Role Of Key Individuals Research Articles

Key individuals catalyse intergroup violence.

Intergroup violence is challenging to understand: why do individuals cooperate to harm members of other groups when they themselves may be killed or injured? Despite progress in understanding the evolutionary and proximate mechanisms that underlie violence, we still have little insight into the processes that lead to the emergence of coalitionary aggression. We argue that an overlooked component is the presence of individuals who have a crucial role in initiating violence. In instigating intergroup violence, these key individuals may expect to face lower costs, receive greater benefits, or garner benefits that have a greater value to them than others. Alternatively, key individuals may be motivated by individual traits such as increased boldness, propensity for aggression or exploratory behaviour. Key individuals catalyse the emergence of coalitionary violence through one of several processes including altering the costs and benefits that accrue to others, paying a greater share of the startup costs, signalling privileged knowledge, or providing coordination, among other factors. Here we integrate diverse lines of empirical research from humans and non-human animals demonstrating that inter-individual variation is an important factor in the emergence of intergroup violence. Focusing on the role of key individuals provides new insights into how and why violence emerges. This article is part of the theme issue 'Intergroup conflict across taxa'.

Open the Gate: German Jews, the Foundation of Tel Aviv Port, and the Imagined Power of the Sea in 1936

Abstract In 1936, the opening of Tel Aviv port for general cargo had an impact not only on the Yishuv in Palestine, but also on German Jewry. Against the background of increasing ethnic-religious tensions in British Mandatory Palestine, and growing persecution and oppression in National Socialist Germany, the opening of this new access point to the sea became a signifier of hope and self-determination. This article explores the evolving idea of a Zionist turn towards the sea, whose first peak was marked by the opening of Tel Aviv port, and discusses the role of key individuals in the processes of nation-building, survival, and maritime renewal. By examining the influence of the Zionist Organization (ZO) and its interplay with German Jews—especially Hamburg-Jewish shipping experts—the article demonstrates how economic, but also ideological arguments became important in the debates about a Zionist conquest of the sea. Moreover, the article shows that the integration of German-Jewish shipping experts as maritime pioneers into discourses of a Zionist maritime renewal expanded not only the scope of action of the Yishuv’s leaders, but also of German Jews. The interplay of these two groups laid the groundwork for the short-lived dream of Tel Aviv port.

Implementation of Tobacco Control Policies in Bangladesh: A Political Economy Analysis

After ratifying the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control in 2004, Bangladesh enacted anti-tobacco laws, policies, and administrative measures. Evidence suggests that the progress so far has not been significant, and Bangladesh will most likely fail to meet its target to become tobacco-free by 2040. This study undertakes a national-level political economy analysis to explore the dynamics that affect the processes of required tobacco policy reforms and implementation. Based on a desk review of pertinent pieces of literature and key informant interviews, this research examines the political behavior of key individuals, institutional reform initiatives, and the government’s commitment to the tobacco control agenda. The findings indicate that the political will of becoming tobacco-free is explicitly present in key narratives. However, intra-government conflict of interests and incentives, the skewed commitment of government bodies, state-business nexus, incapacity of vital organizations, and the dubious role of key individuals and committees fail to translate this will into active implementation. The article concludes that the idea of tobacco control remains a strategic accommodation, and its implementation requires genuine commitment and wider public support. The government must confer adequate authority and resources to the national tobacco control cell and call for agencies to convene to the common of creating a tobacco-free Bangladesh.

“Our Antient Friends … Are Much Reduced”: Mary and James Wright, the Hopewell Friends Meeting, and Quaker Women in the Southern Backcountry, c. 1720–c. 1790

Although the existence of Quakers in Virginia is well known, the best recent surveys of Virginia history devote only passing attention to them, mostly in the context of expanding religious freedoms during the revolutionary era. Few discuss the Quakers themselves or the nature of Quaker settlements although notably, Warren Hofstra, Larry Gragg, and others have studied aspects of the Backcountry Quaker experience. Recent Quaker historiography has reinterpreted the origins of the Quaker faith and the role of key individuals in the movement, including the roles of Quaker women. Numerous studies address Quaker women collectively. Few, however, examine individual families or women of different generations within a single family, and Robynne Rogers Healey has argued for “more biographies of less well-known Quaker women”. This essay uses a four-generation genealogical case study of the Quaker Bowater-Wright family to analyze the development of the Quaker faith in the Virginia backcountry and the lower South and its spread into the Old Northwest. In the backcountry environment, with its geographically isolated settlements and widely dispersed population, early Quaker migrants found fertile ground for both their economic and religious activities. The way of life that developed there differed significantly from the hierarchical Anglican structure of the Tidewater region and the more vocal evangelical groups with their independent congregational structure in the southern backcountry. This article argues that Quaker women played a critical role in shaping Quaker migration and institutional growth in eighteenth and nineteenth century America. It also suggests that the Quaker institutional structure reinforced family connections by creating a close bond that united southern Quakers across a great geographical area.

