Fellow Specialists Research Articles

Herding-like behaviour in medical decision making: An experimental study investigating general practitioners' prescription behaviour.

Previous observational studies have indicated that social influences, such as arising from herding-like behaviour, can contribute to medical errors. In this study, we experimentally examined whether general practitioners (GPs) would follow incorrect prescription recommendations from fellow GP or specialists. To investigate this, we conducted an online survey with 475 GPs practicing in England that included two case vignettes. Case vignette 1 focused on sleeping tablets, and case vignette 2 was centred around antibiotics. The vignettes were presented in random order, and within each vignette, study participants were assigned to one of three experimental conditions: control condition (lacking peer recommendation), fellow GP condition (including a recommendation from a fellow GP not aligned with best practice clinical guidelines), or specialist condition (including a recommendation from a specialist not aligned with best practice clinical guidelines). The primary outcome measure was the proportion of GPs who prescribed medication that deviated from best practice clinical guidelines. We found that, in both case vignettes, the percentage of respondents prescribing such medication was highest in those assigned to the specialist condition, followed by those assigned to the control condition. It was lowest in those assigned to the fellow GP condition (case vignette 1: 73.8% vs. 55.6% vs. 36.6% and case vignette 2: 24.0% vs. 12.4% vs. 10.1%). In the case of vignette 1, the difference between the fellow GP condition and the control condition is statistically significant, suggesting that GPs are less likely to prescribe sleeping tablets when recommended by a fellow GP. This implies that GPs are more inclined to prescribe non-guideline-recommended medication when advised by specialists. This study is the first to experimentally demonstrate that physician herding behaviour can result in prescription errors. Future research could extend this inquiry to diverse contexts, including diagnosis.

Healthcare sustainability in cardiothoracic surgery.

Climate change is the greatest threat to human health. Cardiothoracic patients suffer direct consequences from poor environmental health and we have a vested interest to address this in our practice. As leaders of complex high-end surgery, we are uniquely positioned to effect practical and immediate changes to significantly pare down emissions within the operating theatre, outside the operating theatre and beyond the confines of the hospital. We aim to spotlight this pressing issue, take stock of our current efforts, and encourage fellow specialists to drive this agenda. Sustainability in healthcare needs to be formalized as part of the core curriculum in surgical training and awareness generated via carbon audits and life cycle analyses. Practical actions such as reducing unnecessary equipment usage, choosing reusable equipment over single use disposables, judicious use of investigations rooted in clinical reasoning and sharing of resources across services and health systems help reduce the carbon output of our specialty. The 'Triple Bottom Line' serves as a good template to calibrate efforts that balance quality against environmental costs. More can be done to advocate for and find solutions for sustainable healthcare with cardiothoracic surgery.

The Variant Readings in Islamic Law

Abstract The accepted variant readings (qirāʾāt) of the Qurʾān have often been characterized as those that may be recited in the course of the ritual prayer. However, it appears on examination that premodern juridical handbooks laying out the rules governing the ritual prayer rarely discuss textual variants. When they do, it is almost always to rule out variants reportedly recited by Companions before the caliph ʿUthmān promulgated a single orthodox text. Also, contrary to what some scholars continue to allege, it is doubtful whether the acceptance of seven, ten, or any other number of accepted variant readings has been affected by judicial rulings or fatwas from jurisprudents backed by state power. What constrained specialists to restrict themselves to widely accepted variants was evidently fear not of the state but of disapproval from fellow specialists.

Всеобщность эстетического отношения к миру – творческий принцип Н.И. Киященко

The article is devoted to the discussion of the philosophical and methodological potential of one of the fruitful ideas of N.I. Kiyashchenko – the principle of the universality of a person’s aesthetic attitude to the world. In contrast to the rather widespread Hegelian point of view, according to which the aesthetic attitude to the world is limited mainly to the sphere of art, he, relying on the ac­tivity approach developed in Russian philosophy, insisted on the presence and essential role of the aesthetic attitude to the world in all spheres of human life and society in general. Through out Kiyashchenko’s creative life, this interpreta­tion of the role of the aesthetic acted as a connecting thematic line that united the diversity of scientific interests and conceptual incarnations of both himself and his fellow specialists in various fields and directions of research of the modern culture. The team headed by Kiyashchenko discussed the aesthetic aspects of un­derstanding both humanitarian and natural reality (including such fields of sci­ence as genetics, synergetics, neuroscience, etc.). The result of this collective work was a series of works associated, according to the plan of N.I. Kiya­shchenko, with the transformation of modern aesthetic ideas in their concep­tual expression. And in essence, these works represent the ideological heritage of Nikolai Ivanovich Kiyashchenko.

