CDC) de 1948 à 1972, période correspondant à sa première mission outremer jusqu'à la fin d'importants programmes de santé internationale au début des années 1970. Je me concentre sur le rôle et les motivations des dirigeants du CDC et des épidémiologistes de terrain, qui visaient à transformer leur agence de santé publique, d'abord un acteur marginal, en un joueur important dans la constellation institutionnelle de la santé internationale. Dans l'expansion de leurs activités de la scène nationale à l'échelle internationale, le CDC, en tant qu'agence de santé nationale, a été confronté à des obstacles légaux et politiques limitant leur accès aux territoires étrangers où les programmes de santé internationale sont implantés. Je démontre que si le CDC disposait d'une expertise en épidémiologie de terrain et même si leurs dirigeants désiraient jouer un rôle international important, le déploiement des officiers du CDC à l'étranger demeurait problématique. Afin de contourner ces obstacles, le CDC utilisa les agences de développement international, les technologies de santé publique ainsi que les organisations multilatérales comme conduits afin d'accéder aux territoires d'outremer, donner une expérience internationale à ses épidémiologistes de terrain et modifier profondément les conventions sur le contrôle des maladies infectieuses. Tel que je le démontre, ces trois trajectoires fusionnent dans les années 1960 afin de confirmer le statut du CDC en tant qu'acteur de la santé internationale et contribuent à établir la crédibilité de l'institution. L'exploration des relations du CDC avec ces institutions et les technologies de santé publique permettent également de mettre en relief plusieurs éléments : les tensions découlant de l'arrivée d'un nouvel acteur institutionnel de la santé internationale, les limites de l'expertise qui est parfois en opposition avec des considérations politiques et les diverses tactiques utilisées pour s'assurer une place dans la mise sur pied, l'implantation et l'administration des programmes de santé publique à l'étranger.

Today, the perception of the Alps – and mountains in general - as an object or place of scientific and aesthetic value is an acknowledged element of Western culture. Before the eighteenth century, however, Europe possessed a markedly different mentality towards its mountain heart – one of fear and disdain toward the dangerous alpine desert. Yet the eighteenth century witnessed a reversal of this centuries-long prejudice as the cultivation of empirical methodology, coupled with the concomitant institutionalization of science and emergence of bourgeois culture paved the way for a transformation of Europe's alpine mentality. The pioneers of this change were Horace-Benedict de Saussure and Jean-André de Luc, natural philosophers of Swiss descent. Advocating meticulous observation, precision instrumentation and fieldwork, along with an implicit awareness of alpine aesthetics, Saussure and de Luc became the first to systematically study and appreciate the scientific and aesthetic value of the high Alps. Investigating the roles of Saussure and de Luc in transforming the perception of the Alps, this dissertation will focus on the core elements of their scientific methodology, demonstrating how the confluence of these components provided the catalytic force necessary to cast the Alps anew. / De nos jours, la façon de voir les Alpes et les montagnes en général, en tant qu'objet ou lieu qui a une valeur scientifique et esthétique, est tout à fait accepté par la Culture occidentale, Cependant, avant le XVIII ième siècle, l'Europe possédait une mentalité totalement différente à l'égard de son coeur montagnard, elle considérait ce désert alpin dangereux avec peur et mépris. Le XVIII ième siècle a vu un revirement de ce préjudice qui datait de centaines d'années. La culture de la méthodologie empirique à laquelle s'ajoutera l'institutionnalisation des Sciences et la naissance de la culture bourgeoise, ont ouvert la voie à une transformation de la mentalité alpine en Europe. Horace-Benedict de Saussure et Jean-André de Luc,tous deux physiciens d'origine Suisse, furent les pionniers de ce revirement. C'est en poussant à faire des observations méticuleuses, avec des instruments de précision et en faisant des recherches sur le terrain tout en ayant une sensibilisation absolue à propos des principes esthétiques alpins, c'est ainsi que Saussure et de Luc devinrent les premiers à en faire une étude systématique et à apprécier la valeur à la fois scientifique et esthétique des Hautes Alpes. Cette dissertation mettra l'accent sur les rôles de Saussure et de de Luc quant à la transformation de la perception des Alpes et se concentrera sur les éléments principaux de leur méthodologie scientifique, montrant comment la convergence de ces éléments fournit la force catalytique nécessaire pour présenter les Alpes dans un nouveau contexte. fr

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<p> Examines early attempts to formalize congressional oversight of intelligence, and details what level of congressional oversight existed for the Bay of Pigs operation.</p>

From 1960-4 the British government embarked on two large-scale space research programmes to develop satellite launchers. After first being cancelled as a military project in 1960, the Blue Streak missile was converted into the first stage of a British-led European collaborative project to build a three stage satellite launcher (through the European Launcher Development Organisation - ELDO). Born out of the Black Knight warhead re-entry testing vehicle, the independent Black Arrow project aimed to launch small satellites for scientific experimentation. With European collaborations, American scientific knowledge, and an Australian testing site, decisions affecting British space research had wide reaching diplomatic as well as domestic consequences. However, by 1973, both of these programmes had been cancelled. By examining the complex formation of British policy on these two space research projects, I will identify the alliances of actors involved focusing on understanding the role of civil servants, and the domestic, economic, and foreign policy priorities which directed their policy-making. This thesis seeks to address two contradictions raised by British policy on space research, and historical analysis of this period. Firstly, if we accept that Britain was not in decline in this period, the how can the history of two projects which is dominated by their cancellation be explained? Secondly, how British governments could reconcile their policy towards ELDO (threatening to withdraw almost yearly from 1966-73) with their stated aim to accede to the European Communities and their repeated rhetoric that the increased potential for scientific and technological collaboration was a key benefit of British accession? In order to address these contradictions I focus on decisions and decision-makers within government. By tracking policy arguments and options to their very beginnings I show throughout this thesis the way in which individuals frame, shape and direct policy. This thesis provides new insights into the foreign and domestic policy priorities of the four governments in this period by tracking the balance of priorities in policy making in two major space research projects. Close examination of ELDO and Black Arrow highlights that their cancellation is not a symbol of British decline, but instead represent active choices by decision-makers to engage in new areas of research. This supports the work of historians challenging the idea that Britain was in decline in this period, and suggests that cancelled projects should be re-examined.

Jaroslav Průšek and Czechoslovak Sinology. Between politics, Science and Fascination. Abstract This thesis deals with the beginnings of Czechoslovak Sinology in the context of the political and social situation during the post-War period, posing the question: what factors played a decisive role in that process? The study focuses on a few main areas: Jaroslav Průšek, the founder of Czechoslovak Sinology, as an individual actor whose personality combined an engaged approach to social affairs with intellectual honesty based on direct contact with the culture under study (especially its language and literature), and his contribution to building Sinology as a scientific discipline. Of necessity, that was explicitly tied to the contemporary political situation, which shaped scientific practice through the cooperation of all loyal actors, at the ideological as well as institutional and personal level. Through a discourse analysis of contemporary texts, mainly by Průšek, we follow these continuities diachronically: the development of Průšek's thought on China from his student days in the 1920s, through his stay in China and Japan in the 1930s and the particular war years, until the post-War (and post-1948) period; as well as synchronically: the links to the period's mentality, created by shared values. We further...