Ninetieth Anniversary Research Articles

Eisenstein at 100: Recent Reception and Coming Attractions

1. This brief and summary account, occasioned by a centenary celebration, of some aspects of recent Eisenstein reception in both East and West will offer something of a cautionary tale, as might be inferred from its title. Attractions are, in any case, here understood not in a specifically Eisensteinian sense, but as in the terminology of American film marketing and its deployment of the trailer, the announcement of future programming. One cannot, of course, ignore the status of Eisenstein as a privileged site of post-Soviet iconoclasm, but I shall go on to consider a rather more recent and exotic effort at reintegration within the shifting canon of cultural production and its theorization in the West. My epigraph for these reflections is that adopted for the celebration, ten years ago, of the ninetieth anniversary of Eisenstein's birth. I begin, however, with some recall of the earlier stages of the iconoclastic movement that was then gathering strength within the period of glasnost', a movement directed, as we know, at many aspects of what one might well term the Culture of Revolution. This current was, however, particularly aggressive in its assault upon the resonantly innovative Soviet cinema of a privileged decade, upon the heroic era of film history of roughly 1924-33. One recalls, as an especially salient example, the Festival of Totalitarian Film, organized by the film historian Maya Turovskaya in 1989 as a kind of side show to Moscow's Biennial Film Festival of the early glasnost' era. And, like others, no doubt, over time I had compiled my own little anthology of antiEisenstein texts that antedate glasnost'by some years.1 I offer now, however, an account by the late Nestor Almendros, cameraman and man of the Left, of his meeting during the early days of glasnost' with a group of Soviet filmmakers who

Central government and statutory planning under the Town Planning Act 1909

The impending ninetieth anniversary of the first specific town planning legislation in Britain, the Housing, Town Planning, etc. Act 1909, calls for reflection upon that legislation obscured as it has been, notably by the Town and Country Planning Act 1947. It is suggested that one of the main objectives of the 1909 legislation was achieved: the then Liberal government sought to give central government a central role in statutory town planning; this role was expressed in the terms of the 1909 legislation. The 1909 Act allowed the Local Government Board significant powers by incorporating existing law, and adopting regulatory models, from other legislation, so giving central government a wide range of administrative, judicial and legislative powers while omitting to define clear limits to them. A centralist tendency, according primacy to central government, has been an outstanding feature in the allocation of statutory planning powers in Britain since 1909. The advent of devolved government in parts of Britain in 1999 might curb this tendency and should prompt a reconsideration of the fundamental values and mechanisms that have underpinned centralism in British statutory planning.

Problems of Instruction and Development in the Works of N. A. Menchinskaia

January 15,1995 marked the ninetieth anniversary of the birth of N. A. Menchinskaia, who was one of the founders of this country's psychology of instruction, the fundamental ideas of which continue to be of permanent importance for the theory and practice of education both in our country and abroad.

Piece pour Piano et quatuor a cordes (1991)

Composed in 1991, Piece for piano and string quartet is one of the last works Olivier Messiaen wrote before his death on 27 April 1992. In this brief and dynamic composition, commemorating the ninetieth anniversary of Alfred Schlee and Universal Edition, one finds a pared-down version of Messiaen's musical style that is effective and enchanting. The aptly chosen title, Piece, has relevance not only to the length and nature of the composition but also to its content, which largely comprises a string of short musical ideas, separated by moments of notated silence. Within this almost fragmentary realm, Messiaen exposes different timbres in each musical section by swiftly changing the instrumentation, thematic material, and articulation. The brevity of the musical ideas and the sparse textures are more reminiscent of passages found in Messiaen's orchestral pieces Couleurs de la cite celeste (1963) and Des canyons aux etoiles (1974) than those in his celebrated chamber work Quatuor pour la fin du temps (1941). While short thematic ideas are indeed characteristic of Messiaen's music, they are customarily incorporated into longer musical passages and formal structures, as is evident in Quatuor and Messiaen's colossal orchestral pieces Chronochromie (1960), Turangalila-Symphonie (1948), and the recent Eclairs sur l'au-dela (1991). Piece contains eleven musical units divided into an archlike structure of 5 + 1 + 5. Like so many of Messiaen's works, the form is seemingly simple, yet, at the same time complex and unique owing to its subtle modifications and variants. As each of the five units returns to create the arch, Messiaen continues to alter the music. The method of development varies with the reprise of each musical unit, and only in the first of the five sections (which is heard last when the arch descends) does he retain the original material untouched. Except in units five and nine, the piano and strings do not play simultaneously; instead, they are fashioned in the form of a dialogue. Their interchange is free flowing and energetic owing to uneven phrase lengths and dynamic levels, which rarely dip below a mezzo forte. A climax is reached in the middle section, the main body of the work, and bears the label Fauvette des jardins after a bird whose song appears in numerous Messiaen pieces and whose name is the title of his substantial 1970 piano composition. As the dialogue between the piano and strings builds in this section, the absence of breath becomes apparent and the music conveys an exited state. The harmonies within Piece are typical of Messiaen, and the rhythms, while less complex than many in his previous works, are at times asymmetric owing to the occasionally added eighth note (a trademark of Messiaen's style). Numerous passages of running thirty-second notes at quick tempos and rapid alternations between players could prove challenging for the performers. Clearly laid out, the performance score makes for easy reading. While meter changes are not marked in the score, the musical phrasings are precise and sufficient. Performance time is under five minutes. Piece is a spirited work that encapsulates Messiaen's musical voice. The composition begins and ends with the same four-note figure in the strings; however, the music in between transforms their second realization into a fresh experience, a symbolic gesture perhaps for Messiaen, who enabled us through his music to appreciate a new world of sound. …