La construction du patrimoine by Valérie Rochaix

Reviewed by: La construction du patrimoine by Valérie Rochaix H. Jay Siskin Rochaix, ValÉrie. La construction du patrimoine. L'Harmattan, 2020. ISBN 978-2-343-19317-5. Pp. 268. Rochaix's work is certainly a noteworthy achievement. Her analysis of the word/theme of patrimoine is subjected to a variety of critical approaches, clarified by visuals that distill the essence of her argument. At the same time, the scope of her achievement is limited. It is expected that technical writing be expressed in a high register, in a jargon shared by fellow specialists. In this case, given the content and Rochaix's writing style, it is clear that the intended audience is her equally specialized peers, a very small group comprising her immediate academic environment. Chapter 1 starts out tamely, in terms of comprehension. The author analyzes the etymology and diachronic evolution of the term patrimoine. Although the subject matter is specialized, it is expressed in a fully comprehensible manner (albeit with a few speed bumps) until the final statement of the argument. It is at this point that I began to despair that the book might alienate readers due to its extreme opacity: "Postulant que l'intégration d'un artefact dans le champ patrimonial modifie les propriétés sémantiques du nominal qui le désigne, par quels mécanismes sémantico-discursifs et pragmatico-discursifs s'opère ce processus de cinétisme ?" (26). I am not criticizing the author for her choice of language, which appropriately reflects her credentials. I cite it rather as an exemplum of the comprehension barriers that become more and more frequent as the reader seeks to understand the content of the subsequent chapters. Rochaix outlines the theoretical bases of her work in chapter 2. These are many and complementary, although I suspect that they are not entirely familiar to a North American linguist. Of course, speech act theory has been widely disseminated and elaborated. The specialized sémantique des arguments possibles (SPA) is perhaps less known, but occupies a prominent place in this chapter. Other scholarly points are even further removed from the knowledge set of the researcher. Chapter 3 is devoted to an intensive and exclusive analysis of the notion of patrimoine, in particular its occurrence in collocations, which occupies a great deal of textual territory. Equally elaborated in chapter 4 is a semantico-discursive analysis of the noun and verb patrimonialisation/patrimonialiser. As a finale, Rochaix hopes to open the discussion to a larger audience. Trop tard! From its very inception, it is clear that this is a work for the initiated. Given Rochaix's mastery of the topic, I can strongly recommend it to philosophers of language, whose research spans the fields of diachronic linguistics, with a particular attention to semantic theory. Nonetheless, as I have demonstrated, this audience is quite restricted and does not resonate with the pedagogical goals of our organization. [End Page 268] H. Jay Siskin University of California, Santa Cruz Copyright © 2022 American Association of Teachers of French

Doran H. Ross

Doran H. Ross

American and Jewish Art Historians in Correspondence With Prof. C. Petranu (1893-1945)

"American and Jewish Art Historians in Correspondence with Prof. C. Petranu (1893-1945). This article is part of the correspondence Prof. C. Petranu, founder of the education and scientific research in the field of art history in Transylvania and at King Ferdinand University of Cluj, conducted with prestigious American fellow specialists, professors, researchers, museographers, directors of publishing houses and magazines in this field. Among Prof. Petranu’s most frequent correspondents we can mention fellow specialists and researchers residing in the United States of America, as well as in many other European countries such as Finland, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Austria, Germany , Switzerland, France, Italy, Spain and England, and even Africa (Egypt). The collection of letters seems to depict a genuine story of the evolution and stage of development of art history in the interwar period. Keywords: American correspondence, American and Jewish fellows, John Shapley, A.Ph. MacMahon, Helen Mason, Alfred Salamony, Trygve Barth. "

Ultrasonography of the larynx: Novel use during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic (Review).

