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The authority of art in US society has declined even as cultural criticism has expanded and diversified, spreading to many sectors of society. While these conditions have affected American literary studies, scholars in the field produce criticism that can be distinguished from the criticism in other sectors by its commitment to historicist thought and by disciplinary standards for what it means to produce a "new reading." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyses and compares general education and specialised schools built in Lithuania, Europe and the USA during interwar years. The main problem analysed in the article is the correspondence between the architectural stylistics and functional spatial structure of interwar Lithuanian school buildings with the same typology buildings in the regional context. The aim of the article is to assess the essence of changes of architectural stylistics and functional spatial structure, what caused these changes. Interwar architecture in Lithuania has many of the main trends of the global architecture of that time, so undoubtedly interwar period is considered to be one of the most significant periods in the history of Lithuanian architecture, which has laid the foundations for the further development of Lithuanian architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article assesses the work of best-selling French historian Ivan Jablonka by setting his work in the context of biographies of ordinary people and by evaluating the success of his stated goal of reconciling lifewriting with social sciences. The article attempts to explicate his methodology of "searching for what is already found," and considers the relevance of the critique of historicism in general articulated by some branches of the social sciences. It concludes that there is more to restorative biography than merely an explanation of causality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay seeks to introduce more substantive attention to religion into the field of media studies. It argues that religion persists in culture and politics, as demonstrated by political upheavals in the North Atlantic West, and that media scholarship lacks critical theoretical and conceptual resources to address that fact. The essay calls for careful historicism and, as a heuristic, interrogates American Protestantism as a cultural, political, and media project. It references emerging scholarships to suggest ways that Protestantism is expressed as a politics in relation to the public and domestic spheres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article discusses the book "Fabricating the People: Politics & Administration in the Biopolitical State," by Thomas J. Catlaw, focusing on its implications for public administration while arguing that historicist and post-structuralist views of administrative legitimacy are in conflict as of 2013. Topics include voting in the U.S., citizen attitudes towards government, and the representation of a potential communal will from governed groups.

