American Sources Research Articles

Narratives of nineteenth century drought in southern Africa in different historical source types

Single- to multiple-year drought episodes posed significant challenges for agrarian communities across southern Africa during the nineteenth century and hence are widely recorded in a variety of historical documents. However, the ways in which droughts are articulated, and the focus of individual accounts, vary considerably between different authors and historical source types. This study draws on a range of documentary source types—specifically newspapers, letters, reports and diaries—to explore the varied narratives associated with three protracted droughts (those of 1861–1863, 1876–1879 and 1895–1897) that affected large areas of the subcontinent. The analysis spans four case study areas—present day KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa), Lesotho, Malawi and the southern Kalahari (Botswana and South Africa)—which were investigated as part of different interdisciplinary projects. We explore issues common to all case study areas, including (i) how specific drought events are framed and (ii) what is and is not reported about individual droughts across different source types. We conclude that different source types in the subcontinent may be more or less appropriate for addressing the specific objectives of historical climatology, particularly in relation to historical drought. Sources such as newspapers and weather diaries are rich in qualitative and quantitative observations suitable for the reconstruction of temporal and spatial patterns of weather and climate, as well as climate-related natural disasters. In contrast, letters, reports and personal journals, especially those written by missionaries, provide additional qualitative narratives through which to investigate the vulnerability of past societies and economies to climate variations, and to explore past discourses and social representations of climate. While studies of this kind have been published for European and American source types, this is the first systematic exploration of documentary sources for the historical climatology of Africa. It should therefore provide a guide for climate history studies elsewhere in the continent, or other regions where written records are absent prior to the arrival of European colonists.

Crossroads of Art and Design: Musically Curating and Mediating Irish Cultural Artifacts in Chicago

Crossroads of Art and Design:Musically Curating and Mediating Irish Cultural Artifacts in Chicago Aileen Dillane (bio) In 2015 the Art Institute of Chicago staged an exhibition entitled Ireland: Crossroads of Art and Design, 1690–1840 in which glassware, paintings, books, furniture, musical instruments, and a variety of other art-and-craft objects from the long eighteenth century were put on display for a three-month period in downtown Chicago. The exhibition was significant for three reasons. Firstly, never before had artifacts from this period of Irish history been presented together on such a large scale outside of Ireland. Secondly, the three-hundred-plus displayed items celebrating the art-and-craft heritage of Ireland were procured from North American sources, not directly from Ireland. And thirdly, in a reversal of the Art Institute's practice and informal policy of not featuring music in an exhibition, it allowed the exhibition's curators to commission a CD of period music from the eighteenth century, along with newly composed music, to amplify the mission and message of this one-off exhibition. This essay focuses on how and why the resulting Crossroads CD came into being, and what this reveals about the role of music in the public and cultural life of Chicago in relation to the consumption and reception of Irish culture in the long twentieth century. It argues that the Crossroads CD performs two functions: it (re)creates an eighteenth-century soundscape to compliment the materials of the exhibition, and it fashions a receptive environment for contemporary, Chicago-based audiences. While having some experience of nineteenth- and twentieth-century traditional and popular Irish music, these audiences are largely unfamiliar with this period of Irish history. I contend that the pragmatic, creative approach taken by the musical curators and performers on the Crossroads CD is a [End Page 82] reflection of, and a response to, over 150 years of the musical mediation of Ireland for Chicago audiences. The Crossroads exhibition comprised a cross section of Ascendancy material culture found in rural eighteenth-century big houses and their equivalent urban counterparts, thereby constituting part of the British colonial project in Ireland. Chicago was an important nineteenth-century post-Famine destination for the largely impoverished Catholic Irish, many of whom subsequently climbed educational, political, and business ranks in the city and found themselves shored up by further waves of Irish migration in the twentieth cen tury. While the Crossroads exhibition did not frame its objects as sectarian, the extent to which the Crossroads CD may have been a product of Irish American nationalism or a means of mediating any surviving nationalist inclinations in audiences and curators in Chicago informs this discussion. To this end, the Crossroads CD is placed within the broader context of Chicago's long history of publicly staging Ireland and Irish music and culture. The Crossroads CD project was funded by the O'Briens, a multi-generational Irish American family from Chicago who made their fortune in the financial-futures business. Heading up the initiative was Marty Fahey (1961– ), Irish musician and curator of the O'Brien Collection. Fahey's vision of curating and producing a CD to accompany the exhibition was largely realized through the creative work of Irish fiddler and composer Liz Carroll (1956– ), a longtime friend and collaborator. Fahey and Carroll are second-generation Irish Americans and Chicagoans, and this article draws extensively on personal interviews with both musicians, acknowledging the importance of their voices here and within the broader context of Irish Studies research. Crucially, while music was not part of the original exhibition concept, the subsequent commission of the CD created unantici pated synergies within the project. Organizers featured live music at the gala fundraising dinner performance prior to the Crossroads exhibition, tracks from the CD played in exhibition rooms as part of the viewing experience, and there was a celebratory concert performance toward the end of the exhibition's run for all involved in putting Crossroads together. The first section of this essay offers a brief overview of the Art Institute and of the Irish in Chicago. This is interpolated with a closer [End Page 83] examination of the contents and contextual essays of the...

