Contradictory Answers Research Articles

The clinical role of ‘non-invasive’ coronary angiography by multidetector spiral computed tomography: yet to be defined

This editorial refers to ‘Detection of coronary artery stenoses using multidetector CT with 16×0.75 collimation and 370 ms rotation’† by S. Achenbach et al. , on page 1978 and ‘Limited diagnostic yield of non-invasive coronary angiography by 16-slice multidetector spiral computed tomography in routine patients referred for evaluation of coronary artery disease’‡ by C. Kaiser et al. , on page 1987 ‘Medicine is a science of uncertainty and an art of probability’ Sir William Osler (1849–1919) Seeing is believing. The great attraction of coronary angiography for both patient and doctor is the direct view of those small structures whose integrity may dictate life or death. In patients with suspected coronary artery disease (CAD), myocardial perfusion imaging or stress echocardiography may provide good and clinically meaningful distinction between those who are at risk and those who are not, but a shade of doubt remains. For those who find such doubts unacceptable, yet fear the small but definite risks of invasive coronary angiography, multislice spiral computed tomography coronary angiography (CTCA) comes as a deus ex machina —ready to solve all problems. The promise of cardiac CT is no less than the best of all worlds: high-resolution coronary images are able to give a definite answer beyond all doubts, yet avoiding unpleasant groin haematomas and the threatening atmosphere of a hospital. However, are these expectations justified? Two seemingly contradictory answers to this question are offered by Achenbach et al. 1 and Kaiser et al. 2 Although Achenbach et al. 1 demonstrate a high diagnostic accuracy of the technique and recommend CTCA for limited clinical application, Kaiser et al. 2 find both sensitivity and specificity of multislice CT unacceptably low for applying CTCA in daily clinical life. To put these statements into perspective, one needs to have a closer look at the patient populations in the two studies, details … *Corresponding author. Tel: +49 711 8101 3456; fax: +49 711 8101 3795. E-mail address : udo.sechtem{at}rbk.de

The role of agricultural entrepreneurship in Dutch agriculture of today

AbstractIt is thought that agricultural entrepreneurs have an important role to play in Dutch agriculture. They are currently being confronted with drastic changes and it is open to question whether or not they are willing and able to deal with such changes. A telephone survey was carried out in order to find an answer to this question. The data presented here are based on the answers from 752 farmers. The questions to be answered were: (1) Which strategies do agricultural entrepreneurs choose to keep up with business demands? (2) Which personal characteristics are related to these choices and to successful agricultural entrepreneurship in general? (3) Do agricultural entrepreneurs in the Netherlands meet the demands of “real” entrepreneurship according to economic theories? Agricultural entrepreneurship was conceptualized into the strategic orientations, social orientation, growth orientation, and financial conservatism. The data showed that five different types of farmers could be distinguished on the basis of their preferences for different strategic orientations. Social farmers had especially high scores for social orientation, traditional growers for growth orientation, prudent farmers for financial conservatism, new growers for both social orientation and growth orientation, and indecisive farmers for all strategic orientations. The latter group was eliminated from the data because farmers in this group had the highest scores for almost all items of the questionnaire, whether or not these concerned positive or negative aspects of entrepreneurship. Moreover, they gave contradictory answers to comparable questions. Based on future expectations and family income, it was concluded that social farmers and new growers were more successful than other farmers. According to economic theories, they also seemed to meet the “demands” of “real” entrepreneurship better than other farmers because they can be called “movers of the market,”“innovators,” and/or “discoverers of profit opportunities.” New growers and social farmers were also distinguishable from the other groups of farmers by their personal characteristics. In general, it could be concluded that positive personal characteristics (self‐criticism, leadership, creativity, perseverance, and initiative) affected agricultural entrepreneurship positively, and negative personal characteristics (love of ease and passivity) affected it negatively.