This review outlines a course for US legal historical writing distinct from the ascendant mode of the past 30 years, generally known as critical legal history or critical historicism. Critical legal history (CLH) is premised on the conventional historical strategy of exploring the nature of an object by situating it in an appropriate context and examining the conjunction between object and context. In CLH's case, the object is law and the context is polity, economy, or society, or more usually a realm of action that is a mixture of all three. CLH is also premised on the further, theoretical, contention that whatever the realm of action in relation to which law is situated, the outcome is the same: indeterminacy marked by contingency, alternative possibilities, paths not taken. In this regard, CLH shares in the general turn in the qualitative social sciences and humanities toward complexity. The results of this contextualizing or relational approach have been empirically rich but are inevitably marked by an abandonment of authoritative causal explanation (metatheory) for thick description. This review lays out an alternative to CLH's parsing of relations between law and what is extrinsic to it, by exploring the explanatory potential of allegory, by which what are imagined as distinct become the same. Allegory is strikingly visual in conception-figurative, emblematic. John Wycliffe called it 'ghostly understanding.' I explore the potential of allegory along three optical dimensions-scope (appearance), scale (perspective), and structure (constellation)-that together produce what Walter Benjamin called 'the dialectical image,' a nonrelational theory of representation with striking historical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Straddling past and present can be precarious, but it is not impossible to merge the knowledge gained through contemporary and historical study to advance understanding of both. Skillfully combining the methods and findings of policy history with those of policy analysis can produce a synergy with great value for both disciplines. Examples drawn from more than twenty years experience with the USDA illustrate key principles for positive cross-fertilization between study of the past and of the present. From historical analysis, these principles include disciplines of evidence-based analysis and skeptical inquiry using diverse sources, breadth of vision regarding context, and the perspective of time. From policy analysis, they include the disciplines of statistical methods, awareness of the multiple interacting components of policy formation, and the impacts on analysis and decision-making of working from the present without knowledge of what is to come. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how the notion of distance works in the practice of interpretation by studying the philosophical underpinnings of the originalism debate in American constitutionalism. Focusing on some of its most important spokespeople, the paper shows that they start from the historicist presupposition that distance can in principle be overcome by a reconstruction of the original intentions of the framers of the Constitution. With the help of Hans-Georg Gadamer, who explicitly based his philosophical hermeneutics on the notion of distance, this presupposition will be criticized. The paper concludes that the originalist and hermeneuticist positions do not mutually exclude each other, but can be synthesized if they are seen as different questions about the same text. The meaning of the Constitution is therefore not given but is dependent on the direction of the questions asked by the interpreter. From this question-dependency of meaning it follows that interpretation follows the law of acoustics: 'Angle of incidence equates angle of reflection.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Music and law are closely related to one another, because of their common textuality and subsequent necessity for performance. Experts of both disciplines give performance to a text, solving interpretation problems and choosing the appropriate meaning for the text itself. Judges and lawyers, on one hand, and musical performers, and choir and orchestra conductors, on the other, in trying to resolve interpretation problems, have devised specific strategies, which present interesting common features. Therefore it is possible to highlight analogies and differences between interpretation theories pertaining to the judicial and the musical field, gathering these theories in branches. Indeed, the judicial interpretation theories of formalism, purposivism, doctrinalism, and developmentalism can be compared, respectively, with the musical interpretation theories of historicism, intentionalism, traditionalism and modernism. The adoption of a specific interpretation theory in the judicial or musical field must be legitimated by public consent, because law and music are both related to a specific society, and must reflect this society's thoughts and values. This legitimation is necessary above all in those cases in which specific interpretations have wide political repercussions. This occurs, for instance, in the decisions of the United States Supreme Court, which can interpret the Constitution and its Amendments in a broad or in a narrow sense, extending or vice versa reducing the range of civil rights. This article aims to highlight the analogies between judicial and musical interpretation theories, allowing experts and audience to keep a distance from the most controversial points, learning from each other, and achieving a shared understanding of their roles and duties in the society they live in. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I write to note a fundamental area of agreement with Professors Orren and Skowronek. And yet given this shared concern I think the study of ideas should be at the center of developmental approaches to politics. Professors Orren and Skowronek write, “The time has passed when familiar claims about constitutional foundations and normative commitments can be ventured confidently without serious consideration of confounding evidence. Making inquiries into these areas specific and empirically tractable will be, we think, value added.” I agree with this general assessment. Indeed, I have written a book, The Madisonian Constitution, which seeks to examine tensions within American constitutionalism and empirically trace how constitutional understandings and constitutional change have necessarily been partial and incomplete. In fact, I suggest that constitutional conflict has been an ordinary feature of American constitutionalism precisely because the American constitutional order is structured around agonistic principles and institutions. From the perspective of political science, understanding these tensions might also prove helpful in sustaining the American polity. But let me be clear: I do not think there is an easy foundation to be arrived at in the study of the American polity, or any other polity. Nor do I long for a world untroubled by “facing the facts,” nor for a time untroubled by historicism, positivism, or social science. I do think, however, an at times uncritical acceptance of historicism and positivism has led political scientists unnecessarily to turn away from the study of ideas and values that make up the political community. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines Charles Tilly's relationship to the schools of thought known as historicism and critical realism. Tilly was committed to a social epistemology that was inherently historicist, and he increasingly called himself a 'historicist.' The 'search for grand laws in human affairs comparable to the laws of Newtonian mechanics,' he argued, was a 'waste of time' and had 'utterly failed.' Tilly's approach was strongly reminiscent of the arguments developed in the first half of the 20th century by Rickert, Weber, Troeltsch, and Meinecke for a synthesis of particularization and generalization and for a focus on 'historical individuals' rather than abstract universals. Nonetheless, Tilly never openly engaged with this earlier wave of historicist sociology, despite its fruitfulness for and similarity to his own project. The paper explores some of the possible reasons for this missed encounter. The paper argues further that Tilly's program of 'relational realism' resembled critical realism, but with main two differences: Tilly did not fully embrace critical realism's argument that social mechanisms are always co-constituted by social meaning or its normative program of explanatory critique. In order to continue developing Tilly's ideas it is crucial to connect them to the epistemological ideas that governed the first wave of historicist sociology in Weimar Germany and to a version of philosophical realism that is interpretivist and critical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An article is presented that reports on philosopher John Dewey and legal scholar Cass Sunstein and their views on pragmatism in the state. The article describes Sunstein's views on cost-benefit analysis (CBA) in U.S. politics, noting how it can be reconciled with Dewey's philosophical methodology regarding its pragmatic use. The article also discusses the U.S. Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Information is provided on experimentalism, historicism, and the humanization of CBA.