Ferenc Preisach, In Memoriam

Sixty years ago perhaps the most cited paper in the area of hysteresis modeling, "Uber die magnetische Nachwirkung" by F. Preisach, appeared in Zeitschriftfiir Physik [1]. In the middle of that paper, which discussed magnetic lag in materials, he proposed a method of analyzing magnetic media which has since become known as Preisach Modeling. Although this landmark paper has triggered research that continues to be extremely fertile, due to the circumstances of his untimely death researchers in the field know hardly anything about Preisach the man. In fact, most do not know even his first name. Since he was a victim of the Holocaust, it has been very difficult to obtain anything except for the sketchiest facts about his life. We are publishing this article, giving what information we have been able to obtain, in the hope that it would spur anyone who has any additional information, including possibly a photograph of him, to forward it to us so that we may make it generally available. We felt that this issue of the Transactions would be the most appropriate in which to publish our findings, since this month marks both the ninetieth anniversary of Preisach's birth and the fifty-second anniversary of his death.

Gamow in America: 1934–1968 (On the ninetieth anniversary of G A Gamov's birth)

In the years 1934–1968, when he worked in the USA, Gamow developed the Big Bang theory and suggested an idea deciphering the genetic code. These were his main scientific achievements in the period in question. He also tackled the problem of nuclear sources of stellar energy. From 1948 he participated in the construction of the American hydrogen bomb. He wrote over twenty science and popular science books.

Preface to the Jubilee Edition of <em>The Souls of Black Folk</em>

Besides being the ninetieth anniversary of the first edition of The Souls of Black Folk, 1993 is the one-hundred-and-twenty-fifth anniversary of Du Bois's birth. This preface to the book appeared in the fiftieth anniversary edition under the title, "Fifty Years After." (New York: Blue Heron Press, 1953) Although we have not made an exhaustive search, the preface was absent from the subsequent editions we were able to consult. Perhaps this is not so strange, considering its final paragraphs. Copies of Du Bois's The Education of Black People (1973) are available from Monthly Review Press, for $10 a copy. —The EditorsThis article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