Adventures of a Ballad Hunter by John A. Lomax

Reviewed by: Adventures of a Ballad Hunter by John A. Lomax Michael Lee Adventures of a Ballad Hunter. By John A. Lomax. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2017. ix + 275 pp. Illustrations, index. $18.95 paper. Enthusiasts of the American folksong owe a heavy debt to John A. Lomax (1867–1948), who devoted his formidable energies crisscrossing the country recording people singing folk-songs. [End Page 218] His labors culminated in folding nearly 10,000 recordings he made between 1908 and 1942 into the Archive of American Folksongs at the Library of Congress. In 1947 Lomax wrote his memoir, Adventures of a Ballad Hunter. This important account of his efforts has been out of print since 1972. The University of Texas Press now offers it in a handsome new paperback edition. The first half of the book offers a detailed and engaging account of Lomax’s work largely spent in the Great Plains. His story begins in the Bosque Valley, Texas, where the author grew up. Lomax initially describes the songs he learned as a small child from passing cowboys encamped near his home, at revival meetings, and informally taught to him by Nat, a formerly enslaved youth who was employed by Lomax’s father. Lomax “came to love Nat with the fierce strength and loyalty of youth.” Yet one page later, the reader learns rumors of Nat’s murder at age twenty-one. Such vivid characters appear, sing, and then disappear on every page of this memoir. Some of Lomax’s encounters are heartbreaking, many are funny, and all invest Lomax’s memoir with a wealth of humanity. Lomax shares the gradual professionalization of his work from early rejection by indifferent English professors to his amateur efforts at song collection leading to his embrace by influential Harvard faculty who supported his work financially. Throughout Lomax’s chronicle, a tone of amateur enthusiasm prevails. His account of how he popularized the song “Home on the Range” best illustrates this quality of the book. Lomax’s travels took him to San Antonio in 1908 where he consulted with a former trail cook turned saloonkeeper only after the man had a day to sober up. Upon sobriety’s return, the man sang this Great Plains classic beneath a mesquite tree as Lomax made a cylinder recording. Eventually Lomax’s memoir takes him to the American South with special emphasis on segregated prisons where his African American sources, most notably Lead Belly, provide Lomax with a wealth of important folksong material. Lomax preserved the voices of Americans from fading and along the way captures a bygone era when Americans sang for one another and for themselves. This memoir illustrates the urgency of songs in the lives of a diverse people. Michael Lee Musicology Department University of Oklahoma Copyright © 2019 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln

XANES Iron Geochemistry in the Mineral Dust of the Talos Dome Ice Core (Antarctica) and the Southern Hemisphere Potential Source Areas