Few articles have been published on the subject of laryngeal ultrasonography. However, considering the increased power and accuracy of ultrasound technology, this imaging modality should be reevaluated. The present review aimed to increase the awareness of fellow specialists regarding the use of this imaging tool in healthcare units that do not benefit from onsite ear, nose and throat (ENT) service. We illustrate the ultrasonographic examination protocol for the larynx along with the relevant anatomic landmarks. We review cases with laryngeal tumoral pathology that underwent ultrasonographic examination for improved management. All findings were confirmed through computerized tomography (CT) and endoscopy performed by the ENT specialist. The ultrasound of the larynx has potential utility in diagnosis (e.g., laryngeal abnormalities, speech and swallowing abnormalities, identification of endotracheal tube placement), treatment (e.g., guidance of percutaneous tracheostomy and cricothyrotomy) and prognosis (e.g., prediction of postextubation stridor and difficult intubation). This imaging modality could be useful in the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemics in reducing the exposure to invasive maneuvers producing aerosol, such as endoscopy.

Fugitive Freedom: The improbable lives of two imposters in late colonial Mexico by William B. Taylor

Reviewed by: Fugitive Freedom: The improbable lives of two imposters in late colonial Mexico by William B. Taylor Matt O'Hara Fugitive Freedom: The improbable lives of two imposters in late colonial Mexico By William B. Taylor. Berkeley; Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2021 William Taylor is a distinguished historian of early Mexican history, whose award-winning previous work has reconstructed diverse histories from the landed estate to social unrest and religious life. In this work, he turns his attention to a subject that glances off many of these previous topics: the history of impostors. In a slender and readable volume, he examines the lives of two swindlers, Joseph Aguayo and Juan Atondo, who roamed widely throughout central Mexico in the late colonial period (Aguayo in second half of the eighteenth century and Atondo in the first decades of the nineteenth century). Among many other deceptions, both were serial impostors of priests, and used the social capital that came with the clerical identity in attempts to better their lot. After a robust introduction that situates imposture in the history of New Spain, the first two chapters narrate Aguayo's and Atondo's careers as swindlers, based largely on documents from their many run-ins with the Inquisition. While the historical literature on early modern Spain and New Spain often refers to drifters and impostors as "social types," it is uncommon to find much detail about their lives. Taylor, in contrast, gives the reader rich descriptions of these men and their circumstances, thanks to the extensive records that documented their escapades, and offers the reader just the right amount of detail to bring a scene to life. He also uses their stories to examine a number of key themes in early Mexican history, such as the shifting meaning of freedom during this period, the social currency of religious symbols and ritual, and the limited power of institutions to shape the social order. Chapter Three takes a step back from the ramblings of Atondo and Aguayo to survey the picaresque literature of early modern Spain and New Spain. As Taylor notes, the main characters in picaresque fiction drifted "like corks in a turbulent stream, going where the current takes them… they keep bobbing back to the surface, soaking wet but not much the worse for the wear," much like the real-life rogues Aguayo and Atondo. In the final chapter, Taylor then uses the pícaro type to consider the lives of his two swindlers. All the available evidence suggests that Aguayo was a consummate fraud, adept at his craft, always on the move, and showing little true remorse for his deceptions. Atondo was also a career scoundrel, at one point abandoning his wife and child, and even stealing his wife's best clothes on the way out the door. But Atondo was a rogue with an "unruly" heart. At times he seemed genuinely called to the religious life, even though his wandering ways meant that he was never able to achieve it, beyond multiple acts of priestly imposture, which included taking the confessions of penitents unaware of his true identity. The result of this creative structure is an extremely rewarding book full of Taylor's careful and thorough research. It is also written in a lively style that will appeal to non-specialists and undergraduates. Taylor makes references to contemporary cons and grifters, current understanding of bipolar disorder (which Atondo might have struggled with), and playful contemporary references to drive home his historical points (the Diners Club card and Wile E. Coyote even make appearances). Above all, the book is characterized by Taylor's insightful historical analysis, which brings the past to life but always treats its own terms and in all of its complexity. Combined, these many fine qualities will make Fugitive Freedoms an excellent choice for adoption in undergraduate or graduate courses on colonial Mexico or early Latin America. I look forward to talking about it with my students, but also discussing it with fellow specialists. Matt O'Hara University of California, Santa Cruz Copyright © 2021 Matt O'Hara and The Johns Hopkins University Press

