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Uncovering the French on St. Croix: Stories of Seventeenth-Century Settlement and Abandonment on the Caribbean Frontier

Meredith D. Hardy

in Archaeological Perspectives on the French in the New World

This discusses presents and explores a seventeenth century colonial landscape of the island of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. It identifies the potential for the presence of an archaeological record ... More

This discusses presents and explores a seventeenth century colonial landscape of the island of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. It identifies the potential for the presence of an archaeological record of the French colonial rule of the island, which can be initially identified through the development of a historical geographic information system (GIS) that ties together landscape features, modern geography, satellite and aerial imagery, historical maps and other archival records, and archaeological data. This GIS will assist researchers in understanding the movements and interactions of people across space and through time, changes in land use and development, and comprehending how those they are studying conceptualized and organized their own worlds.Less

The Changing Cultural Landscape of the Lower St. Joseph River Valley

Mark Hoock, Allison M. Hoock, and Michael S. Nassaney

Michael S. Nassaney and Michael S. Nassaney (eds)

in Fort St. Joseph Revealed: The Historical Archaeology of a Fur Trading Post

Archaeological studies conducted under the auspices of the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project have focused on material remains in the St. Joseph River valley in Niles, Michigan. Material remains ... More

Archaeological studies conducted under the auspices of the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project have focused on material remains in the St. Joseph River valley in Niles, Michigan. Material remains indicate that human groups exploited resources and established settlements throughout the area, and that, in the context of local and regional political economic relations, those settlements shifted in response to changes in resources availability and alliance formation. This chapter examines the spatial distribution of Euro-American and Native American sites in the lower St. Joseph River Valley during the periods ranging from immediately prior, to during, and to after the occupation of Fort St. Joseph. Through the use of geographic information systems (GIS), the authors monitored changes in settlement patterns as they related to the establishment and abandonment of this French colonial outpost.Less

Cognitive Liberation and Hidden Destruction in Central Appalachia

Sean P. Bemis

in Fighting King Coal: The Challenges to Micromobilization in Central Appalachia

Chapter 6 argues that another factor inhibiting the process of consciousness transformation, or cognitive liberation, among local coalfield residents is a lack of knowledge about the extent of the ... More

Chapter 6 argues that another factor inhibiting the process of consciousness transformation, or cognitive liberation, among local coalfield residents is a lack of knowledge about the extent of the coal industry’s activities due to the fact that much of the destruction is not easily seen. The study presented in this chapter uses a geographic information system (GIS) in the top coal-producing county in West Virginia to quantitatively identify how much of the active and recently surface-mined land is visible from the roads in that county. This viewshed analysis reveals that although 47 percent of the total landscape in the county is visible from transportation corridors (including U.S. highways, state highways, and county roads), only 23 percent of the surface-mined land mass is visible from these corridors. Removing the county roads (which are remote and largely depopulated) from the analysis makes the findings even more dramatic: only 4 percent of the total area of surface-mined land in the county is visible from U.S. and state highways. The fact that so much industry activity is out of sight from local residents likely poses another hindrance to social movement recruitment.Less

Introduction

Michael R. Cohen

in Cotton Capitalists: American Jewish Entrepreneurship in the Reconstruction Era

The introduction explores the centrality of cotton, credit, and the Gulf South in global capitalism. It establishes the importance of trust in economic transactions and the ways in which this trust ... More

The introduction explores the centrality of cotton, credit, and the Gulf South in global capitalism. It establishes the importance of trust in economic transactions and the ways in which this trust fostered the economic networks that were so central to the development of a Jewish niche economy in this industry. The introduction quantifies this Jewish niche economy, utilizing methodologies of the digital humanities—particularly geographic information system (GIS) maps—and it establishes the impact of this niche economy for Jews and the communities in which they lived. Economic success begat communal, civic, and social success for merchants, and Jews shaped the communities at the heart of the cotton industry.Less

The Politics of Exit

Douglas S. Reed

in Building the Federal Schoolhouse: Localism and the American Education State

The chapter explores two facets of the exit from Alexandria public schooling: the move to private schooling under Massive Resistance and the dynamics of white flight in the early 1970s. Both aspects ... More

The chapter explores two facets of the exit from Alexandria public schooling: the move to private schooling under Massive Resistance and the dynamics of white flight in the early 1970s. Both aspects illustrate how integration fostered the increasing liberalization of Alexandria’s politics in the mid-1970s, counter to the rest of Virginia. The chapter utilizes GIS mapping techniques to explore the relationship between Massive Resistance voucher usage and desegregation of Alexandria schools in the early 1960s, arguing that class rather than race drove much of the voucher usage. The chapter then turns to how those class tensions were manifested in white flight in the 1970s and the rationales that white parents used to explain their choice to exit Alexandria schools. It shows how this population shift led to a dramatically more liberal Alexandria within a short period of time, producing a more liberal racial coalition governing the local regime.Less