X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) measurements at the Fe K-edge were performed on aeolian dust in the TALos Dome Ice CorE drilling project (TALDICE) ice core drilled in the peripheral East Antarctic plateau, as well as on Southern Hemisphere potential source area samples. While South American sources show, as expected, a progressive increase in Fe oxidation with decreasing latitude, Antarctic sources show Fe oxidation levels higher than expected in such a cold polar environment, probably because of their very high exposure ages. Results from the TALDICE dust samples are compatible with a South American influence at the site during MIS2 (marine isotopic stage 2, the last and coldest phase of the last glacial period), in particular from Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. However, a contribution from Australia and/or local Antarctic sources cannot be ruled out. Finally, important changes also occurred during the deglaciation and in the Holocene, when the influence of Antarctic local sources seems to have become progressively more important in recent times. This research is the first successful attempt to extract temporal climatic information from X-ray absorption spectroscopic data of the insoluble mineral dust particles contained in an ice core and shows the high potential of this technique.

The translation of ‘transparency’ in the Canadian press: an inquiry into symbolic power

ABSTRACTDespite new transparency regulation in 2002, a lack of transparency was identified only five years later among the causes of the financial crisis in North America. With this paradox in mind, the authors investigated the terms ‘transparency’ and ‘transparence’ in a corpus of seven Canadian newspapers (English and French) comprising nine million words, from the Dot-com crash of 2001 to the subprime crisis of 2007–2008. When contrasted with a test corpus of annual reports, the press corpus showed that during this period journalists mentioned ‘transparency’ intermittently, and most frequently in 2007–2008, whereas the banks used it with a steady increase. When represented on a Transparency Perception Continuum, the data showed the press as critically pointing to a lack of transparency, and the banks as positively or neutrally discussing transparency. It was also evidenced that English-Canadian reporters used a wider array of sources than did their French-speaking counterparts when recasting statements on transparency. The francophone press seldom quoted American sources, selecting instead statements originally made in French by local banks in the province of Québec. The findings show that by avoiding translation the French-Canadian press contributed to a more bank-centric view on transparency, entangled in the production of a dominant discourse.

“American scientists have discovered…” The image of the USA’s scientific output presented in the Polish opinion-forming press

The paper presents the results of the research conducted on the extensive corpus of press material. The purpose of the research was to show the frequency of references to the American scientific sources in the Polish press, specifically in popular science articles published in the weekly and daily papers. The analysis covered the period of 1975–2005 (and also the year 2015). The frequency of references to U.S. sources has been contrasted with the results on references to other countries (Poland, the former USSR, and Russia, in particular), as well as with the bibliographic data on the sum of citations of academic papers in individual countries. The research was carried out using quantitative methods (content analysis, bibliographic analysis of citations). The obtained results confirm the preference of the Polish popular science discourse for the sources originating from the Western culture, especially from the United States.

Emigrants in the Historical Population Register of Norway

Both the completed transcription of our emigration protocols and the construction of the Norwegian national Historical Population Register, among other developments, make an article about methods for studying emigration from Norway through the last couple of centuries topical. This article starts by discussing the Norwegian and American sources through which we can identify the emigrants’ absence from Norway. In particular, it focuses attention on groups that are difficult to follow because of international migration, and the consequences this has for emigration statistics. A key issue for further research is the degree to which emigration and return migration are reflected in the population registry.