Book and Media Reviews

The Psychology of Death Robert Kastenbaum. New York: Springer Publishing Company (www.springerpub.com). 2000, 318 pp., $41.95 (hardcover). The Psychology of Death is a short book composed of only seven chapters. Kastenbaum utilizes the subject of death as a mirror to reflect upon the entire field of life span developmental psychology and, in essence, upon the meaning and purpose of human life. Each chapter examines the meaning of death developmentally beginning with the child's construction of death to the adult deathbed scenes at the end of the life span. In Kastenbaum's elegant and yet restrained prose, we are told that a "Child Shall Guide Us." Kastenbaum teaches us that the child's concept of death is a composite construction-a construction composed of the child's personal experiences, social milieu and level of cognitive development. In the tradition of Piaget, Kastenbaum demonstrates that the child's concept of death evolves through several cognitive stages beginning with the child's belief of the impermanence of death to, as they grow older, a more sophisticated belief that focuses on the permanence and irreversibility of death. The adult concept of death does not remain static either and also evolves and is impacted by changes in the adult's spirituality, culture, and biomedical environment. Yet, like a child, adults may come full circle to believe in the impermanence of death, once again, albeit with a more sophisticated concept. For the experts the question arises: When exactly is a person considered truly dead? Though seemingly simple, this question is difficult to answer definitively. In some sense, the exact point of death is indefinable. There are a number of competing definitions (constructions) of death available to determine time of death including the latest biomedical measures that may offer different and sometimes contradictory answers. Kastenbaum wisely sidesteps this thorny problem by stating that his task is not necessarily to choose which alternative construction of death is correct but to demonstrate how the construct of death one ultimately chooses has profound impact upon one's values, attitudes, moral code, comportment, and ultimately upon one's meaning and purpose in living. From the very beginning of its history, Kastenbaum notes that psychology has failed to provide us with a satisfactory understanding of death beginning with early behaviorism (which doesn't even acknowledge death) to the recent innovations in developmental theory, which sees death as a task that one must spend one's elderly years preparing for, to cross-cultural studies that emphasize Eastern and Western philosophies which, according to Kastenbaum, people tend to rearrange to suit their own cultural preferences and biases. Oddly enough, despite the fierce assaults and discrediting by most experts of Freud's psychoanalysis, Kastenbaum suggests that Freud's dual notion of the death and life instincts does help us understand many hard-to-describe aspects of death such as "naming or owning the unnamable," "doing death," and "killing to stay alive." Kastenbaum notes further that Freud has scientific support for his instinctual theory not only from nature but also from human developmental experiences, and human history. …

Being an Informed Consumer of Quantitative Educational Research

Before schools and districts invest their scarce resources in the products that educational researchers have developed, teachers, administrators, and community members need to become informed consumers of educational research. ALTHOUGH WE like to think of the United States as the land of equal opportunity, we recognize that not all children receive the same quality of education or exhibit the same level of academic achievement -- despite the fact that public schooling is available to all students. Research has found that a passing grade in one school may be a failing grade in another, depending on several factors, including the socioeconomic status of the student, the location of the school, and the demographic characteristics of the school's students.1 As long as such disparities remain, we will continue to invest substantial resources in the search for works in educating our students. This question is at the very core of some of the research evaluating school reform programs, but it is not being asked by the people who need answers the most: the consumers of those programs. Exploring works involves identifying the programs and practices that provide the clearest evidence of positive, significant effects on school and student performance. Researchers have at various times recommended homogenous grouping, heterogeneous grouping, drills, no drills, mastery teaching, mastery learning, remediation, and early intervention. The list that provides often contradictory answers to works already seems infinite. Yet we continue to pour resources into the search for successful approaches. Although we should continuously strive to find innovative ways to improve our education systems, we should not ignore evidence of the effectiveness of existing programs. Rather we should foster effective communication between researchers, teachers, administrators, policy makers, and other stakeholders. As a consequence of the communication gap between educational researchers and practitioners, the why of turning positive research results into practice is often missed by those who most need to understand it -- teachers and administrators. This article strives to bridge this gap between researchers and practitioners by exploring how to become an informed consumer of educational research. Over the years it has become clear that there is no panacea for what ails our education system. Before we can determine what works, when, and where, we must understand the conditions that individual schools or districts are facing. The challenges affecting troubled schools are numerous and varied, and solutions must be tailored to meet specific needs.2 A challenge for both researchers and practitioners is that a solution that effectively addresses one problem in one setting may not necessarily prove to be successful in another. For example, a program that is successful in improving the reading scores of School A may have no effect on the reading scores of School B because of differences between the schools or their students. With this knowledge, is it possible to ensure that the results obtained in pilot studies will also be obtained when programs are implemented in different school settings? Being an informed consumer of educational research requires an understanding of a district's or school's capacity, needs, and goals and, more important, an understanding of the barriers to meeting these needs and attaining these goals. Being an informed consumer also requires an understanding of the components of solutions that may address specific needs. For example, if a school's third- and fourth- grade students exhibit weak reading skills, then that school would need to find a program that is designed to improve the reading of students in these grades and that provides the training, materials, and technical assistance needed for success. In addition, the school should select a program that has demonstrated effectiveness with students with similar needs and in similar contexts. …