Microlearning to improve CPD learning objectives.

Despite active involvement in teaching, clinical educators facilitating the continuing professional development (CPD) of their fellow specialists may not have formal training in medical education. Although required to write focused, measurable, topic-relevant, attainable and time-bound learning objectives to clearly inform learners on their learning intentions, CPD educators often receive no training on how to develop them. Microlearning is an online learning format occurring without real-time or interpersonal interaction, aiming to deliver easily accessible small units of focused information that are readily applicable for professionals. We hypothesised that Portuguese ophthalmologist educators lecturing to their fellow specialists would benefit from a microlearning experience (MLE) to improve the quality of their learning objectives. We created an MLE about writing effective learning objectives. In phase1, 25 clinical educators, scheduled to lecture at an ophthalmology conference in Portugal, were invited to watch the MLE, write and classify their learning objectives according to Bloom's modified taxonomy, and complete an evaluation survey. In phase2, 86 clinical educators were invited to view the MLE and complete the survey. In phase1, 20% of participants completed the exercise and survey. They categorised their objectives high on Bloom's taxonomy, considered the MLE useful and stated their intent to apply the principles learned in practice. In phase 2, 29% of participants provided feedback. All agreed that the intervention was clear and useful and 87% expressed an intent to use this information in their educational practice. The majority of participants found the MLE clear and useful. Further studies are necessary to measure the impact of the MLEs used by clinical educators.

L’actualité des Learning Analytics : quelques éléments d’un débat

This article reports on a debate conducted in 2019 in the Debat-discussion section of the four issues of the journal Distance and Mediation of Knowledge (DMS-DMK). Each year, the section is the site of a thematic debate which opens in the first of the four annual issues with a framing text. It offers a critical review of the recent literature devoted to the chosen theme: it analyzes its potential, the challenges and the prospects, particularly for distance learning. During the following three issues, fellow specialists in the field are invited to react, to debate based on their epistemological positioning, their disciplinary affiliation, their research and their experience. The article presents a synthesis, albeit partial, of the debate that Learning Analytics were the subject of in the review during the year 2019: it focuses on epistemological, methodological and ethical arguments.