Chief marketing officers’ discretion and firms’ internationalization: An empirical investigation

The role of key individuals, such as the chief marketing officer (CMO), in the internationalization process has largely been ignored in the international business literature. Given the importance of the CMO in internationalization and to address this gap in the literature, this study focuses on the role of the CMO – a key individual in organizations who, with adequate levels of discretion, can act as a conduit of knowledge in international markets, facilitating the internationalization of the firm. Drawing on the literature on managerial discretion, internalization theory, and its microfoundations, we argue that the CMO's strategic, operational, and financial discretion, respectively, have positive yet diminishing effects on internationalization. Further, the international experience of the top management team (TMT) and the CMO’s equity compensation moderate these relationships. We contribute to internalization theory and the growing body of literature on the role of the TMT and CMO.

Championing processes and the emergence of industrial symbiosis

ABSTRACTIndustrial symbiosis is an important concept for regional development in which industrial organizations seek to use one another's outputs and inputs, reduce waste and achieve economic benefits. Though the technical details of this phenomenon are well known, the roles of key individuals and, particularly, their championing processes remain unclear. This paper includes a pre-study of a national industrial symbiosis system, followed by an in-depth case study of a regional industrial symbiosis related to heat reuse. The findings reveal novel implications about how champions facilitate collaboration among regional organizations and other stakeholders, leading to the emergence of industrial symbiosis.

A lesson lived is a lesson learned: a critical re-examination of the origins of preventative counter-espionage in Britain

ABSTRACTWith the prevalence of official and authorised histories, official secrets and selective releases into Britain’s national archives, Intelligence History is in danger of moving from the ‘missing dimension’ to the ‘curated dimension’. This article seeks to show that it is necessary, and possible, to provide critical reinterpretations of important chapters within the historiography of British Intelligence History. In this article, I attempt to weave the founding of MI5’s preventative branch into the wider history of pre-war British politics and the creation of a permanent counter-espionage bureaucracy. It will assess the role of the Second Anglo-Boer War as an incubator for some of the principal, but illiberal, concepts, legislations and practices that were later woven into the fabric of the Secret Service Bureau in peace- and wartime. In addition, the Edwardian Spy-Fever phenomenon – which provided fertile soil to greatly expand Britain’s counter-espionage apparatus by inciting anti-German sentiment – will also be considered. Last, I will explore the roles of key individuals – such as James Edmonds, William Le Queux and Vernon Kell – in identifying, promoting and then offering solutions to Britain’s counter-espionage vulnerabilities.

Turnaround at William Morrison Supermarkets PLC, 2004-2007

The paper examines the turnaround in the fortunes of the UK supermarket chain William Morrison, which followed the takeover of Safeway PLC. Three elements of the turnaround process and their linkages are examined: the role of corporate governance, the stages of strategic planning and the role of key individuals. Evidence is drawn from interview notes with senior executives and contemporary press accounts. The case illustrates the importance of corporate governance in turnaround situations as the catalyst for management change, which can then facilitate the development of staged recovery plans.

When cooperation begets cooperation: the role of key individuals in galvanizing support.

Life abounds with examples of conspecifics actively cooperating to a common end, despite conflicts of interest being expected concerning how much each individual should contribute. Mathematical models typically find that such conflict can be resolved by partial-response strategies, leading investors to contribute relatively equitably. Using a case study approach, we show that such model expectations can be contradicted in at least four disparate contexts: (i) bi-parental care; (ii) cooperative breeding; (iii) cooperative hunting; and (iv) human cooperation. We highlight that: (a) marked variation in contributions is commonplace; and (b) individuals can often respond positively rather than negatively to the contributions of others. Existing models have surprisingly limited power in explaining these phenomena. Here, we propose that, although among-individual variation in cooperative contributions will be influenced by differential costs and benefits, there is likely to be a strong genetic or epigenetic component. We then suggest that selection can maintain high investors (key individuals) when their contributions promote support by increasing the benefits and/or reducing the costs for others. Our intentions are to raise awareness in—and provide testable hypotheses of—two of the most poorly understood, yet integral, questions regarding cooperative ventures: why do individuals vary in their contributions and when does cooperation beget cooperation?