A call to be whole: the fundamentals of health care reform

Examines the complex interrelationships that inform the health care system. Health care, like all social systems, is a product of thought. Up to now, our collective thinking has been based on trying to manage parts, not the whole. This book inquires into four age-old questions that shape all health care systems: What is health? What is care? Who is responsible? How much is enough? Americans have the wealthiest health care system in the world, yet the health status of Americans ranks in the lowest quartile among the world's 25 industrialized nations and 45 million Americans are without health insurance. Today's cost, quality, and access problems are inter-related and can be traced to taken-for-granted assumptions and health care's outmoded organizing concepts: reductionism and materialism. Greater fragmentation of care, an over-dependence on technology, inattention to social and environmental determinants of health, and serious economic and moral dilemmas are some of the results of the last 40 years of piecemeal political and economic reform. This book has three purposes. The first is to help the reader see healthcare as a complex system-a part in a larger whole-and to show how answers to the questions, What is health? What is care? Who is responsible? How much is enough? implicitly define the purpose, effectiveness, efficiency, and fairness of a health care system. The second is to show that today's access, cost, and quality problems are interrelated, and arise from outmoded concepts, unquestioned assumptions, and a long trail of inconsistent and contradictory answers to the four questions. The third purpose is to acquaint readers with both the personal and societal challenges of finding coherent answers to the four questions raised above and to describe some of the budding experimental solutions that challenge traditional conventions and assumptions.

Technology and Governance-Evolution or Revolution?

Information Technologies and Global Politics: The Changing Scope of Power and Governance. Edited by James N. Rosenau, J. P. Singh Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002. 312 pp., $75.50 cloth (ISBN: 0-7914-5203-4), $25.95 paper (ISBN: 0-7914-5204-2). Technology, Development, and Democracy: International Conflict and Cooperation in the Information Age. Edited by Juliann Emmons Allison. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002. 248 pp., $75.50 cloth (ISBN: 0-7914-5213-1), $25.95 paper (ISBN: 0-7914-5214-X). Advances in technology, and especially the development of the Internet, have contributed to an increasingly fractured and competitive global political economy. One of the results of this fracturing, or what James Rosenau (1997) might call fragmegration, is an increased tendency for nonstate actors to become the creators of rules and institutions, a role formerly thought of as reserved to nation-states. This trend, in turn, raises a number of questions about the changing nature of authority in the global political economy. How, for example, will transnational technology infrastructures be regulated? Who will make the rules? How will they be enforced? How will conflicts be resolved? What is the relationship between state and nonstate actors in developing governance structures in the global political economy? The international relations (IR) literature offers many competing and contradictory answers to these questions (see, for example, Risse-Kappen 1995; Strange 1996; Zacher and Sutton 1996; Deibert 1997; Haufler 1997; Keohane and Nye 2001). Unfortunately, the qualitative changes in the global political economy—brought about in part by the development and proliferation of information technology, the heightened role of finance, and the increased mobility of people—have outpaced advances in theory. Indeed, much of modern IR theory development occurred as a result of the Cold War, a period of bipolarity that was rife with military tensions and colored by the constant (even if generally unlikely) threat of nuclear war. It should not surprise us then that many of our conceptual tools are ill-equipped to explain phenomena in a post-Cold War world characterized by economic multipolarity and military unipolarity—a world in which strength is measured in initial public offerings instead of intercontinental ballistic missiles and in which security threats come less from nation-states than from terrorists. In such a world, the proliferation of actors and the means …