Gamble v. U.S.: Brief of Amici Curiae Law Professors in Support of Petitioner

In this case currently before the U.S. Supreme Court, petitioner Gamble's brief demonstrates that there was no dual sovereignty doctrine before the mid-19th century. At the Founding and for several decades thereafter, a prosecution by one sovereign was understood to bar a subsequent prosecution by all other sovereigns. Dual sovereignty is thus contrary to the original meaning of the Double Jeopardy Clause. Defendants today enjoy a weaker form of double jeopardy protection than they did when the Bill of Rights was ratified. But that fact only raises three further questions. First why did the Court erroneously conclude in Bartkus v. Illinois, 359 U.S. 121, 131 (1959), that the English and early American sources are “totally inconclusive” as to whether dual sovereignty existed at the Founding? Second, how, when, and why did the dual sovereignty doctrine come to exist? Third, given this history, why did the Court hold in United States v. Lanza, 260 U.S. 377 (1922), that a state prosecution does not bar a subsequent federal prosecution for the same conduct? This amicus brief answers these three questions. First, in Bartkus the Court simply misunderstood the English and early American sources. Second, dual sovereignty grew out of the intense controversy over slavery in the period immediately before the Civil War. The Court invented dual sovereignty largely to prevent free states from blocking the recapture of fugitive slaves. Third, by the time of Lanza, the dual sovereignty doctrine had been restated so often that the original meaning of the Double Jeopardy Clause had been forgotten. In Lanza, in any event, the Court was less concerned with original meaning than with rampant disregard for Prohibition. One purpose of dual sovereignty was to prevent “wet” localities from nullifying the Volstead Act. In short, dual sovereignty is an accident of history. It was not part of the constitutional design.

Quantifying sediment supply to continental margins: Application to the Paleogene Wilcox Group, Gulf of Mexico

Sediment supply to the ocean influences basin-margin growth and reflects upstream landscape evolution, including patterns of sediment routing, denudation, and tectono-climatic perturbations in source areas. Constraining sediment supply is useful for inputs to stratigraphic forward models and for predictions of reservoir presence and quality. Because of the importance of sediment supply, geoscientists have developed various methods to estimate it. Here, we apply Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) to the BQART model that is used to describe an empirical relationship between river catchment paleogeography, climate, and sediment load. We calculate a range of sediment supply from North American source areas to the Gulf of Mexico that suggests an overall decrease in median sediment supply from the late Paleocene to the early Eocene from 404–514 to 144–204 million tons per year, depending on the published paleogeographic model that we used to guide our selection of input variables. Comparison of these estimates with downstream sediment records shows that the subsurface depositional rates are within the 10th–90th percentile range of this BQART-MCS uncertainty model. The 50th percentile values of BQART-MCS results are overall larger than the published Wilcox sediment volume, which indicates that the size of Wilcox deep-water fans might be underestimated. We use source-of-change analysis to show the influence of each river-catchment input of the BQART model on change in sediment supply from the late Paleocene to the early Eocene. Integration of empirical-based methods, such as BQART, with physics-based experimental and modeling approaches might provide better constrains on sediment supply and deposition in frontier areas of oil and gas exploration.

Historical black carbon deposition in the Canadian High Arctic: a >250-year long ice-core record from Devon Island

Abstract. Black carbon aerosol (BC), which is emitted from natural and anthropogenic sources (e.g., wildfires, coal burning), can contribute to magnify climate warming at high latitudes by darkening snow- and ice-covered surfaces, and subsequently lowering their albedo. Therefore, modeling the atmospheric transport and deposition of BC to the Arctic is important, and historical archives of BC accumulation in polar ice can help to validate such modeling efforts. Here we present a > 250-year ice-core record of refractory BC (rBC) deposition on Devon ice cap, Canada, spanning the years from 1735 to 1992. This is the first such record ever developed from the Canadian Arctic. The estimated mean deposition flux of rBC on Devon ice cap for 1963–1990 is 0.2 mg m−2 a−1, which is at the low end of estimates from Greenland ice cores obtained using the same analytical method ( ∼ 0.1–4 mg m−2 a−1). The Devon ice cap rBC record also differs from the Greenland records in that it shows only a modest increase in rBC deposition during the 20th century. In the Greenland records a pronounced rise in rBC is observed from the 1880s to the 1910s, which is largely attributed to midlatitude coal burning emissions. The deposition of contaminants such as sulfate and lead increased on Devon ice cap in the 20th century but no concomitant rise in rBC is recorded in the ice. Part of the difference with Greenland could be due to local factors such as melt–freeze cycles on Devon ice cap that may limit the detection sensitivity of rBC analyses in melt-impacted core samples, and wind scouring of winter snow at the coring site. Air back-trajectory analyses also suggest that Devon ice cap receives BC from more distant North American and Eurasian sources than Greenland, and aerosol mixing and removal during long-range transport over the Arctic Ocean likely masks some of the specific BC source–receptor relationships. Findings from this study suggest that there could be a large variability in BC aerosol deposition across the Arctic region arising from different transport patterns. This variability needs to be accounted for when estimating the large-scale albedo lowering effect of BC deposition on Arctic snow/ice.

