Following Nietzsche, Oswald Spengler posed the central problems of the cyclical history of civilization in the twentieth century. Subsequent world historical theorists have attempted to answer Spengler's nihilistic perspective on the destined rise and fall of all cultures by rescuing a progressive movement which transcended the downfall of civilizations. World history since Spengler has been written in pursuit of an answer to the crises of modernism: to the 'Death of God,' the problem of progress, the emergent technological order with its bureaucratic management of society, and the need sensed by the metahistorians for a new 'mythical' grounding to avert the fall of the West. The "Crisis of the West" dominates the perspectives of the world historians. Their goals for the solution of 'modernism,' through the religious transformation of society or political and cultural world unity, are central to their motivation as writers and to the formulation of their paradigms.

The purpose of this study was to determine if students change their responses to selected interpretations of American history after participating in a course in American history. The analysis of the responses was based upon interpretations in a measuring device titled, "Student Responses to Selected Interpretations of American History." This measuring device was created for this study by the researcher.The research was planned to answer the question, "Do students change their responses to selected interpretations of American history at a statistically significant level after participating in a course in American history?"The investigator collected responses to the pre-test and post-test administration of the measuring device from six hundred and fourteen eleventh grade students. An additional eighty-seven responses from sophomores were collected for purposes of comparison with the juniors. The subjects were students from two senior high schools in Indiana. The subjects represented a heterogeneity of socio-economic status, race and achievement levels. The six hundred and fourteen juniors participated in a course in Americanhistory. The eighty-seven sophomores were enrolled in a course in world history at those two schools.Statistical processing of the data consisted of determining the significance of the proportion of changed responses to the measuring device. Coefficients of correlations of proportional change were computed on the basis of sex, intelligence test scores, and grade point averages. An analysis of the difference in proportion of change between sophomores and juniors was also computed. Analysis of the data led to the following findings:Students who had participated in the course in American history at the eleventh grade level changed their responses at a statistically significant level for forty-three of the interpretations.There was no correlation between sex and the proportion of change for forty-three of the interpretations.There was no correlation between intelligence test scores and the proportion of change for forty-three of the interpretations.There was no correlation between grade point average and proportion of change for thirty-eight of the interpretations. For two of the interpretations students with higher grade point averages were more likely to change their responses and for five of the interpretations students with higher grade point averages were less likely to change their responses than were students with a lower grade point average.Students who had participated in the course in American history were more likely to change their responses to ten of the interpretations than were students who had not participated in the course in American history. There was no statistically significant difference between these two groups' proportion of change for thirty-five of the interpretations.The following conclusions have been drawn from the findings:1. Students who had participated in the course in American history at the eleventh grade level changed their responses at a statistically significant level for forty-three of the interpretations.2. There was no significant correlation between sex and the proportion of change for forty-three of the interpretations.3. There was no significant correlation between intelligence test scores and the proportion of change for forty-three of the interpretations.4. There was no significant correlation between grade point average and the proportion of change for thirty-eight of the interpretations. For two of the interpretations, students with higher grade point averages were more likely to change their responses and for five of the interpretations students with higher grade point averages were less likely to changetheir responses than were students with lower grade point averages.5. There was no statistically significant difference between the proportion of change for juniors and sophomores for thirty five of the interpretations. Students who had participated in the course in American history were more likely to change their responses to ten of the interpretations than were students who had not participated in the course in American history.

[From the introduction] : In my first chapter I will offer a review of Marechera's reputation and the critical reception given to his work, both during his life and since his death. In Chapter Two I Will outline the major theoretical issues raised by Marechera's work: Art versus psychological catharsis; the artist-as-communal-spokesman versus the artist-as-Romantic-individualist; nationalism versus literary universalism. Chapters Three, Four, Five and Six will then consider in sequence, the work produced in Oxford, in London and in Harare, tracing the writer's physical and psychological deterioration through his evolving prose style. Each of these chapters will also focus on a major relevant critical issue. Thus Chapter Three will examine The House of Hunger, written following Marechera's arrival in Oxford, in the context of 'culture clash', 'the African heritage' and Postcolonialism which so preoccupied its original reviewers. Chapter Four will examine Black Sunlight and The Black Insider, written while the author was destitute in London, in terms of Jung's 'neurosis or art' debate. Chapter Five will examine Mindblast and Chapter Six will examine Scrapiron Blues, both containing material written after Marecheras' return to Harare, making reference to the historical and socio-political context of post-colonial Zimbabwe and to the writer's unsuccessful attempts to establish a role with the nation builders. I will conclude in Chapter Seven by discussing Marechera's place within the Zimbabwean literary canon, the current relevance and influence of his work and the implications this holds for the future of Zimbabwean writing.

No description available.