Tracking the development of co-management: using network analysis in a case from the Canadian Arctic

ABSTRACTTo understand the interplay of factors that shape changes in management strategies, we tracked the evolution of beluga whale co-management involving the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the Fisheries Joint Management Committee (FJMC), and the Tuktoyaktuk Hunter and Trapper Committee from its beginnings in the mid-1980s to the present. The objective was to analyse changes over time in the communication network involved in dealing with the Husky Lakes beluga entrapment issue, using social network analysis (SNA). Along with qualitative information, the use of SNA provided quantitative data to document the development of co-management over time. According to both government and indigenous parties, a fully functional problem-solving partnership developed over the course of two decades. Using the beluga case as the illustration, we traced the development of joint management processes, overcoming some of the initial obstacles and accommodating the needs of the various parties. This case demonstrates the importance of legal arrangements (the indigenous land claims agreement), the role of key individuals and the bridging organisation (FJMC) created by the agreement, and the maturation of co-management over time.

Conceptualizing the Role of Key Individuals in Urban Governance: Cases from the Economic Regeneration of Liverpool, UK

This paper argues that the role of key individuals in the governance of urban regeneration is often overlooked in empirical studies and theorizations, despite it often being an important causal factor in urban change. The paper provides a “starter” conceptualization of this phenomenon through combining Weber's [(1947) The Theory of Social and Economic Organization—Translated by A.M. Henderson and Talcott Parsons (London: Collier Macmillan Publishers)] conceptualizations of authority and Kim, Dansereau and Kim's [(2002) Extending the concept of charismatic leadership: An illustration using Bass’ (1990) categories, in: B. J. Avolio & F. J. Yammarino (Eds) Transformational and Charismatic Leadership: The Road Ahead, Vol. 2, pp. 143–172 (Amsterdam: JAI-Elsevier Science)] typologies of leadership. Detailed research into the economic regeneration of Liverpool, UK, between 1978 and 2008 is drawn upon and a series of key individuals highlighted which played important roles in governance and policy outcomes. It is argued that, whilst the action of individual agents should not be isolated from wider structures and institutional settings, it is often necessary to consider their activities more substantially if a deeper understanding of the causalities behind urban and economic change is to be gained.

The Impact of Star Physicians on Diffusion of a Medical Technology: The Case of Laparoscopic Gastric Bypass Surgery

Using data on all bariatric surgeries performed in the state of Pennsylvania from 1995 through 2007, this paper uses logistic and OLS regressions to measure the effect of star physicians and star hospitals on the diffusion of an innovation in bariatric surgery called laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery (LGBS). This paper tests for effects at both the hospital and physician level. Compared to hospitals with no star physicians (11% adoption rate), those with star physicians on staff show a much higher adoption rate (89%). Compared to hospitals which are not classified as star hospitals (13% diffusion rate), hospitals with star status show a much higher diffusion rate (87% ) from first quarter 2000 to fourth quarter 2001. At the physician level, the empirical results indicate that star physicians exert positive asymmetric influence on the adoption and utilization rates of non-stars at the same hospital. Star physicians are those who: (i) graduated from a Top 30 medical school or (ii) completed residency at a Top 30 hospital or (iii) are included in a Castle & Connolly Top Doctors ® publication. Star hospitals are those with Council of Teaching Hospital (COTH) certification. The results of this paper support earlier work on the role of key individuals in technology diffusion. It extends research on medical technology diffusion by testing a new data set for a chronic disease treatment.