Possible Dreams: Enthusiasm for Technology in America ed. by John L. Wright

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 417 Ingenious Yankees, however, asserts that elements of the system were developed in the private sector before their use in armories, and that private-sector mechanics adapted innovations developed in armories only selectively. Hoke’s analysis of wooden clock making and type­ writer production, for example, shows that mechanics built in adjust­ ability to allow for lack of precision that was simply not needed. The result in the case of Terry’s wooden clocks was a cheap, dependable, and more easily assembled product that broadened the lower end of the market. Hoke believes, quite correctly, that the history of technology should be grounded in a thorough understanding of machines and process, and his analysis of complex production processes is outstanding. However, he does not spend the time or space to make the reader comfortable with the details before getting to larger issues. In addition, one wishes that this book had focused more on the people who helped create and worked in these industries. Waltham, for example, was a city where nearly everyone worked in the watch industry. Who were they? Were they native born? Immigrants? Men or women? Who held the skilledjobs and who held the unskilled? The mechanization described in these pages created many jobs that did not require Yankee ingenuity. Why did the Irish and FrenchCanadians take work as grinders at Collinsville? How long did they stay? Was it economic necessity? Paternalism? Social cohesion? Social and cultural historians like Anthony Wallace and Merritt Roe Smith have demonstrated the importance of such questions for the economic and technological historian because without such willing workers there would have been no “operatives” to run the machines and not much for ingenious Yankees to do. Hoke’s discussion of the evolution of the American system of manufactures has largely neglected the system’s effect on work and skill. The system created new skilled workers, such as machinists, engineers, and managers, but also produced an army of semiskilled and unskilled industrial workers whose tasks were repetitive, boring, and often dangerous. Technological change took place in a human setting, not a strictly material world, and must be explored in its social and cultural context. Dennis Zembala Dr. Zembala is director of the Baltimore Museum of Industry. Possible Dreams: Enthusiasmfor Technology in America. Edited by John L. Wright. Dearborn, Mich.: Henry Ford Museum, 1992. Pp. 128; illustrations, bibliography. $14.95 (paper). This lavishly illustrated collection ofessays was published in connection with an exhibition on enthusiasm for technology at the Henry Ford 418 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Museum, prompted in part by the ninetieth anniversary of Popular Me­ chanics magazine. The contributors confront such issues as the growing gap between increasingly complex technological systems and users (no matter how enthusiastic), the relationship between colonialism and do­ mesticity, the problem oftechnologicalenthusiasm in an increasingly toxic world, and the role of language and of literature in technological devel­ opment. Nonetheless, the thread thatjoins these splendidly written and often exciting essays is the gendering (and class specifying, and racializing ) ofenthusiasm for technology as a white, male, middle-class attribute, a quality shared by the millions of guys who have formed the primary readership of Popular Mechanics. The subjects of these essays range from how-to books and their role in popularizing technological knowledge, “boy engineering,” audio technology and its enthusiasts, domestic technology in the 1950s, land speed racing, the presentation of nuclear technology, and, of course, the history of Popular Mechanics. Those by Joseph J. Corn, Mary L. Seelhorst, and Robert C. Post are snappily written and thoughtful. Corn describes a “dynamic symbiosis between texts and technics,” Seelhorst relates the hits, misses, and influence of Popular Mechanics, and Post shows how drag racing embodies a desire to create machines not because they are useful, but because they are possible. The essays I found most compelling shared the view that technological enthusiasts are also anxious people, seeking to create order in a scary world. Carroll Pursell provides a framework for interpreting the cultural politics of technology, which he memorably calls a “wise-man’s burden” engineered to give “scientifically and technically trained men the respon­ sibility for leadership and control to stem the rising...

Mao Zedong's Outstanding Contributions to Marxist Dialectics

1983 was the ninetieth anniversary of Comrade Mao Zedong's birth. The best means of commemorating this event is to conscientiously study, uphold and develop Mao Zedong Thought. The things that we should study are many, and among these one important aspect is Comrade Mao's theories on Marxist dialectics.

The ninetieth anniversary of fisheries research in the Barents sea

Abstract The paper focuses attention on the 90th anniversary (last year) of the start of modern fisheries research in the Barents Sea. In 1898 the ichthyologist N. M. Knipovich initiated the “Expedition for Fisheries Research off the Coasts of Murman,”; carrying out survey work from a small sailing vessel, Pomor. But in 1899 Knipovich took delivery of a specially designed and specially built fisheries research vessel, Andrey Pervozvannyy and in that summer the ship completed her first season of field work. During the next decade the vessel carried out an impressive range of surveys of the fisheries and the oceanography of the Barents Sea, and acted as a valuable training ground for an impressive group of young scientists.

On Human Work: An Evaluation of the Key Ideas of the Encyclical Laborem Exercens

Last year John Paul II published his encyclical, Laborem exercens (LE), and Roman Catholic social teaching was so much the richer for it. Only his illness prevented the encyclical from being published on the day of the ninetieth anniversary of the first encyclical on the question of work, Rerum novarum (1891), written by the great pope of the ‘social question’, Leo XIII. LE was intended to contribute to the ‘immortal fame of the encyclical, Rerum novarum’, as Pius XI said of his encyclical Quadragesimo anno (1931). This indicates a basic continuity of LE with the developments in Roman Catholic social teaching set in motion by Rerum novarum. In fact John Paul II explicitly states his intention to remain in organic connexion with these developments. And indeed, with respect to the content of the encyclical, one finds hardly anything fundamentally new.