Breast Cancer, Part 2: Testing The Pesticide Hypothesis

Inge F. Goldstein and Martin Goldstein

in How Much Risk?: A Guide to Understanding Environmental Health Hazards

We do not yet know how much of the excess rates of breast cancer on Long Island or on Cape Cod will ultimately be explained by the known risk factors. We do know that ... More

We do not yet know how much of the excess rates of breast cancer on Long Island or on Cape Cod will ultimately be explained by the known risk factors. We do know that pesticides have been sprayed in both these areas, and toxic chemicals carelessly disposed in them. Has breast cancer been increased by such exposures? The studies in progress on Long Island and Cape Cod are not the only ones that have tried to answer this question: a number of completed studies, carried out in other locations, have also done so, and we will describe them in this chapter. These studies rely to a considerable extent on recent discoveries in molecular biology. This rapidly advancing field has already contributed enormously to our understanding of cancer as well as other diseases, and it will contribute even more in the future. We have learned from it how to identify certain individuals who have genetic sensitivities to particular environmental agents. It may in some cases provide means to determine which environmental hazards have caused a particular case of cancer, from the genetic makeup of the cancer cells. With knowledge of that genetic makeup, physicians who treat cancer are helped to choose the most effective therapy in any given case of the disease, without having to go through a process of trial and error. Future research into the causes, prevention, and treatment of cancer and other diseases, whether in the clinic, the research laboratory, or in the epidemiological field study, will rely more and more on the perspectives and techniques of molecular biology. We will review briefly some of the basic concepts of this field before we describe the studies, completed or in progress, of environmental agents and breast cancer. In general, even when dramatic increases in the rate of some disease have been clearly linked to an environmental agent, only a fraction of the people exposed ever suffer the disease. Most people who survived the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have not suffered health effects from their radiation exposure. Cigarette smoking causes 90% of lung cancer today, but only 10% of heavy smokers will die of lung cancer. Less

Neighbourhood as a Policing Delivery Unit

Martin Innes, Colin Roberts, Trudy Lowe, and Helen Innes

in Neighbourhood Policing: The Rise and Fall of a Policing Model

This chapter explores the concept of ‘neighbourhood’ and how such constructs come to be associated with particular types of social problem, especially crime and disorder. This includes how ... More

This chapter explores the concept of ‘neighbourhood’ and how such constructs come to be associated with particular types of social problem, especially crime and disorder. This includes how neighbourhoods are defined and reconfigured for different audiences and for different purposes, using empirical data to show how and why members of the public choose to self-define their neighbourhood boundaries in certain ways. The discussion elaborates on why areas become labelled as ‘problem neighbourhoods’ or ‘no-go areas’ and engages in a detailed investigation of antisocial behaviour as a key focus for Neighbourhood Policing interventions. Drawing upon analysis of how victims perceive and are harmed by antisocial behaviour, it provides a critical account of how far antisocial behaviour can and should be conceptualized as ‘a neighbourhood problem of a problem neighbourhood’ that both resides in, and should be resolved by, communities and their police. We discuss the implications this approach has for the effective delivery of local policing and multi-agency problem-solving interventions within the neighbourhood unitLess

Monitoring Agricultural Drought in China

Guoliang Tian and Vijendra K. Boken

in Monitoring and Predicting Agricultural Drought: A Global Study

Droughts account for more than half of the total number of natural disasters faced by China. Serious droughts impact industrial production, water supply, ... More

Droughts account for more than half of the total number of natural disasters faced by China. Serious droughts impact industrial production, water supply, people’s lives, and the ecological environment, which causes significant losses to the national economy. Because of increasing water shortages, drought has become one of the most important factors that limits agricultural production, especially in the north where droughts occur frequently. According to the Chinese terminology, if reduction in crop yields in an area is more than three-tenths of the average, the area is called a “damaged area,” and if the reduction is more than eight-tenths, the area is declared a “nonyield area” (Lu and Yang, 1992; State Statistical Bureau, 1996; Chen, 2000). Drought has been the most serious natural disaster in Chinese history. Serious droughts occurred more than 1000 times from 206 B.C. to 1949 A.D. (Zhang, 1990; Li and Lin, 1993), or once about every two years. Over the years, the eastern part of China has become more drought prone. Drought impacts have lessened since 1949 because the government has improved irrigation facilities. Nevertheless, agricultural production is still affected by drought because yields of most crops depend on weather conditions. Figure 28.1 shows the yearly variation in the total area affected by droughts since 1949. The most serious droughts occurred during the 1960s and the 1970s, and drought area has gradually increased. Although serious drought occurred during 1978–79, droughts were mild during 1970–77. The droughts always damaged a greater area than did floods in a decade. Figure 28.2 presents the spatial distribution of droughts from 1951 to 1991. In particular, four regions were identified where the frequency of drought was significantly high (Li and Lin, 1993): (1) Huanghuaihai region in the North China Plain, (2) Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong, Henan, and Shaanxi provinces, (3) the coastal south China, in particular the coastal area in Guangdong and Fujian provinces, and (4) the southwestern part of southwest China, mainly the southern part of Yunnan and Sichuan provinces. Less