Management accounting system (MAS) change: field evidence

This paper critically discusses one of the prescriptions of traditional control literature according to which the management accounting system (MAS) should be adaptive to changes in the organizational and strategic context. Drawing from contingency and institutional theories, the paper drafts a framework to pragmatically identify key phases and features of the management accounting change process to highlight its organizational nature. Using this framework, the paper documents four longitudinal case studies of the design and the implementation of management accounting changes. The field studies show how accounting systems are difficult to change despite the formally acknowledged need for change. Findings highlight that the need for change, the technical feasibility of change, the availability of traditional, and the contemporary methodologies are – alone – insufficient reasons to change. A number of other elements interplay in the process of change, namely, the intended MAS use, the stage of the organization life cycle, the potential impact of change on the organization, and the role of key individuals in linking the phases of the change process.

The Transformation of Quantity into Quality: Critical Mass in the Formation of Customary International Law

The formation of customary international law has long been criticized for its lack of a clear methodology, characterized by an ambivalent relationship with state consent. Although customary international law seems to be entirely a creature of state consent, after all it is based on actual practice, in reality the fit with state consent is loose at best. Customary international law only awkwardly bridges the gap between a descriptive and prescriptive norm. Unable to move forward, the study of the formation of customary international law appears to have largely reached an impasse. Yet, states still appear to support and apply customary international law as a source of law, so we are faced with the situation of embracing a source of law that we do not understand well and where the applicable law is often vague.This article is an attempt to bring into international law a perspective from the hard and soft sciences for discussing the formation of customary international law, specifically the study of critical mass in collective group behavior. This language is not entirely new to discussions on customary international law. Where it has been mentioned, the implications of critical mass theory have not been fully explored. Critical mass can be a loose concept to simply describe the accumulation of small actions that result in large shifts in collective behavior; however, it is also an empirically-based scientific study that attempts to assess how those changes come about. This article seeks to delve more deeply into critical mass and apply the insights from this study to the formation of customary international law.Following a very brief introduction with background on customary international law, the paper will describe how the social sciences have embraced the critical mass theoretical perspective in the study of collective decision-making. Three primary elements of social change will be identified: (1) the importance of the content of the norm, (2) the role of influence through networks, and (3) the role of key individuals, “opinion leaders” and “opinion diffusors”.Following this review of the science, the author will draw some implications for customary international law. In particular, the author will re-characterize three major discussions within customary international law into the three key factors of critical mass. The first discussion is that over the qualitative assessment of norms. The second is the growing influence of networks either as transnational governance or international organization rule-making. The final discussion is a proposal to understand the role of the “specially interested” state as a norm entrepreneur. The paper will conclude that study of critical mass can contribute to a better, and more formal, methodology for understanding customary international law.

International Norm Dynamics and the “End of Poverty”: Understanding the Millennium Development Goals

THE PURPOSE OF DEVELOPMENT AS A GLOBAL OBJECTIVE REQUIRING INTERNATIONAL cooperation can and has been defined in many ways. Such definitions depend on how political leaders envision important normative goals for world; how economists, philosophers, and political scientists theorize process of development; and how these ideas are utilized and adopted by key stakeholders. A significant evolution in recent years has been emergence of a broad consensus on ending poverty as overarching objective of development. This consensus is institutionalized in UN Millennium Declaration adopted in 2000 and in widespread use of global targets that have become known as Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In previous decades, international development objectives were not so clearly defined nor did they focus on poverty and poor people. Although concern with widespread poverty has been a major factor for keeping development on international agenda since 1950s, strategies have been dominated by economic objectives ranging from building infrastructure, human capital and an industrial base in 1960s and 1970s, to economic liberalization in 1980s and 1990s, to institutional and governance reforms since 1990s. (1) Civil society advocates and academics have consistently criticized these national and international strategies for their neglect of poverty and human dimension. (2) This new consensus has important implications for international political economy of development. As Charles Gore argues, consensus was achieved at expense of replacing prioritization of building national capacities for development. (3) While MDGs are usually seen as desirable, Ashwani Saith points out that the MDG phenomenon carries potential for distorting meaningful intellectual and research agendas, and could function as catalyst and vehicle for a fundamental realignment of political economy of development at global level. (4) How did this normative shift take place? Was it driven by ethical considerations? What was role of key individuals and institutional stakeholders? What were strategic instruments deployed? The aim of this article is to explain how MDGs emerged and became established and to analyze trajectory of antipoverty itself. draw on documentary material and interviews conducted with over 100 individuals who were involved in framing and implementation phases of Millennium Declaration and MDGs. use model of international dynamics set out by Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink. (5) But we propose elements to extend and refine that model in this context. argue that MDGs brought specificity and concreteness to idea of ending global poverty, and explain dynamics of that process by extending conceptual apparatus of Finnemore and Sikkink. introduce two new concepts: supernorm, a cluster of interrelated norms grouped into a unified and coherent framework, and message entrepreneur, as distinct from norm entrepreneur. (6) The Supernorm of Ending Global Poverty In this article, we treat MDGs as a vehicle to communicate and promote objective of ending global poverty. Legislatively MDGs originated in goals set in Millennium Declaration, a political declaration signed by 189 countries, including 145 heads of state or government, that commits to ending poverty as a key goal for twenty-first century along with peace, human rights, and democracy. The development chapter of Millennium Declaration is entirely focused on poverty rather than other dimensions of development. It starts with statement: We will spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty, to which more than a billion of them are currently subjected. (7) While Millennium Declaration included clearly defined objectives and specific quantitative goals, these were further clarified into a form that could be monitored more effectively in Road Map presented by UN Secretary-General a year later. …