Exploring Cuba\u2019s population structure and demographic history using genome-wide data

Cuba is the most populated country in the Caribbean and has a rich and heterogeneous genetic heritage. Here, we take advantage of dense genomic data from 860 Cuban individuals to reconstruct the genetic structure and ancestral origins of this population. We found distinct admixture patterns between and within the Cuban provinces. Eastern provinces have higher African and Native American ancestry contributions (average 26% and 10%, respectively) than the rest of the Cuban provinces (average 17% and 5%, respectively). Furthermore, in the Eastern Cuban region, we identified more intense sex-specific admixture patterns, strongly biased towards European male and African/Native American female ancestries. Our subcontinental ancestry analyses in Cuba highlight the Iberian population as the best proxy European source population, South American and Mesoamerican populations as the closest Native American ancestral component, and populations from West Central and Central Africa as the best proxy sources of the African ancestral component. Finally, we found complex admixture processes involving two migration pulses from both Native American and African sources. Most of the inferred Native American admixture events happened early during the Cuban colonial period, whereas the African admixture took place during the slave trade and more recently as a probable result of large-scale migrations from Haiti.

Late Glacial-Holocene tephra from southern Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego (Argentina, Chile): A complete textural and geochemical fingerprinting for distal correlations in the Southern Hemisphere

Explosive volcanoes from the southern Andes are able to disperse ash over wide areas of the Southern Hemisphere, potentially as far as Antarctica. With the aim of improving correlations between sources and tephra in southernmost South America and, possibly, Antarctica, this work presents new field, textural and geochemical data on tephra layers from southern Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego (Argentina and Chile). Major- and trace-element data, obtained on single glass shards allowed to identify tephra sources in Late Glacial-Holocene eruptions from Hudson, Reclus and Mt Burney volcanoes, located in the Southern and Austral Volcanic Zone of the Andean Cordillera. Twelve new radiocarbon age determinations of charcoals, peats and soils have further constrained the correlations between the studied tephra layers and known eruptions from Hudson, Mt Burney and Reclus volcanoes. Therefore, this study contributes to expand the geochemical dataset on volcanic glasses valuable for tephra correlations in South America, and improves the current tephrostratigraphic framework of this region. Furthermore, we revised literature data by compiling a database including Neogene-Quaternary volcanic tephra found in Antarctic ice cores, marine sediments, blue ice and continental outcrops as well as tephra produced by volcanic sources located in Antarctica and circum-Antarctic areas. This revision shows that Antarctic tephra can be correlated with confidence to Antarctic and circum-Antarctic (South Shetlands and South Sandwich Islands) volcanic sources, whereas correlations with South American sources are arguable, and a complete geochemical fingerprinting is needed for validation.