New Essays in Japanese Aesthetics ed. by A. Minh Nguyen

Reviewed by: New Essays in Japanese Aesthetics ed. by A. Minh Nguyen Thomas P. Kasulis (bio) New Essays in Japanese Aesthetics. Edited by A. Minh Nguyen. Lexington Books, Lanham MD, 2018. xxviii, 449 pages. $140.00, cloth; $49.99, paper; $47.50, E-book. This book is probably the most notable contribution in English to the field of Japanese aesthetics published in this century so far and one of the most significant in the past fifty years. My judgment rests on the remarkable range of disciplines and quality of contributors included. The first part of this review surveys that variety and the second raises issues for further study. Significance of the book. Besides the front material, the anthology includes 27 essays by established authorities in Japanese aesthetics from philosophy (Thorsten Botz-Bornstein, Allen Carlson, Robert E. Carter, [End Page 294] David E. Cooper, Carol Steinberg Gould, Peter Leech, James McRae, John C. Maraldo, Mara Miller, Steve Odin, Graham Parkes, Yuriko Saito, Jason M. Wirth, and Michiko Yusa); from art/art history (David Bell, Richard Bullen, Mikiko Hirayama, and Matthew Larking); from Japanese language and literature (Cheryl Crowley, Hiroshi Nara, C. Mitchell Rich, J. Thomas Rimer, and Meera Viswanathan); and from Japanese culture/ ethnology and history (Timothy Unverzagt Goddard, Roy Starrs, Akiko Takenaka, and Koji Yamasaki). Not only are the fields multiple, but so are the specific arts addressed: gardens, martial arts, cinema, shakuhachi music, food, poetry, nō, Ainu arts, to name just some. Each essay is a gem, even more valuable for its place in the overall setting. None of the 27 essays is a reprint, each representing the latest thinking of each contributor. The chapters tilt toward contemporary phenomena but often vis-à-vis traditional aesthetic values. The authors address a general college-level audience rather than fellow specialists, making the book ideal for college library collections in either Japan studies or aesthetics/ philosophy of art. (As an anthology, price will guide course adoption.) The foreword by artist and art historian Stephen Addiss is an inviting entrée to the book with historical allusions to two key aspects of Japanese aesthetics: the Japanese appreciation of nature and its multiple (ancient, medieval, and Edo) interactions with China and (in the modern period) with the West. The introduction has two sections, the first being adapted from Saito's "Japanese Aesthetics: Historical Overview" in the Oxford University Press Encyclopedia of Aesthetics (1998), edited by Michael Kelly. It was wise to make this the one exception to the rule that each contribution be new. Though concise, Saito's article introduces the general development of Japanese aesthetic ideas, hitting the highlights while introducing key concepts like wabi, sabi, yūgen, and yojō. She also contrasts Japanese aesthetic values with a couple of common Western aesthetic principles such as the "intentional fallacy," the interpretive rule that the artist's intention is irrelevant to the aesthetic evaluation of the artwork. This is a crucial contrast because Western aesthetics typically focuses on the artwork, whereas most Japanese aesthetics focuses on artistry, with the artwork's being only its final manifestation. (Sadly, even some essays in this volume sometimes blur this important difference.) The second section of the introduction is a précis of the book which philosopher-editor A. Minh Nguyen weaves from the authors' own abstracts of their chapters. This idiosyncratic technique works surprisingly well in unifying the volume, inviting the reader to peruse it in sequence instead of following the hopscotch approach more common in reading anthologies. Part 1 has essays by Carter, Cooper, Bullen, Odin, and Saito under the rubric of "Japanese Aesthetics and Philosophy." The most common theme (often associated by the authors with Zen Buddhism, an etiology I question [End Page 295] later in this review) is the aesthetic dissolution of the gap between subject and object, self and other, or humanity and nature, a unification achieved by dissolving the ego into its focus. The discussions include training within a communal context, appreciating the vague or hidden (where, as I explain below, mikkyō might have been influential), and cultivating expert knowledge—all with implications for ethical and spiritual, as well as aesthetic, development. Immanuel Kant, David Hume, Arthur Schopenhauer, and Nishida Kitarō serve...

Unwanted tooth movement produced by the bonded retention wire : the “wire syndrome,” observations, theories, clinical consequences : second part

Sometimes teeth can move even if they seem to have been perfectly stabilised by a retention wire. We call this phenomenon the “wire syndrome”. It has been well described both in the mandibular and maxillary arches in part one of this article. For the moment, there has been no mechanical explanation for this phenomenon in the scientific literature. After an analysis of photographic documents from fellow specialists and an examination of cases from our own office, we have developed a theory to explain the mechanical element involved. We will divide our analysis into two hypotheses. They could be inter-connected. The first so-called “intrinsic” hypothesis groups together procedural erreurs which all lead to the use of an active bonded wire. In such cases, the wire is directly responsible for the movements. Its action is the same as that of an orthodontic device directly bonded on the teeth. The second “extrinsic” hypothesis shows that a tooth with a well bonded wire can rotate if the link between the wire and the composite is broken and if force is present. The clinical evidence we have gathered could allow us to combat this phenomenon efficiently.