Delineating the anatomy of an entrepreneurial university: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology experience

In many universities, heads, administrators and faculty seek to increase the propensity to engage in commercialization of research activity through the spinoff of new companies. The highly complex mechanism of spinoff generation is typically considered the result of either the characteristics of individuals, organizational policies and structures, organizational culture, or the external environment. Explanations of spinoff activity have in the main focused on only one of these dimensions at a time. In this paper we integrate these four dimensions of academic entrepreneurship to develop a more systemic understanding of spinoff activity at the university level. Using the case of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a top spinoff generator in the United States, a systemic analysis is presented. We identify the inter‐related factors that have contributed to successful academic entrepreneurship in MIT. We argue that MIT's success is based on the science and engineering resource base at MIT; the quality of research faculty; supporting organizational mechanisms and policies such as MIT's Technology Licensing Office; and the culture within MIT faculty that encourages entrepreneurship. However, to understand why MIT has developed these resources and organizational mechanisms, it is necessary to understand the historical context and emergence of MIT, and in particular the historical mission of the university, the role of key individuals and university leaders in supporting this mission, and the impact of past success at commercialization activity. Finally, we suggest that MIT's success needs to be understood in the context of the local regional environment. We argue that university administrators and academics can learn from the case of MIT, but that efforts at transposing or replicating single elements of MIT's model may only have limited success, given the inter‐related nature of the drivers of spinoff activity.

Robert A. Roessel Jr. and Navajo Community College: Cross-Cultural Roles of Key Individuals in Its Creation,1951-1989

Estelle Fuchs and Robert J. Havighurst presented the results from a national study of American Indian education in their book To Live on This Earth. Based on data obtained by researchers at the University of Chicago in 1972, the authors characterized the general state of Native American education in the following way: “With minor exceptions, the history of Indian education had been primarily the transmission of white American education, little altered, to the Indian child as a one-way process. The institution of the school is one that was imposed by and controlled by the non-Indian society, its pedagogy and curriculum little changed for the Indian children, its goals primarily aimed at removing the child from his aboriginal culture and assimilating him into the dominant white culture.”1 The creation of Navajo Community College (NCC) represented the establishment of a cross-cultural brokerage intended to overcome these assimilationist tendencies and to serve five additional purposes: (1) to give the Navajo people a Navajo-owned and -operated college with a curriculum taught by Navajos to help achieve Navajo educational self-determination in higher education; (2) to make higher education for Navajo college students

Looking for strengths in response to AIDS: individual, group and public authority roles in strategy

AbstractThe HIV/AIDS pandemic is a challenge not only to medical understanding but also to understanding about how society works or can be made to work. New treatment regimes have to be matched with new social organisation. Caring and coping present society‐wide challenges and to the need to reinvent key social institutions in order to respond effectively. Existing studies demonstrate the vulnerability of modern, large‐scale state institutions to loss of knowledge, skill and competence in the face of high attrition rates in their pay role staff. Equally, family and kinship as well as other civil society institutions or ‘traditional’ social structures may be so disrupted by the loss of carers and providers that they cease to generate adequate levels of well‐being and security. The role of key individuals in providing public leadership is recognised but the significance of personal networks in communicating effective messages and mores is more difficult to pin down. Associations and mass movements have emerged that play a vital role in changing social attitudes and behaviour, and social institutions are adapting to the challenge. It appears that diverse social responses are essential, but, I argue, public policy thinking has a ‘centralist’, hierarchical, bias that discourages' sensible thinking about plural, diverse, strategies. This article seeks to develop a way of thinking about strategy, around the idea of institutional competence, to take account of, and be responsive to, diverse social forms and initiatives. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Fiji before the Storm: Elections and the Politics of Development

