This working paper was produced in early 2020 to start a conversation about how academic historians can help to address the climate and biodiversity crises in their professional practice. Since it was drafted, responses to the rapid spread of covid-19 have shown that it is possible to undertake much academic historical work in low-carbon modes. We encourage academic historians to circulate this paper at Discipline, Department, School and/or Faculty level within their home institutions, in order to gather support and develop specific initiatives for reform of existing policy frameworks (eg travel policies), and establishment of new policies and procedures.

Oral history is often concerned not only with what is said but also with silences and what they might mean—what is omitted from interview responses or the historical record, and in this case, omission from both social discourse and research in general about women’s experience of what is virtually a universal experience for them. From interviews with twelve women, the author sought to ‘penetrate the veil of silence’ and transcend the dearth of documentary evidence about the meaning of menstruation in women’s lives. Interviews ‘yielded fascinating and complex responses that opened up questions rather than providing definitive answers. Perhaps the most profound insight gained through the project was an appreciation of the power of silence, which can communicate more loudly than words.’

This article explores a key claim underpinning Russian official memory politics, namely, the notion that Russia’s past (and especially the role it played in the Second World War) is the object of a campaign of “historical falsification” aimed at, among other things, undermining Russian sovereignty, especially by distorting young people’s historical consciousness. Although “historical falsification” is an important keyword in the Kremlin’s discourse, it has received little scholarly attention. Via an analysis of official rhetoric and methodological literature aimed at history teachers, I investigate the ideological functions performed by the concept of “historical falsification.” I show how it serves to reinforce a conspiratorial vision of Russia as a nation under siege, while simultaneously justifying the drive toward greater state control over history education.

French Revolution is an accessible and concise introduction to the history of the revolution in France. Combining a traditional narrative of with documents of the era and references to contemporary imagery of the revolution, the book traces the long and short term causes of the French Revolution as well as its consequences up to the dissolution of the Convention and the ascendancy of Napoleon. The book is written with an explicit aim for its reader to acquire understanding of the past whilst imparting knowledge using the underlying the historical concepts such as evidence, continuity and change, cause and effect, significance, empathy, perspectives, and contestability. Key topics discussed within the book include: The structure of French society before 1789. The long- and short-term factors that contributed to the French Revolution. How ordinary French people, including women and slaves participated in the revolution. What brought about the end of the ancien regime. The major reforms of the National Assembly, 1789-1791 and how they lead to the division and radicalisation of the revolution. How did the alternative visions of the new society divide the revolution and what were the internal and external pressures on the revolution that contributed to its radicalisation. The forms of terror which enabled reality triumph over the idealism. The rise of Napoleon Bonaparte as military leader and Emperor. This book is an ideal introduction for anyone wishing to learn more about this influential revolution in the shaping of modern Europe and the world.

Performance weighted aggregation of expert judgments, using calibration questions, has been advocated to improve pooled quantitative judgments for ecological questions. However, there is little discussion or practical advice in the ecological literature regarding the application, advantages or challenges of performance weighting. In this paper we (1) illustrate how the IDEA protocol with four‐step question format can be extended to include performance weighted aggregation from the Classical Model, and (2) explore the extent to which this extension improves pooled judgments for a range of performance measures. Our case study demonstrates that performance weights can improve judgments derived from the IDEA protocol with four‐step question format. However, there is no a‐priori guarantee of improvement. We conclude that the merits of the method lie in demonstrating that the final aggregation of judgments provides the best representation of uncertainty (i.e., validation), whether that be via equally weighted or performance weighted aggregation. Whether the time and effort entailed in performance weights can be justified is a matter for decision‐makers. Our case study outlines the rationale, challenges, and benefits of performance weighted aggregations. It will help to inform decisions about the deployment of performance weighting and avoid common pitfalls in its application.

This is a response to five critical commentaries on my 2018 book The Inheritance of Wealth , these being the papers in this symposium from Miranda Perry Fleischer, Jonathan Wolff, Stewart Braun, Nicholas Barry, and Colin Macleod. After a brief review of some recent empirical data on inherited wealth, these replies concentrate on some central themes discussed by these authors. These include the question of how to connect inheritance with the longstanding theoretical efforts to properly interpret and contrast luck-egalitarian and relational-egalitarian theories of justice; the role of the concept of solidarity in evaluating tax policy; questions about how an inheritance tax would impact differently on the middle class versus the very wealthy; and the case for furthering the defense of a ‘Rignano Scheme’ on which second- or third-generation inheritance is taxed at a higher rate than the transfer of newly created wealth.

The rise of the state in Ancient Italy went hand in hand with an increase in infrastructural power, i.e., settlement centralization and urbanization. The paper discusses theoretical challenges and introduces a modeling approach to a case study, one of the earliest cities in Southern Italy, Pontecagnano, with the aim of understanding the community dynamics at the time of the earliest urbanization (ca. 900–600 BC). The model is a two-mode model that derives from social network analysis, an approach that has been fruitfully adapted to archaeological research. The model is applied to detect trends in burial contexts from the community involved. Burial was, at that time, in the region, a key instrument in the creation of memory and display of status and thus for building and consolidating state power. The analytical network model is able to detect the dynamics in the community over time very well: network Cohesion is expanding and contracting, and points to the existence of tension and a tight control of funerary behavior. The study of Centrality of selected nodes provides a good understanding of the strategies in terms of the circulation of key resources. The latter is particularly significant for studying urbanization because the appropriation of resources was not possible without centralization and the development of infrastructure, as well as an ideology. Based on the study of selected resources, it is suggested that an increase in crop storage has played a particular role in the development of state power and the urbanization process at Pontecagnano. In due course, the paper also addresses methodological challenges of working with fragmented datasets when applying models to study the past.

This presentation will focus on Early Modern Europe and the growth of ideas that challenged the ‘divine order of things’. Focusing on scientific discoveries and enlightened thinkers, this presentation will examine the notions of ‘truth’ and ‘progress’ that brought about the Enlightenment. Information in this session is relevant to both the current Global Empires and new Empires Study Designs.