Achievements and tasks of the soviet luminophor industry

The ninetieth anniversary of Academician Sergei Ivanovich Vavilov finds the Soviet luminophor industry realizing an extensive program of research and application of luminophors in the economy. Great importance is attached to the scientific inheritance, where luminescence and its applications play a large part, and in this country use has been made of practically all known classes of luminophor [i].

Guest Editorial: The Status of the First Amendment's Religion Clauses: Some Reflections on Lines and Limits

Those among us who are students of government and politics in general, and of the Constitution and its theory, history, and law in particular, indubitably rejoice in being able to stipulate that at least some aspects of our fundamental document are evidently complied with more or less felicitously, even freely, and more or less readily, both in spirit and in letter, by both the private and the governmental sector, if not necessarily always evenly or equally. Although some may disagree, I, for one, am persuaded that, by and large, the basic guarantees of our Bill of Rights—the one hundred ninetieth anni versary of whose adoption we shall honor and observe next year— are in sound health, notwithstanding sporadic and no doubt contin uing assaults upon sundry of its provisions. I am also persuaded that for its specific language and psychological entity a good many

Gustav Robert Kirchhoff (on the ninetieth anniversary of his death)

Gustav Robert Kirchhoff (on the ninetieth anniversary of his death)

Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (In Commemoration of the Ninetieth Anniversary of His Birth)

Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (In Commemoration of the Ninetieth Anniversary of His Birth)

The plant at the gates of Lenin square the ninetieth anniversary of the hammer and sickle plant

The plant at the gates of Lenin square the ninetieth anniversary of the hammer and sickle plant

Pozabljeni nokturno Ferda Livadića

Pozabljeni nokturno Ferda Livadića

Science Session devoted to the 90th anniversary of N. K. Krupskaya's birthday

Abstract On February 26, 1959, the academy held a scientific session consecrated to the ninetieth anniversary of the birth of the outstanding Soviet pedagogue, Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya. Among the participants at this meeting were the Old Bolsheviks, workers in the pedagogic sciences and agencies of public education, teachers and educators, and the representatives of the federal republics and of the countries of the people's democracy.