Roald Hoffmann

Roald Hoffmann

Scholars and poor communicators? Old Masters exhibitions as a scientific practice and communication activity for art museum curators

Museum curators are rarely the subject of analysis as scientists. By contrast, there is a whole literature on their propensity to give priority to the scientific knowledge of collections over the effort to communicate with different audiences and make museums accessible. This article examines the Late Raphael exhibition at the Louvre (Paris) and draws on the exhibition texts (catalogues, artwork labels, wall texts) to explore the practical activity and preoccupations of the museum curators concerned: the exhibition is simultaneously material for the scientific demonstration of a thesis – part of a debate on the value of the artist’s late works – and for communication aimed at both fellow specialists and the wider public. Communication is not distinct from scientific research and handled with less respect. The two are directly interwoven and communication represents a practical activity with its own difficulties.

Schreib-Riten (shorei 書礼): Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der japanischen Briefetikette by Markus Rüttermann (review)

Reviewed by: Schreib-Riten (shorei 書礼): Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der japanischen Briefetikette by Markus Rüttermann W. J. Boot Schreib-Riten (shorei 書礼): Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der japanischen Briefetikette. By Markus Rüttermann. 3 volumes. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2011. 1693 pages. Hardcover €198.00/SFr335.00. In the days before we liked each other on Facebook, tweeted, whatsapped, texted, and still wrote the occasional e-mail, we wrote letters. For composing letters there existed rules regarding forms of address and choice of words, as well as a number of formulas for saving face, saving time, and economizing on thinking. The Far East was no exception. The title and subtitle of the volumes under review promise a description of Japanese epistolary etiquette. In order to address this seemingly harmless topic, author Markus Rüttermann needed three volumes and a total of 1693 pages, although João Rodriguez (1561?–1633?) and Jeroen Lamers have shown that it can be done in only 103.1 There is a good reason, however, for this vast difference in size: Schreib-Riten was Rüttermann’s Habilitationsschrift (defended in 2002 at the Humboldt University in Berlin)—the second dissertation that German scholars must produce in order to qualify for academic appointment. And a Habilitationsschrift, it is generally understood, must be both thick and exhaustive. Schreib-Riten is arranged in four parts, whose titles can be translated as follows: (1) Fundamentals of Epistolary Communication and Aspects of Intertextuality, (2) Ritual and Situational Encoding of Epistolary Communication, (3) Aspects of Textual Encoding of Epistolary Communication, and (4) Aspects of Graphic, Material, and Nonverbal Encoding of Epistolary Communication. These are followed by a number of appendices, including extensive translations from the sources; a bibliography; and—thankfully, in a book of this size—an index. Unlike Rodriguez and Lamers, Rüttermann set out to describe all aspects of all Japanese letter writing through the ages. Since fellow specialists in the area of epistolary [End Page 113] studies are few, the great majority of readers will never read the entire book, but will select only those sections that are of interest to them in view of their specialization. Literary specialists may be interested in the way letters were folded, sealed, and delivered (for which, see pages 1133–1287), and art historians, in the chapter on epistolary motifs in the fine arts (pages 1288–1304) or in the rules regarding the use of square, running, and cursive hands (pages 1035–1132). Sinologists should be interested in the rites regarding oral communication as described in the Liji (the Book of Rites) and the relationship Rüttermann establishes between those rites and the rules of epistolary etiquette later formulated on that basis, or in Chinese prescriptions regarding letter writing, or in Chinese collections of exemplary letters (topics covered in various parts of the work, including on pages 17–48, 163–85, 270–78, 347–51, and 413–56). Linguists, who as a rule evince little interest in the epistolary language of sōrōbun, will find whatever they need to begin the exploration of this much-neglected subject. Rüttermann’s book is of greatest importance—both as a reference work and, potentially, as a textbook—for students of Japanese history. Letters are one of the historian’s most valuable sources, and though they are routinely treated in books about historical documents (monjo), for historians this book would be a useful reference work and textbook. You have to know German, of course, but if you do, you have access to an overview of all modern Japanese research on every aspect of public and private letter writing in Japan from the Nara period till the end of the twentieth century, and to a selection of letters from each period, in the original Chinese or Japanese, presented with a transcription into Latin script, an analysis, and a translation. Rüttermann distinguishes five periods: the Very Early Middle Ages (Nara), the Early Middle Ages (Heian), the High and Late Middle Ages (chūsei), the New Age (Neuzeit; kinsei), and the Modern Age (kindai and gendai). In part 3, which I consider the core of the work, the distribution of pages over these five periods gives an indication of their...