Introdução ao debate sobre as políticas oficiais no campo criminal

O processo de globalização econômica e financeira atual tem provocado respostas contraditórias na formulação de políticas criminais por parte da burocracia estatal. De um lado, sob forte influência do pensamento econômico neo clássico, surge, no reino unido, a teoria da normalização do crime qualificando o ato criminal como uma opção racional de escolha, uma questão de oportunidade mediante a qual os delinqüentes calculam racionalmente suas ações. De outro lado, surge, nos EUA, o movimento de defesa da lei e da ordem, que propõe tolerância zero ao crime mediante a ampliação do direito penal e o recrudescimento da resposta criminal estatal. Para os defensores da descriminalização e do abolicionismo a utopia da sociedade de controle favorável ao aumento da punição e mudanças de alvo para administrar o crime ignora o fato da existência de uma sociedade sem penas a qual se manifesta através da cifra negra, diferença entre infrações denunciadas na polícia e aquelas efetivamente julgadas.

Analysing Six Types of Protein–Protein Interfaces

Non-covalent residue side-chain interactions occur in many different types of proteins and facilitate many biological functions. Are these differences manifested in the sequence compositions and/or the residue–residue contact preferences of the interfaces? Previous studies analysed small data sets and gave contradictory answers. Here, we introduced a new data-mining method that yielded the largest high-resolution data set of interactions analysed. We introduced an information theory-based analysis method. On the basis of sequence features, we were able to differentiate six types of protein interfaces, each corresponding to a different functional or structural association between residues. Particularly, we found significant differences in amino acid composition and residue–residue preferences between interactions of residues within the same structural domain and between different domains, between permanent and transient interfaces, and between interactions associating homo-oligomers and hetero-oligomers. The differences between the six types were so substantial that, using amino acid composition alone, we could predict statistically to which of the six types of interfaces a pool of 1000 residues belongs at 63–100% accuracy. All interfaces differed significantly from the background of all residues in SWISS-PROT, from the group of surface residues, and from internal residues that were not involved in non-trivial interactions. Overall, our results suggest that the interface type could be predicted from sequence and that interface-type specific mean-field potentials may be adequate for certain applications.

A Companion to Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain

Dowden, Stephen D., ed.A Companion to Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain. Columbia, SC: Camden House, 1999. xix + 250 pp. $65.00. In Pilgrimage (1987), only essay not written expressly for this volume, Susan Sontag recounts her first encounter with Magic at impressionable age of fourteen: for first few nights [I] had trouble breathing as read. For this was not just another book would love but transforming book, source of discoveries and recognitions. [...] After finishing last page, was so reluctant to be separated from book that started back at beginning and, to hold myself to pace book merited, reread it aloud, chapter each night. (227) In short, in Sontag Thomas Mann had found his ideal reader, reader who had heeded arrogant request he had made in his lecture The Making of Magic Mountain that book be read not once but twice. same cannot be said of everyone who contributed to volume under review. Karla Schultz's conclusion to her fine contribution, a writer shouldn't be blamed for his (171), crossed my mind repeatedly as was reading some of these essays. Is Mann to be blamed, for example, when one of contributors asserts that Hans Castorp-in his Walpurgisnight conversation with Clavdia Chauchat-speaks mainly about language and pigs (126), or when another contends that Castorp's attempts to be English are prefiguration of naval aspects of Anglo-German competition which was to ignite World I (187)? According to editor's preface ten essays written expressly for this volume should suggest new paths in understanding (xix) of both Thomas Mann and of literary modernism. For most part they are centered on issues that have preoccupied critics and readers of Magic since its publication in 1924: what does Hans Castorp achieve during his seven-year sojourn on enchanted mountain, what is significance of his amorous encounter with Clavdia Chauchat, how are we to read ending of novel? Given controversies surrounding these questions in earlier Mann criticism, it is hardly surprising that contributors to this volume arrive at very different, often contradictory answers. Whereas Joseph P Lawrence, for example, interprets Castorp's achievement in very positive lightaccording to him, Castorp is true genius (11) whose is growth into silence (4)-Stephen Dowden argues that Castorp is a mass man ineluctably attracted to mass death in First World War (36). Olker Gokberk, commenting on ending of novel, writes, the sum of depictions and commentaries [in The Thunderbolt] betrays profound ambivalence toward (62), but Eugene Goodheart claims that both idyll [in Snow] and war are scenes of joy (50). …