A racially-weighted Constitution, promulgated by decree in 1990, divided the country and invited international condemnation, and the economy suffered from the collapse of institutions of good governance. In 1995, an independent Constitution Review Commision appointed by the Fijian parliament, recommended wide-ranging changes to the Constitution. Its report formed the basis of a new Constitution promulgated, after wide-ranging consultation and debate, in 1997. Two years later, Fiji held a general election under it. This collection of essays looks at the politics and dynamics of that momentous event, and the role of key individuals and institutions in producing an outcome that, a year later, plunged Fiji into its first major crisis of the twenty-first century. The essays look at some of the key political and development issues on the eve of the crisis, but the relevance to the current debates about the nature and meaning of politics in Fiji remains. All the contributors are recognised and longstanding specialists in their fields.

Naples in the Time of Cholera, 1884-1911 (review)

Reviewed by: Naples in the Time of Cholera, 1884–1911 William H. McNeill Frank M. Snowden. Naples in the Time of Cholera, 1884–1911. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. xvi + 478 pp. Ill. $59.95. This is a scholarly, well-written book with an arresting story to tell about how profoundly and yet how differently two cholera epidemics affected the city of Naples in 1884, and again in l910–11. Snowden begins with a horrific account of living conditions in Naples in the latter nineteenth century. It was a crowded, impoverished city, the largest in Italy. When it was deprived of its role as regional capital in 1861, taxes flowed northward, leaving Neapolitans to scrape a living by all sorts of marginal activities—some legal, others outside the law. Public health was miserable, and the physicians of Naples, which “enjoyed a prestigious position as one of the foremost medical centers of the nation,” served only the rich and so remained “virtual strangers in the community” (pp. 52, 53). The next two chapters describe how cholera spread into Italy from southern France, concentrating its ravages in the slums of Naples. By comparison with [End Page 546] older epidemics, the losses were not very great. But panic was widespread, and the city’s efforts to cope with the disease by using high-handed police methods to deliver infected persons to special cholera hospitals aroused intense resistance. The popular distrust was not groundless. Naples’ learned physicians could not cure cholera and experimented recklessly with painful and futile therapies. They also disagreed among themselves, old-fashioned miasma confronting Koch’s brand-new (l883) germ theory. The city’s poor concluded that the cholera was a diabolical plot for getting rid of them by poisoning, and viewed the high-and-mighty physicians as their appointed executioners. As a result, “on several occasions as the epidemic reached the height of its fury, the tensions of the city unleashed full scale insurrections” (p. 147). The next chapter explains how private charity, combined with the intervention of King Umberto in concert with the archbishop of Naples (who repeatedly toured hospital cholera wards together), did something to heal the body politic. Moreover, inspection of the city’s slums convinced the king and his prime minister that the protection of the national health required that Naples be rebuilt along the lines recently pioneered in Paris by Baron Haussmann. But, as the following chapter explains, though the national government did make considerable amounts of money available, the contractor who undertook the scheme soon went bankrupt, leaving the plan uncompleted. As a result, when cholera returned to Italy in 1910 the epidemic again homed in on Naples. This time, however, public reaction was completely different: rich and poor agreed that it would be disastrous to admit in public that Naples was again infected with so dreaded a disease. The resulting secrecy effectually diverted attention from the epidemic. Snowden criticizes the authorities for their deception and rather lamely describes their policy as “part of a larger process by which the Liberal state slowly succumbed to a terminal illness that ended with Mussolini’s March on Rome in 1922” (p. 359). Yet the upshot could just as well be interpreted as a devious success story for the regime. Throughout the book Snowden interweaves political and social history with medical, ecclesiastical, and intellectual history in thoroughly admirable fashion. The human drama of events and the role of key individuals also shine forth convincingly. This, in short, is a truly excellent study of a neglected aspect of Europe’s complex collision with cholera. William H. McNeill Professor of History, emeritus University of Chicago Copyright © 1997 The Johns Hopkins University Press