'The Chatto List': Publishing Literary Criticism in Mid-Twentieth-Century Britain

The standard accounts of the professionalization of English studies during the first two-thirds of the twentieth century rest on several, largely unexplored, assumptions about the changing character of publishing in these years. Those accounts propose, broadly speaking, that the world of the Victorian men of letters, addressing a non-specialist public through books and periodicals that were part of a common educated culture, was superseded by the world of the professionalized literary academic, addressing fellow specialists through presses and journals whose readership was confined to universities. Drawing principally upon the archives of Chatto and Windus (and, secondarily, of Penguin Books), this article challenges these accounts by considering in detail the publishing histories of six critics: William Empson, Basil Willey, F.R. Leavis, L.C. Knights, Raymond Williams and Richard Hoggart. Literary criticism enjoyed a particular cultural vogue in the period from 1930 to 1960, and the patterns of publishing in the cases of these critics reveal a complex story of diverse and overlapping reading publics.

Silences du roman: Balzac et le romanesque contemporain

In this bold and refreshingly un-academic essay, Aline Mura asks the simple question: ‘Que reste-t-il de Balzac dans la littérature contemporaine?’. The value of her answer derives from a scrupulous reformulation of that question within an epistemological framework that bears scant resemblance to traditional literary history and depends still less on chronology. The subtlety of her none the less emphatic study stems from its recognition that the rediscovery of the machinery of the romanesque by some of the most original novelists writing in France today bears no resemblance to an act of pastiche or to the ossified practice that certain nouveaux romanciers made their all too easy target. It depends, likewise, on a view of Balzac's ‘modernity’ that Mura's fellow specialists may feel is no longer in need of militant propagation, but which doubtless retains an important corrective function in milieux where, in spite of the efforts of writers such as Pierre Michon, Robbe-Grillet's view of Balzac continues to hold sway. Her discussion thus assumes ‘l’écriture balzacienne' to be characterized by fragmentation, metatextuality and dialogism, though in respect of its specific arguments it proves consistently arresting. Any risk that the continuities she identifies between Balzac's experience of the romanesque and that of the impressive array of modern writers she brings into play (des Forêts's Le Bavard, La Chute, Aragon's Blanche ou l'oubli, the novels of Marguerite Duras, but, more especially, the work of Quignard, Millet, Oster and Juliet) will dissolve into a morass of generalization is obviated by her adoption of silence as a hermeneutic key. The numerous works of fiction adduced are revealed to constitute a rich and diverse reflection on silence (seen not as an absence of language but as another form of language) within the actual activity of writing. If Genette provides her with basic tools and an analytical rigour to match her own formidable powers of analysis, Mura's discussion is permeated by Blanchot, to the extent that her chosen writers' stance in the face of silence is viewed in terms of a heroism analogous to that attributed by Blanchot to Mallarmé. The eschewal of a chronological approach leads to her essay assuming the form of a series of concentric circles that succeed admirably in deepening our understanding, while none the less incorporating a certain amount of expendable repetition. Although it would be ungrateful to regret the absence of Proust, or to wish that the analysis of Beckett (via Juliet) went deeper, Mura's claim that bavards are strangely absent from the Comédie humaine is, itself, strange. The volume is marred by some glaring misprints and might, usefully, have contained both an index and a bibliography listing all the studies previously mentioned. These are, however, but small blemishes alongside its many insights, which are conveyed with an enviable talent for lapidary formulations. In its essentials, Mura's study constitutes an exemplary mode of access to the contemporary French novel and may, more humbly, serve as a convenient compendium of references to works with much to offer the student in search of a dissertation subject.

Democracy. By Albert Weale. New York: St Martin's Press, 1999. 244p. $59.95 cloth, $19.95 paper.