New constraints on elemental and Pb and Nd isotope compositions of South American and Southern African aerosol sources to the South Atlantic Ocean

Improving the geochemical database available for characterising potential natural and anthropogenic aerosol sources from South America and Southern Africa is a critical precondition for studies aimed at understanding trace metal controls on the marine biogeochemical cycles of the South Atlantic Ocean. We here present new elemental and isotopic data for a wide range of sample types from South America and Southern Africa that are potentially important aerosol sources. This includes road dust from Buenos Aires and lichen samples from Johannesburg, soil dust from Patagonia, volcanic ash from the Andean volcanic belt, and aerosol samples from São Paulo. All samples were investigated for major (Al, Ca, Fe, Mg, Na, K, Mn) and trace element (Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, REE, Sc, Th, Y, V, Zn) concentrations and Nd and Pb isotopic compositions. We show that diagrams of 208Pb/207Pb vs. εNd, 208Pb/207Pb vs. Pb/Al, 1/[Pb], Zn/Al, Cd/Al, Cu/Al, and εNd vs. Pb/Al, and 1/[Nd] are best suited to separate South American and South African source regions as well as natural and anthropogenic sources. A subset of samples from Patagonia and the Andes was additionally subjected to separation of a fine (<5 μm) fraction and compared to the composition of the bulk sample. We show that differences in the geochemical signature of bulk samples between individual regions and source types are significantly larger than between grain sizes. Jointly, these findings present an important step forward towards a quantitative assessment of aeolian trace metal inputs to the South Atlantic Ocean.

Declining Versus Increasing Access to American Aviation Technology: Syria and Saudi Arabia in the 20th Century

This article uses Syria and Saudi Arabia as contrasting examples of how different Arab states interacted with United States aviation technology, involving aviation technology companies, airline corporations, and government officials as they worked to develop civil and military aviation capabilities after World War II. It considers the role played by airline companies like TWA, the impact of the shift from military to commercial aviation technology among companies like Boeing, and the fallout from regional political developments like the Iranian Revolution. These factors all placed varying constraints on the two countries’ ability to draw upon American sources for airplanes and other aviation technology, channeling but not preventing Syrian and Saudi efforts toward aviation development. It suggests that the US government acted as gatekeeper in terms of access to US aviation technology, but that unless strategic concerns prompted its involvement, states like Saudi Arabia primarily interacted with US airline and aviation technology corporations.

Analysis of physical and cyber security-related events in the chemical and process industry

Security threats are becoming an increasing concern for chemical sites and related infrastructures where relevant quantities of hazardous materials are processed, stored or transported. In the present study, security related events that affected chemical and process sites, and related infrastructures, were investigated. The aim of the study is to frame a clear picture of the threats affecting the chemical and process industry, and to issue lessons learnt from past events. A database of 300 security-related accidents was developed and populated, starting from European and American sources. Threat categories that caused such events were identified and analyzed. The attack modes were investigated. Important differences were found with respect to geographical areas and industrial sectors affected. The use of explosives (both military and improvised explosive devices) is by far the more frequent attack mode, although armed attacks and arson are also frequent events and may result in an in-depth penetration of the attackers. In recent years, cyber-attacks are also posing important threats. Lessons learnt call for the implementation of a specific security management system in the chemical and process industry, aiming at the physical and cyber protection of industrial sites.

Reading The American Political Tradition in the 21st Century

Brilliantly written, powerfully argued, The American Political Tradition by Richard Hofstadter, published in 1948, is flawed for readers today because of serious gaps and omissions, in particular its lack of reference to African American figures and sources. Late in his career, Hofstadter began to broaden his range of reference, calling attention in vivid prose to the horrors of slavery during the long period of American settlement and colonization. This later emphasis exposes all the more the shortcomings of The American Tradition, yet, at the same time, it does not diminish the rhetorical power and insight of this important book. It remains a significant work of American history but, even more, we should read and respond to it now as a major achievement, a distinguished act of writing, in the field of American literature.