In this article, I examine the contemporary Western crisis of realist documentary through the lens of Errol Morris's fllmmaking style. The recent widespread popularity of Morris's nonfiction films has in fact signaled a seemingly new trend within documentary filmmaking in the US. Taking Morris's Academy Award-winning `The Fog of War' (2003) as a paradigmatic example of American postmodern documentary films pitched to a mass audience, this piece explores the concepts of "historical narrative" and "documentary truth" against a background of diminished public confidence in the "objectivity" of the camera. What has been the impact of the academic critique of realism on the evidential power of documentary fllmmaking? How has the postmodern attack on historicism operated to subvert the ways in which documentary form is now conceived? More specifically, in what ways does `The Fog of War' address the impasse that the `metanarrative' of history has reached at the turn of the twentieth-first century? What model of national identity does `The Fog of War' shape through Morris's depiction of US military actions? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few recent intellectual figures have attracted as much attention as Leo Strauss (1899-1973). Although he did not write much about the United States or its history, his students have. This article first gives an overview of Strauss's understanding of the history of political thought and then relates it to his students' distinctive understanding of American constitutional history. Strauss's thought led his students to reject historicism and positivism in favor of an Aristotelian perspective on America that produced a qualified defense of its liberal constitutionalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

: Northern and southern Baptists in the United States differed at the turn of the twentieth century. Through their hymnals, especially Sursum Corda edited by E. H. Johnson, they embraced a form of historicism that attempted to recover an earlier time in the church. Gregorian and Anglican chants served as vehicles of historicist interest as did the parts of the historic Mass and traditional English hymns prevalent in Johnson's book. Northern Baptists also leaned toward an ecclesiology that held the ‘church as sacrament’. Hymn texts in Johnson's Baptist hymnal form a bridge between two ecclesiological outlooks by employing a pastiche of sacramental texts and texts based on a memorialist understanding of the Eucharist. This essay employs an interdisciplinary approach to looking at American hymnody involving theology, history, musicology, and liturgics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arguments are widely expressed that America is in decline, both at home and abroad. These admonitions extend not only to economic, diplomatic and geopolitical realms, but even to the cultural arena. The United States does face real and even serious problems, but there is an unmistakable echo of the past in current arguments. Antecedents of these views were evident in the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s, and on occasion even in identical language. Indeed, declinist proclamations have appeared on and off not only throughout the 20th Century, but also during the 18th and 19th Centuries. Moreover, periodic crises in US history have included challenges more daunting than those of today. It can thus be instructive to compare the arguments and prescriptions of the new declinism with those of earlier eras. The evidence suggests a pattern of over-reaction, a historicism, and a lack of appreciation for the robustness, adaptability and staying power of the United States.International Politics (2009) 46, 119–139. doi:10.1057/ip.2008.44 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a response to the work of Wai Chee Dimock on the question of hemispheric American studies. It states that few scholars would argue against the idea that the hemispheric model is both notional and strategic. According to the author, while Dimock's work suggests that the hemispheric and the planetary are scales of inquiry that look similar, they actually differ in a core sense as they promote different political agendas and practice different versions of historicism. Furthermore, it mentions that Dimock's focus on Islam is a corrective that allows scholars to reveal the eclipsed transoceanic genealogies of the hemisphere.

This article aims at clarifying meanings, methods, and the problem of objectivity of 'the history for the suppressed' as philosophically constructed and demanded by Walter Benjamin by means of Howard Zinn's "People's History" as a case study. Zinn's 'history from below' has several philosophical meanings. First, it claims to find the other half part of historical truth which had been until now ignored and concealed by the general history. Second, it claims to provide a balanced perspective for the perception of history so long as it does not wholly exclude winners in history. Third. it claims to extend human possibilities by recording the story of people's resistance movements. Fourth, it aims to educate and train an independent corps of citizens by building up the principle of civil disobedience. Fifth, it helps us to look at history from an angle of 'change' because it bears in mind a dialectical interaction of victory and defeat. Sixth, it represents an act through which a historian declares his own ideological position. On the basis of these meanings Howard Zinn now proceeds to elaborate methods for the reconstruction of the people's life story: the selection and analysis of available materials, the elimination or correction of various distorted and falsified facts of history, the critique of the established history and of the American historical profession, and the formation of a new interpretation model. Above all the removal of various historical distortions and falsifications must be recognized as a golden rule for all historians. But Zinn then gives up the objectivity of history, and tries to substitute for it his own partiality under the name of 'justice'. He regards this partiality for the suppressed people as an alternative objectivity, or the only path to the historical truth. In this sense Zinn's historical truth will not deny the post-modern standpoint (pluralism) and develops the viewpoint of E. H. Carr (presentism) in the direction of the Rankean mind (historicism). Howard Zinn's 'grassroots history' (Eric Hobsbawm) is born from all these meanings and methods, and as a result the losers of history are reborn as the winners of history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses information about the philosophy of psychiatry in the U.S. The history of the philosophies of psychiatry can be defined as the contextualized study of past theoretical views on the nature, understanding, and management of madness and related notions. The philosophy of psychiatry may expect or follow empirical research.