Like other volumes in the series Issues in Political Theory, which Weale edits with Peter Jones, this book combines an overview of the topic suitable for advanced undergraduates and above with an original argument reflecting the author's distinctive perspective that is likely to stimulate fellow specialists. The combination is an attractive one, which, when it works—as it does in this case—ensures that we do not get the sort of deadly dull textbook that merely rehashes other people's ideas. There are two novel features of Weale's argument. The first is his justification of democracy in terms of its capacity to enable members of society to advance their common interests as political equals in a situation of human fallibility. The second is his attempt to delineate the form of democracy, including the type of representation and decision rule, most likely to promote this purpose. I take each in turn.

Second Thoughts on the Job Crisis: The Profession

Z CL. S \ X Second Thoughts on theJob Crisis THE PROFESSION by William W. Freehling a believe that the historicalprofessionfaces an employment as well as an intellectual crisis. In 1999, when I spoke at a breakfast at The Historical Society's national conference, I argued that oldergenerations ofhistorians must no longer allow deans tofoist an impossiblejob situation on youngergenerations. I urged that, withfullprofessors allowing administrators afree hand to establish the hiring environment, a horrendous plight confronts mostfresh PhDs. Few aspiring teachers start with tenure trackpositions, replete with the traditional benefits, salaries, and research support. Most endurepart-time employment, at leastfor severalyears. Many have to cobble together a course at one institution, a course at another, and more courses at others,just to earn a subsistence wage. The exhausting workyields no medical insurance , no travelgrants, and no opportunity to write history. And the olderprofessors, havingsuffered none ofthis, have done little tofight the travesty. I emphasized that currently employed faculty could forge an alliance between have and have-not professors, against irresponsible administrators. Professors could use their moment of retirement as a weapon against deans' preference for part-time replacements. It every healthy professor refused to retire until the dean agreed to spend 75 percent of the salary savings on full-time replacements , administrators would have little choice but to give many more of our younger colleagues the initial job conditions that furthered our careers. I also argued that PhD-granting departments have the obligation to establish postdoctoral thrcc-to-fivc-year instructorships for the best of their own new PhDs with decent salaries, benefits, and research/writing opportunities). And I suggested that every graduate department of history must base its admissions on the number of PhDs that it could reasonably hope to place m academic tenure track jobs. A war Liter I have some second thoughts about this last suggestion. My limited-admission concept was based on a Neanderthal view: that job opportunities only exist in the universo íes. I he profession badlv needs an expanded professional education to seize advantage of the expanding opportunities for historians beyond the academy. I he old graduate education presumed that the jobs were in the universities and that "publish or perish" was the condition of employment. Thus, criticizing and producing scholarlv monographs monopolized the training of historians. PhDs became expert in«ruing for each other, especially tor fellow specialists who might offer them the only job on the horizon. Whether or not this educational situation fostered good history, it temporarily fostered a golden age of academic employment tor my generation . Ihat is now a world we haw lost. Most Americans no longer learn their history in the university classroom, much less from the scholars' monographs . Our public—and we must remake it ours—relishes history as never before, but it is history taught in community colleges, on television, in movie houses, inside museums, at historical sites, in magazines, and in nonmonographic kxiks written for popular consumption. So huge a demand—exactly the demand Licking in the academic marketplace—has generated rich employment opportunities tor those properly trained. Training devoted exclusively to publishing monographs can be the wrong training, except maybe to perish before von publish. Some may respond that training in how to make history popular is too antischolarly to be part of a scholar's highest education. But what is unscholarlv about teaching the most sophisticated historv where those who want to learn happen to be located? It is, after all, sophisticated teaching that most of our graduate students have always considered their highest calling. Fewer than IO percent of history PhD theses arc ever published, and fewer than IO percent of the published authors ever unie a second book. Instead, the vasi majority of history PhDs haw always spent a happy, highly productive professional life bringing their insights and knowledge to students. The only difference now is that most of the booming number oí interested students are not located in the tenure-granting universities . Easing the employment woes of our PhDs is partly a matter of apply- ing the traditional capitalist remedy: ¿o where the action is. Bv failing to train our students to educate beyond the university, we indirectly consign that...