Molecular beams entwined with quantum theory: A bouquet for Max Planck

In an era when the fledgling quantum theory was “uncertain and even gave contradictory answers,” Otto Stern undertook to employ molecular beams to test directly fundamental aspects of the theory. During 1921-1935, this led to five decisive experiments reviewed here, resulting in the discovery or demonstration of space quantization, de Broglie matter waves, anomalous magnetic moments of the proton and neutron, recoil of an atom on emission of a photon, and the limitation of scattering cross-sections for molecular collisions imposed by the uncertainty principle.

Molecular beams entwined with quantum theory: A bouquet for Max Planck

AbstractIn an era when the fledgling quantum theory was “uncertain and even gave contradictory answers,” Otto Stern undertook to employ molecular beams to test directly fundamental aspects of the theory. During 1921‐1935, this led to five decisive experiments reviewed here, resulting in the discovery or demonstration of space quantization, de Broglie matter waves, anomalous magnetic moments of the proton and neutron, recoil of an atom on emission of a photon, and the limitation of scattering cross‐sections for molecular collisions imposed by the uncertainty principle.

An experimental study of updating ambiguous beliefs

‘Ambiguous beliefs’ are beliefs which are inconsistent with a unique, additive prior. The problem of their update in face of new information has been dealt with in the theoretical literature, and received several contradictory answers. In particular, the ‘maximum likelihood update’ and the ‘full Bayesian update’ have been axiomatized. This experimental study attempts to test the descriptive validity of these two theories by using the Ellsberg experiment framework.

Study of the Radiative and Non-Radiative Recombination Processes at Dislocations in Silicon by Photoluminescence and LBIC Measurements

AbstractIt is well known that the sharp, room temperature luminescence emission at 1.54 μm from dislocated silicon has set off a great interest for this material in view of its applications in the third window of optical telecommunications. For this reason the dislocation related luminescence in silicon addressed recently a number of investigation aimed at understanding the mechanism of light emission. The problem is still unsolved as most of the experiments done gave contradictory answers to the main questions open, which concern the intrinsic or extrinsic nature of dislocation luminescence and the effect on it of reconstruction, interaction or passivation processes, possibly assisted by metallic or non-metallic impurities.In order to go more insight on the problem, we started a systematic work on CZ silicon, aimed at understanding the properties of dislocation luminescence. The identification of the energy levels involved in the different dislocation PL bands has been obtained.

Enhancement of the value of hip questionnaires by telephone follow-up evaluation

Errors, omissions, false understanding, and contradictory answers can compromise the use of questionnaires to generate follow-up data. To assess the utility of and effort involved in adding routinely a telephone interview to clarify the questionnaire, a study of total hip arthroplasty patients was carried out. Thirty-six patients with 37 primary and 13 revision total hip arthroplasties filled out a standardized questionnaire (which asks a number of demographic questions as well as questions that allow calculation of the Medical Outcome Studies [MOS] 36-Item Short-form Health Survey [SF-36], Western Ontario MacMaster Arthritis Center [WOMAC] osteoarthritis index, and Harris hip score) prior to returning for routine follow-up evaluation a minimum of 1 year after surgery. Two hundred thirty-two of a possible 4,350 responses (5.3%) were missing, contradictory, or answered with two or more answers on the questionnaire. Only eight such defects occurred following the telephone interview by a skilled orthopaedic surgeon, representing a significant reduction in these defects ( P < .005). The average time of the telephone call was 2.8 minutes (range, 1–12 minutes), and the average number of attempts to contact the patient was 1.4 (range, 1–6). All questionnaire data and questionnaire data plus telephone data were compared with data obtained from a subsequent face-to-face interview by a different skilled orthopaedic surgeon who was blinded to the data from both the questionnaire and the telephone interview. It is demonstrated that a telephone call to follow up a standardized, self-administered questionnaire is a very effective way to augment the quality and quantity of questionnaire responses.