Prospect theory (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979) predictions were examined in light of ethnocentrism and intergroup conflict. An experiment conducted at the outset of the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the US, UK and their allies explored American and British participants' preferences for certain versus uncertain gains and losses concerning Iraqi, American, and British lives. In four conditions, participants showed the usual loss-aversion when deciding between options that only affected Iraqi lives. Six other conditions examined choices between the lives of Americans, Britons, or Iraqis. Strong ethnocentric biases rather than risk-aversion occurred. Participants preferred policies that prioritized their own nationals' and allies' lives over Iraqi lives. War-related and other attitudes corresponded to participants' decisions. The need to expand prospect theory to address intergroup relations is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explores the historicist view about constitutional law considering the Lochner v. New York case. Change of the canonical status of the case; Connection between the contemporary attitudes about the case and constitutional ethos; Function of constitutional historicism in constitutional theory.

Comments on the history of book as reflected in the books "Reimaging Textuality: Textual Studies in the Late Age of Print," edited by Elizabeth Bergmann Loizeaux and Neil Fraistat and "Perspectives on American Book History: Artifacts and Commentary," edited by Scott E. Casper, Joanne D. Chaison, and Jeffrey D. Groves. Illustration of the centrality of book studies to the humanities by the books; Synthesis of book studies and cultural critique; Connotation of artifact as rich historicism to which book studies aspires.

The United States in the 1990s has experienced the greatest sustained decline in violent crime rates since World War IL-even though rates thus far have not fallen as rapidly as they increased during the crime boom of the 1960s and early 1970s. I review a set of exogenous and policy-related explanations for the earlier crime boom and for the crime bust of the 1990s. I argue that our understanding of crime trends is hampered by a lack of longitudinal analysis and by ahistorical approaches. I identify a set of questions, concepts, and research opportunities raised by taking a more comprehensive look at crime waves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The organization of American economic geography and the enunciation of a new, human- focused conceptual orientation appropriate to it have been attributed to scholars at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. I argue here that such attribution is too limited and does disservice to the rich history of the discipline. Economic geography as a university subject was introduced by economists influenced by German economic historicism. It was adopted by departments of geography when abandoned by economists. Earliest formulations of a new non-Davisian model of geographic inquiry were the work of individuals not connected with the Wharton group of Emory Johnson, J. Russell Smith, J. Paul Goode, and Walter S. Tower. The general recognition of the philosophic and subject organization contribution of the Pennsylvania group is appropriate but made more realistic by a fuller understanding of the diverse roots of American economic geography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is based on a comparison of the preservation philosophies in place at two historical Virginia homes: Thomas Jefferson's Monticello and James Madison's Montpelier. Interviews and analysis suggest that the curators at the former site are guided by an empirical historicism that is decidedly modernist, while their counterparts at the latter, influenced by contemporary trends in social science and philosophy, are more skeptical about the possibility of recovering and presenting an objectively verifiable past of a specific historical period. The divergence in preservation strategies at these historic homes suggests that, in our present cultural moment, there is much confusion over what constitutes history, over the legitimacy of privileging one person or period over another, and over the currency of scientific interpretations of "truth" in non-academic contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the new historicism. Not only would the new historicist critic be alert to the ideological entailments of apparently neutral categories and concepts, but the depth model of " background" would be supplanted by a grasp of "the complex network of institutions, practices, and beliefs that constitute the culture as a whole." One point to note here is that the word "historicist" rarely carries its normal teleological implication in this context. The aspect of the new historicism in English studies has provoked various criticisms, two of which are relevant to a consideration of developments in American Studies.

Examines the structure and content of "The Education of Henry Adams." Interpretation of the act of composition, form and readership; Link between the illusion of freedom and historicism; Indications of the absence of a significant readership in the U.S. during Adams' time; Problematic relationship between author and audience.

The article reflects on the article "The End of History" by Francis Fukuyama in the U.S. According to the author, Fukuyama's thesis tackles about end of cold war which could mean victory and tranquility in the world. His article obtained various comments from several intellectuals including the historicists, liberals and commonsensical people around the world. His argument was believed to be lack of ideological and political passion as well as interests. Moreover, the author believes that Fucuyama's article is a failure.

The presentation concerns the utility of conceptualizing the structural changes associated with modern economic development as functional alternatives. The concept is corn pared to other approaches represented as historicism, convergence, and structural modeling with environmental effects. The advantages of the functional alternative conceptualization are demonstrated through comparison of selected employment characteristics in Japan and the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Editorial. Comments on transition of aesthetics in the United States. Assessment on aesthetic during 1940s; Emphasis on the technique of chronic imagining; Variant of historicism in art appreciation.

Focuses on health policy and historicism in the United States. Comments on compulsory health insurance; Examination of the politics of medical care between the 1920s and 1960s; Influence of history on health policy; Improvement in the access to medical services.