Cambridge Core Blog
The editors of Contemporary European History are delighted to present this roundtable on the Soviet famines of the 1930s, which brings into conversation leading scholars from around the world working in the field of Soviet history.
Cambridge University Press is partnering with the Renaissance Society of America (RSA) to publish Renaissance Quarterly, the leading American journal of Renaissance Studies.…
The thing about canons is that they seem sacred. Challenging them, even revisiting them, can seem heretical. Facing these facts is the first step in addressing the intransigence of the early modern philosophical canon. Step two involves noticing just how much the canon leaves out.
This blog accomapnies Louise Stewart’s Historical Journal article ‘Social Status and Classicism in the Visual and Material Culture of the Sweet Banquet in Early Modern England‘ Today, the term ‘banquet’ is commonly used to refer to any lavish feast. However, in the Tudor and Stuart period the word had a different, and very specific meaning, referring to a separate meal which consisted solely of sweet foods. In September 1591, for example, Queen Elizabeth I visited the Earl of Hertford at his estate at Elvetham. The lavish entertainments provided for the queen during her four day stay included water pageants, fireworks, feasts and a glittering ‘banquet’. A printed account of the entertainment makes it clear that this banquet was no ordinary meal. It was served in the garden after supper, ‘all in glass and silver’ and accompanied by a spectacular fireworks display. The queen was presented with a thousand sweet dishes including sculptural sugar work representing her arms, castles and forts, human figures and mythical and exotic animals as well as preserved fruits and other confections. This elaborate spectacle was typical of the sweet banquet.…
People talk a lot about segregation. Every week it seems that news reports or some new academic finding shows that segregation is related to some salient outcome. The traditional story of how America became segregated is that blacks moved to Northern cities in the early twentieth century and whites, aided by government mortgage programs and the development of the interstate highway, fled to suburban areas, creating cities with black and poor urban cores and wealthier and whiter suburbs. With the flight of wealthier white residents to the suburbs, the resources available to the urban core declined, leaving minorities fewer resources and effectively creating a poverty trap.…
For the past few years, I have been at work on a book about the word meaning in such expressions as “the meaning of life,” “searching for meaning,” “ultimate meaning,” “higher meaning.” Several features of the word, apart from its ubiquity in popular and academic circles, struck me: (1) it is seldom defined and is thus given to ambiguity; (2) its meaning is slippery; (3) the English word is by nature different from its near-equivalents in other European languages because it is a verbal noun and thus at least suggests agency: something carries out the act denoted by the verb to mean.…
In my piece, I emphasized the external pressures placed on individuals and institutions—what the American Association of University Professors termed “the tyranny of public opinion” in its landmark 1915 Declaration of Principles—because the connections were so clear and the challenges seemingly eternal.
Cambridge University Press exists to advance knowledge, learning and research. As part of our purpose, we disseminate high-quality research and drive its impact and reach, working with the academic communities we support.…
The Paper of the Month from the Society of American Archaeology is “WHY DO FEWER WOMEN THAN MEN APPLY FOR GRANTS AFTER THEIR PHDS” from the journal American Antiquity and is free to access until the end of October 2018 Why conduct a study about gender disparities in archaeological grant submissions? Various studies have documented an increase in the proportion of women in academic archaeology among early and mid-career academics.…
At Cambridge University Press, we recognize that the central promise of the Open movement—that an open scholarly ecosystem will accelerate the ability of research to solve problems—is of the highest importance to our communities.
If you’re new to the field of archaeology, still learning the basics of the discipline, the chances are that your experiences of archaeological interpretation are relatively limited.…
We live in interesting times for those seeking to inspire children and youth to take up science, technology engineering, and mathematics (STEM).…