Madison on Sympathy, Virtue, and Ambition in the "Federalist Papers"

In the Federalist Papers James Madison gives apparently contradictory answers to the question of what qualities of character distinguish the good republican ruler. This article argues that Madison's answer forms a coherent whole if his account of human action is understood correctly. For Madison the virtues are natural impulses that direct people toward proper action but are not themselves strong enough to cause action, while ambition provides the motor of action but cannot direct action to proper ends. Thus virtues and ambition must be conjoined. Madison argues that this is accomplished through the workings of three Constitutional institutions: rule by law, separation of powers, and recurrent election. Together, these three institutions promote the virtues needed for republican rule and spur the action needed to provide it.

L'espace rural, élargissement conceptuel et orientation méthodologique

The evolution of the rural area poses many questions and determines sometimes contradictory answers. More optimistic analyses referring to the rebirth or to the reconquest are opposed to the pessimistic vision who speaks of desertification and depopulation. In fact, the uncreasing complexity of the rural world questions the use of indicators still largely used in an exclusive manner. This poses in addition the problem of approach methodologies of rural milieus. This article provides on the one hand tracks to establish new indicators of rurality and proposes a process of analysis more suitable to include the uncreasing complexity of rural areas.

Can Canada Survive the Charter

Professor Taylor begins his analysis of Canada's current constitutional crisis by discussing two long standing "existential" questions: why should Canada exist, and why should Quebec be part of Canada? The contradictory answers to these questions reflect contradictory understandings of the nature of rights, as reflected in the debate over the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Professor Taylor traces the roots of this debate in differing philosophical views of the nature of liberalism. He concludes by proposing a new kind of confederation in which these differing views could be accommodated.

Mao Zedong's Family Background

The Central Liaison Department recently pointed out that while sightseeing, and in particular when visiting Chairman Mao's home in Shaoshan, many foreign guests had asked questions about Comrade Mao Zedong's family background. In the past, because there was no uniform line on how to reply to such questions, many guides found them hard to answer, or gave different and contradictory answers. In Chen Tiejian's article "Comrade Mao Zedong Was a Revolutionary Leader Who Lived among the People, " published in the Guangming Daily on October 28, 1978, it says: "Comrade Mao Zedong once said to Edgar Snow that his family originally had been poor peasants, that they then improved their lot to become middle peasants, and finally became rich peasants who employed hired hands; that their annual income was 84 dan of grain; and that they were able to sell grain for cash." Would it be possible for us to use this passage as the basis for our propaganda line from now on?

The Logic of Political Belief: A Philosophical Analysis of Ideology. By Ian Adams. Savage, MD: Barnes &amp; Noble, 1989. 145p. $39.75.

What is ideology, and what is the scope of its influence? Are all political doctrines ideological? Is there such a thing as a non-political ideology? Can these questions be answered conclusively, and if so by what means? Different conceptions and theories of ideology offer a variety of contradictory answers, resulting in general muddle and confusion. This powerful and original book argues that philosophy alone can give clear and decisive answers to such questions. Its rigorous logical analysis reveals ideology to be a distinctive form of thought with its own particular vocabulary and structure. It is these logical features that define ideology, and not any allegedly necessary connection with social class or fanaticism or even politics. What ideology does necessarily connect with is human action and its moral justification. Understanding the nature of ideological belief goes to the heart of the relationship between theory and practice, and consequently to the way in which human beings understand themselves. The Logic of Political Belief is essential reading for those concerned with political theory, moral philosophy and the social sciences in general. Its outstanding clarity and force of argument will also commend it to all those with an interest in wider political, social and human issues. Contents: Chapter One: Ideology and Confusion; Ideology and Political Theory; Ideology and Political Science; Ideology and Philosophy; Chapter Two: Understanding, Knowledge, and Ideological Concepts; Forms of Understanding and Kinds of Knowledge; Practice and Theory; The Vocabulary of Political Belief; Chapter Three: Ideology, Science, and Theory; Ideology as Bad Science: Karl Popper; Science as Ideology: Thomas Kuhn; The Nature of Ideological Theory; Chapter Four: Ideology and Ethics; The Nature of Ordinary Morality; Morality and Ethical Belief; Ideology and Religion; Chapter Five: Human Nature and the Structure of Ideology; Ideological and Non-Ideological Conceptions of Man; The Struct