John Millar's historical works have not, since the era of their original publication, been viewed as such by their principal commentators. Though Millar's Discourse on the Origin of the Distinction of Ranks (1771) has received acclaim for its perceived sociological value, his intended masterwork, An Historical View of the English Constitution (1803) has been almost completely neglected by contemporary scholarship. The intent of this paper is threefold: first, by viewing Millar in the historiographical context of late Enlightenment Britain, Millar's texts become recognizable as they were when they were first read, that is, as works of history. Restoring Millar to this context, a time when sophisticated new modes of historical writing were being developed to explain the modern world, also reveals the origins and nature of Millar's characteristic "conjectural" or "philosophical" approach to the study of the past. Secondly, a methodological analysis of Millar's major works and his unpublished "Lectures on Government" will provide insight into how Millar's conjecturalism was reconfigured to fit different subjects, purposes, and generic norms. Third, a survey of Millar's reception in the early nineteenth century will illustrate how rapidly and how profoundly the perceptions of Millar's historiographical approach changed from laudatory to dismissive. Millar is thus revealed not only as a historical writer, but one who was dedicated to a sophisticated, systematic program of historical inquiry. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

The problem of a method of historical analysis played an integral part in the scholarship of Ernst Cassirer, German philosopher and historian. An Essay on Man, the work for which he is best known in the United State, includes his most lucid discussion of the tasks and aims of the historian. The historian must reconstruct the past, infusing it with the immediacy of a living expression. “Rebirth of the past” gives man a better view of his potentialities, a freedom to see beyond the demands, characteristics, and contingencies of the moment. This view of history and the historian’s task was reiterated by Cassirer in several of his works on theory and was implicit in a number of his books and articles on historical topics. The following critique will focus on Cassirer’s discussion of history and on his historical method as it was demonstrated in several of his writings. Despite the criticism of Cassirer’s penchant for structure and affinity for schemata, he has had a profound influence on the general community of historians. His work in many areas was unique and he did considerable original research. He has had some influence on subsequent historians, especially with some of the specifics of his data. Even the abundance of criticisms of his works attests to the to the seriousness with which he has been viewed as a historian.

No description available.

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Ce travail étudie le sens et la place des activités physiques sur le littoral Haut-Normand. La démarche, socio-géographique, cherche à rendre compte des médiations territoriales à l'œuvre en multipliant les prises sur l'objet : les transformations concernent les usages comme les représentations, aussi bien que la gestion des choix d'aménagements. Il s'agit de comprendre les déterminations réciproques des cultures, des rapports sociaux et des rapports spatiaux. Le corpus rassemble 39 entretiens, 949 questionnaires, 187 grilles d'observation et des documents produits par d'autres [documents d'urbanisme, cahiers d'acteurs, rapports administratifs]. Au-delà d'une radiographie des activités, la thèse dévoile des profils de pratiquants et identifie des paysages vécus. Quatre études de cas reconstruisent les jeux d'échelle, mais aussi les légitimités contradictoires à l'œuvre (public/privé, risque/sécurité, développement durable etc.). Au-delà des discours, ce trait de côte fait-il l'objet d'une « gestion intégrée » ? À quels partages et à quels clivages les usages récréatifs de ce littoral renvoient-ils ?

Les indications géographiques (IG) sont un instrument de plus en plus utilisé dans le monde entier. Sujet fréquent des négociations de commerce international, la régulation des IG est un des thèmes les plus importants dans les discussions concernant l'organisation du système agroalimentaire mondial, dans la mesure où il concerne un ensemble de questions autour des droits de propriété intellectuelle et de l'accès aux marchés. Opposé à un processus de standardisation de la production et de la consommation alimentaire, les IG cherchent à valoriser la diversité et l'originalité de produits ancrés dans des territoires spécifiques, mettant l'accent sur les biens immatériels (savoir-faire, tradition, habitudes, façon de produire etc.). Pourtant, il s'agit d'un concept générique qui peut être utilisé dans différents contextes et par des acteurs sociaux les plus divers, y compris pour ceux qui sont dehors du territoire. Chaque projet d'indication géographique est composé par un réseau sociotechnique hétérogène, au sein duquel sont négociées différentes conceptions de qualité et où des valeurs sont en conflit permanent. L'institutionnalisation des règles et des modes de production qui permettent aux acteurs d'échanger est le résultat de ce processus de négociation où des compromis entre des valeurs différentes sont constitués. Dans le monde des vins, les indications géographiques ont été pendant longtemps un concept qui était presque exclusivement lié à un modèle de production lié à la valorisation de terroirs distincts, à l'institutionnalisation de la rareté et à des méthodes traditionnelles de viticulture et de vinification. Cependant, les changements en cours sur le marché mondial, associés à l'entrée en scène de nouveaux acteurs et de nouvelles conventions qualitatives, ont commencé à transfigurer la vie des terroirs et la notion même d'indication géographique. Son adaptation aux nouveaux enjeux économiques a révélé la façon dont ce mécanisme peut être adapaté à différents objectifs. Dans cette thèse, nous révèlons que le développement récent de cet instrument de qualification dans le secteur vitivinicole exprime un double processus d'institutionnalisation. D'un côté, les IG ont incité la valorisation des territoires et de leur identité, avec, dans certains cas, la création d'obstacles aux innovations qui pourraient mettre en péril la typicité des produits. De l'autre, les IG ont été ajustées, dans le cadre d'un processus d'appropriation sectorielle, pour permettre des innovations techniques et organisationnelles jugées nécessaires pour que les producteurs puissent réagir à la perte de compétitivité sur les marchés nationaux et internationaux. Ainsi, dans un contexte d'hybridation des stratégies compétitives sur le marché du vin, les projets concilient des modèles conceptuels autrefois antagonistes. Pour cela, plus que concilier tradition et innovation, les IG créent des nouveaux compromis entre des principes de valorisation (définitions de qualité), qui se matérialisent dans un ensemble de changements des pratiques productives impliquant notamment le choix des cépages ou la définition des méthodes de vinification parmi d'autres composants. Nous avons étudié sept IG distinctes au Brésil (Vale dos Vinhedos, Pinto Bandeira, Monte Belo Sul, Farroupilha, Garribaldi) et en France (Beaujolais, Languedoc) sur la base d'entretiens semi-directifs, d'observation et d'analyse documentaire.