SOME RECENT PUBLICATIONS RELATING TO NORWEGIAN-AMERICAN HISTORY, XVI

SOME RECENT PUBLICATIONS RELATING TO NORWEGIAN-AMERICAN HISTORY, XVI COMPILED BY CLARENCE A. CLAUSEN "A. C. M." Luren sangforening er 90 âr. Nordmanns-jorbundet, 51:111 (May, 1958). The Norwegian-American choir, Luren, of Decorah, Iowa, celebrates its ninetieth anniversary. Ahlstrom, Sydney E. The Lutheran Church and American Culture. Lutheran Quarterly , 9:321-342 (November, 1957). American Economic Association. Papers and Proceedings of the Seventieth Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association , Philadelphia, December 28-30, 1957 (. American Economic Review , vol. 48, no. 2 - May, 1958). The first thirty-four pages are devoted to the Vehlen Centenary Round Table, with the following papers: Source and Impact of Veblen, by Joseph Dorfman; The Influence of Veblen on Mid-Century Insti tutionalism, by Allan G. Grundy; Veblen's Critique of the American Economy, by Paul M. Sweezy; Discussion, by Peter N. Vukasin and George W. Zinke. Ander, Fritiof. The Cultural Heritage of the Swedish Emigrant Rock Island, Illinois, 1956. 191 p. This volume contains a selected but comprehensive bibliography of books and articles relating to all aspects of Swedish immigration. Andersen, Arlow William. Norwegian-Danish Methodism on the Pacific Coast. N orwegian- American Studies and Records , 19:89-115 (1956). Apsler, Alfred. "Little Norway" on the Columbia River. American-Scandinavian Review , 44:63-68 (Spring, 1956). An account of a Norwegian settlement on Puget Island in the Columbia River. Arneberg, John G. From Mountains to Prairies. Minneapolis, 1958. 215 p. The autobiography of a Norwegian-American doctor. Balchen, Bernt. Come North with Me: An Autobiography. New York, 1958. 318 p. The autobiography of the famous Norwegian-American aviator and explorer . This book was published in Norwegian under the title Kom nord med meg (Oslo, 1958). 213 214 CLARENCE A. CLAUSEN Bergmann, Leola Nelson. A Century of Immigration. Palimpsest , 37:129-133 (March, 1956). 1956). 155 (March, 1956). Bjork, Kenneth 0. "Snowshoe" Thompson: Fact and Legend. N orwegian- American Studies and Records , 19:62-88 (1956). Pacific Coast, 18h7-1893. Northfield, 1958. xvi, 671 p. Reviewed in Mississippi Valley Historical Review , 45:505 (December, 1958). Blegen, Theodore C. Amerikabrev. Oslo, 1958. xii, 408 p. This volume of selections from hundreds of America letters was published in English under the title Land of Their Choice : The Immigrants Write Home (Minneapolis, 1955). The Norwegian edition has a foreword by Ingrid Semmingsen . Reviewed in Nordmanns-forbundett November, 1958. Studies and Records , 19:1-14 (1956). Boewe, Charles. R0lvaag's America: An Immigrant Novelist 's Views. Western Humanities Review , 11:3-12 (Winter, 1957). B0HN, Tora. A Quest for Norwegian Folk Art in America. Norwegian -American Studies and Records , 19 : 116-141 (1956). Bronner, Hedin. Norge in Virginia. American-Scandinavian Review , 45:258-263 (Autumn, 1957). The story of a Norwegian settlement in Virginia. Britain? Norseman , 15:372-374 (November-December, 1957). United States. Scandinavian Studies , 28:99-108 (August, 1956). tions of Learning in the United States. Scandinavian Studies , 30:157-177 (November, 1958). Clancy, C.S. The Saga of Leif Ericsson. New York, 1956. 223 p. A fictionalized biography of the saga hero. SOME RECENT PUBLICATIONS 215 Clausen, Clarence A. Some Recent Publications Relating to Norwegian-American History. Norwegian- American Studies and Records , 19 : 189-198 (1956). vatten. Norwegian- American Studies and Records , 19:142159 (1956). Dahl, Oddvar. Han har satt sitt preg pa Chicago. Nordmanns forbundet , 51 :90 (April, 1958). A sketch of the Norwegian-American architect, Sigurd E. Naess of Chicago. Davis, R. B. American Studies in Norway. American-Scandinavian Review, 44:348-353 (Winter, 1956). Dickerson, Inga Hansen. Trina . New York, 1956. 204 p. The story of a Danish couple who came to the United States in 1872 and experienced the hardships of immigrant life in New York and Chicago and on the plains of Dakota Territory. Dithmer-Vanberg, Eva. Knut Rockne fra Voss. Nordmannsforbundet , 50:283-286 (December, 1957). An article about the famous football coach. fornia. Nordmanns-forbundet , 51:40 (February, 1958). A Norwegian artist in California. Djupedal, Reidar. Vinje og Amerka. Syn og segn , vol. 64, nos. 9-10, p. 427-438 (1958). A discussion of the Norwegian poet Vinje's plans to go to America. Dorfman, Joseph. Source and Impact of Veblen. American Economic Review , 48 : 1-10...

Public Health Statistics in New York City on the Ninetieth Anniversary of the Board of Health

lengthy discussion of vital statistics in 1866 and their comparison with the present day. Much literature on long-term trends in birth and death rates is already available and the phenomenal changes that have occurred are quite familiar. The occasion, rather, offers the opportunity to discuss the changes in vital statistics practices that New York City has introduced during recent years, and to outline briefly some of the other aspects of the Department of Health's statistical program. A ninetieth anniversary is perhaps an appropriate time to take a look at ourselves. Even a little pointing with pride may be forgiven on a birthday. Some of you will be familiar with much that I am going to say; all of you, I hope, will get some insight into what the Department of Health is trying to do in its statistical program. Because of time restrictions, it will necessarily be a sketchy and limited view. Basic research, such as that conducted by the Public Health Research Institute, is not included in this discussion. As an operating agency, we place emphasis naturally on statistics needed for program planning, administration, and evaluation. Constant promotion of the use of modern statistical methods by the several bureaus of the Department has been part of the job. Most of the bureaus now prepare simple and routine statistical reports on the basis of established patterns. Experienced professional statistical time is hence largely reserved for assistance in designing