Certain Sermons or Homilies (1547) and A Homily against Disobedience and Wilful Rebellion (1570) ed. by Ronald B. Bond

As Jordan points out, it is possible for two critics to offer convincing inter­ pretations that contradict one another: Though each view has much to recommend it, can both be right? Students of the poem [the Book of the Duchess] have long been tempted simply to beg the real questions and answer yes, both are right and the greatness of the poem lies in its very capacity to contain, if not resolve, contradictions. But the poem deserves finer analysis, and if we find ourselves repeating contradictory answers to the old questions, it is perhaps because we have learned all we can from those questions. (54) Jordan’s analytic and descriptive method, on the other hand, is open to more or less objective verification. Other readers can count digressions, or figure out ratios of story to rhetoric, or attend to shifting voices in the passages and texts that Jordan has discussed and in those he has not — although of course other readers may disagree with him and with each other about the definitions and contents of those categories. Still Jordan’s arguments and his evidence for them elicit and deserve the most serious consideration. The book has an index but no bibliography. I hesitate to complain because it is, on the whole, notably considerate in the demands it makes on its audi­ ence. It is lucid and a pleasure to read. It can be recommended to under­ graduates : they may find it a trifle dry, but like the rest of us they can benefit from its warnings about the limits of interpretation and its demonstration of the ways in which rhetorical analysis can be appropriately and productively applied to Chaucer’s poetry. j o a n n e c r a ig / Bishop’s University Ronald B. Bond, ed., Certain Sermons or Homilies (1547) and A Homily against Disobedience and Wilful Rebellion (1570) (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987). xii, 259. $35.00 In this critical, though not definitive, edition, Professor Bond aspires to pro­ vide us with a “practical” version of “some important texts of the English Reformation” (ix). The twelve homilies of the 1547 volume are viewed as “prime examples of English Christian humanism” (ix-x) and as anticipating the shape of the English Reformation, preceding as they do both the Book of Common Prayer (1549) and the Thirty-nine Articles (1563). The rationale for including the later (and separately published) Against Rebellion varies: at one point we are told that its near-hysterical tone “ throws into relief the less shrill protestantism” (ix) of the 1547 collection; elsewhere it is characterized as “a work that distils what is sometimes called the Tudor myth” (44), though 469 the precise terms and shape of that myth are unspecified. This conjunction of works may seem, therefore, somewhat arbitrary; and there is no mention of a parallel edition of the second (1563) book of homilies, to which Against Re­ bellion was appended from 1571 onward. (We are promised a companion volume which will examine the homilies of the current collection as back­ ground to the literature of the period.) In terms of editing, the aim is “ to present an old-spelling text that is, sub­ stantially, Edwardian” (46), using (in the case of Certain Sermons) 1547 as the foundation text and introducing corrections based on evidence from one or more of 1549, 1559 (the first edition under Elizabeth), and the folio of 1623. The fairly numerous revisions of 1559, overseen by the Queen herself and introduced “for the better understandyng of the simple people,” are here handled effectively: instead of cluttering the text-page itself with interpola­ tions or footnotes, Bond has presented these changes in the textual notes that follow each homily, where they may be consulted easily enough by interested students, while allowing the 1547 homilies to be experienced “in a form close to that in which they were read and heard in mid-sixteenth-century England” (46). For Against Rebellion the base text is that first published (presumably) in April or May of 1570, collated with an edition later in 1570 and with the 1623 folio. In these and related editorial matters (punctuation, paragraphing, indica­ tions of scriptural citation or...