Temporally delineated sources of major chemical species in high Arctic snow

Abstract. Long-range transport of aerosol from lower latitudes to the high Arctic may be a significant contributor to climate forcing in the Arctic. To identify the sources of key contaminants entering the Canadian High Arctic an intensive campaign of snow sampling was completed at Alert, Nunavut, from September 2014 to June 2015. Fresh snow samples collected every few days were analyzed for black carbon, major ions, and metals, and this rich data set provided an opportunity for a temporally refined source apportionment of snow composition via positive matrix factorization (PMF) in conjunction with FLEXPART (FLEXible PARTicle dispersion model) potential emission sensitivity analysis. Seven source factors were identified: sea salt, crustal metals, black carbon, carboxylic acids, nitrate, non-crustal metals, and sulfate. The sea salt and crustal factors showed good agreement with expected composition and primarily northern sources. High loadings of V and Se onto Factor 2, crustal metals, was consistent with expected elemental ratios, implying these metals were not primarily anthropogenic in origin. Factor 3, black carbon, was an acidic factor dominated by black carbon but with some sulfate contribution over the winter-haze season. The lack of K+ associated with this factor, a Eurasian source, and limited known forest fire events coincident with this factor's peak suggested a predominantly anthropogenic combustion source. Factor 4, carboxylic acids, was dominated by formate and acetate with a moderate correlation to available sunlight and an oceanic and North American source. A robust identification of this factor was not possible; however, atmospheric photochemical reactions, ocean microlayer reaction, and biomass burning were explored as potential contributors. Factor 5, nitrate, was an acidic factor dominated by NO3−, with a likely Eurasian source and mid-winter peak. The isolation of NO3− on a separate factor may reflect its complex atmospheric processing, though the associated source region suggests possibly anthropogenic precursors. Factor 6, non-crustal metals, showed heightened loadings of Sb, Pb, and As, and correlation with other metals traditionally associated with industrial activities. Similar to Factor 3 and 5, this factor appeared to be largely Eurasian in origin. Factor 7, sulfate, was dominated by SO42− and MS with a fall peak and high acidity. Coincident volcanic activity and northern source regions may suggest a processed SO2 source of this factor.

The Queer Sport of Failure: Representations of Female Athletes in Korean Sport Films

This article aims to update the discourse on female Korean athletes by illuminating the radical change of their imagery and reality over the last three decades, from sexless victims of patriarchy to sportswomen asserting their strength, femininity, and even “queerness.” Insofar as sports films provide a felicitous site through which to examine popular and evolving representations of gender and sport, the article analyzes a variety of Korean sports films which reproduce, or pose a challenge to, conventional portrayals of female athletes. Due to the paucity of scholarly work undertaken in Korean in this field, the authors draw upon a wide array of mainly American sources and, in so doing, hope to enlarge the small but growing body of work on gender and sport in Korea written in English.

Yes, John G Lake was a Con Man: A Response to Marius Nel

This response to Marius Nel’s 2016 article (in Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae no. 42, 1, 62-85) uses primary source material to refute his claims that John G Lake, the initiator of Pentecostalism in southern Africa, was an upstanding man of God. A wide array of American and South African sources show that Lake invented an extensive but fictitious life story, while also creating a similarly dubious divine calling that obscured his involvement in gruesome killings in America. Once in South Africa, he used invented “miracles” to raise funds abroad for the Apostolic Faith Mission. Before long, he faced many accusations of duplicity from inside his own church.

The Nanjing Massacre as recorded in American sources

ABSTRACTDuring the Nanjing Massacre, American figures who remained in Nanjing, or who took an interest in Nanjing’s plight despite not being present in the city, produced copious reports, observations, records, and analyses with respect to the events that unfolded, forming highly unique third-party sources on the history of the Nanjing Massacre, and disseminated them across China, Europe, and the United States. The American sources recorded the facts of the massacres, rape, looting, arson, narcotics trafficking, implementation of a “comfort women” system, and other atrocities committed by the Japanese Army, and revealed the actions taken by Japan to conceal its war crimes; their evidentiary value was demonstrated during the war crimes trials in Tokyo and Nanjing. The documents were produced during the course of the Americans’ efforts to provide humanitarian aid to Chinese soldiers and civilians, but at the same time, they also reflect these figures’ consideration for American interests in China.