Oxford University Press's Blog, page 929
June 30, 2013
Robert Kennedy’s Battle Hymn
The Civil War anthem “Battle Hymn of the Republic” had long been a favorite of Robert Kennedy’s, but it did not become closely associated with the man—and the hopes many Americans had invested in him—until his death. In planning the requiem high mass held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York the Sunday after his assassination forty five years ago, on 8 June 1968, Ethel Kennedy insisted on deviating from the traditional liturgy and concluding the service with the hymn. As soon as Andy Williams, the television crooner and Kennedy’s close friend, began the first verse, those in the pews joined in. As one reporter remarked, the singing “served as an ablution for despair,” producing a catharsis “wincingly painful and spiritually reinforcing.” From that moment on, the “Battle Hymn,” another writer declared, “spontaneously became the anthem of the day.”
The service completed, the funeral cortege left the cathedral and made its way to Pennsylvania Station, where a twenty-one-car train waited. More than 1,100 passengers made the journey to Washington, D.C., where Kennedy would be buried at Arlington National Cemetery, not far from his brother, who was killed less than five years earlier. All along the 225-mile route, mourners crowded the edge of the tracks. And all along the train’s route, those assembled sang the “Battle Hymn” as it passed—its cars often moving at a solemn crawl, so those on board could acknowledge the mourners on the platform. In Baltimore, in the gathering dusk, a crowd of more than ten thousand crowded the station. As the train approached, they began singing the “Battle Hymn.” “As that noble old hymn floated across the tracks,” recorded one journalist traveling on the train, “the awful dignity of all those grave faces on the edge of night seemed to embrace the entire train with awe and pity.” The scene, another reporter recalled, offered a corrective to the tragedy. “If the assassination resulted in the unfair excoriation of America at its worst, this tribute in song was sure a moment of America at its best.”
Robert F. Kennedy’s grave. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Kennedy’s memorial breathed life into the hymn as an expression of national unity in the face of tragedy. Yet just weeks later it was heard again as an anthem of protest and polarization. The 1968 Democratic convention exposed the deep fractures within the Democratic Party—and the nation as a whole. In Chicago’s streets, police and National Guardsmen clashed with protesters. Inside the Amphitheater, the Democrats’ establishment and insurgent factions, deeply divided over the war in Vietnam, race relations, and the politics of law and order, also battled, if a bit less savagely. On the convention’s third day, convention delegates sung the hymn at one of the gathering’s most fateful moments, following the adoption of a plank supporting President Johnson’s policy in Vietnam. When the dovish New York delegation realized that the anti-war plank had been defeated, they broke into a mournful version of the hymn.
The following day the convention achieved a brief moment of unity when Edward Kennedy offered a tribute to his brother. All the delegates watched in respectful silence. “It was the first occasion this week that had found the Democrats unanimous about anything,” noted the New York Times. But that unanimity proved fleeting, and the “Battle Hymn” expressed its unraveling. When the video ended, delegates, led by those from New York and California—the core of the progressive factions—began to clap and cheer. The chairman of the convention sought to bring them to order, but they refused, and in a show of defiance began singing the “Battle Hymn.” Soon almost all the delegates in the hall had joined in, stamping their feet, and drowning out the chairman’s gaveling—except for the Texas and Illinois delegations, leaders of the old guard, who remained seated and stony-faced. Wave upon wave of the “Glory, glory, Hallelujah” chorus rose and fell within the Amphitheater, drowning out the chairman’s calls for silence. The demonstration lasted for nearly half an hour, ending only when supporters of Mayor Daley successfully shouted down the insurgent Kennedy tribute.
As it had so often in the past, on that day the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” expressed the power of the belief in America’s millennial promise to unite as well as to divide Americans. The song heralded the “glory of the coming of the Lord” while announcing how far the nation was from fulfilling that dream.
Benjamin Soskis is the co-author with John Stauffer of The Battle Hymn of the Republic: A Biography of the Song That Marches On (OUP/June 2013) and a Fellow at the Center for the Study of Nonprofit Management, Philanthropy, and Policy at George Mason University. He has taught at George Washington University and the University of California, Washington Center. His writing has appeared in The New Republic, The New York Times, and Slate.com.
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June 29, 2013
Images to remember the Battle of Plataea
In 479 BCE, ancient city-state rivals, the Spartans and Athenians, joined in alliance against Persia, 50 years before the infamous Peloponnesian War. Together, they took the Oath of Plataea, revealing deep-seated anxieties about how the defeat would be remembered in history… and to whom the credit would fall. Paul Cartledge takes a comprehensive look at the events leading up to and consequences following the defeat of the Persians at the Battle of Plataea in After Thermopylae.
Map of Ancient Greece
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The Aegean Greek World in the Classical Period�. From Cartledge, Ancient Greece (2009).
Archaemenid Empire
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The Persian Empire �From Bang and Scheidel, The Oxford Handbook of the State in the Ancient Near East and Mediterraena (2013).
Herodotus
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A non-veristic idealized image of the 'Father of History', Herodotus, whose Histories ('Researches') is the ultimate basis of any subsequent account of the Graeco-Persian Wars. �Gianni Dagli Orti / The Art Archive at Art Resource, NY.
Darius I
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The Great King of Persia (Darius I) enthroned at his palace of Persepolis, Iran, c. 515 BCE. �© The Trustees of the British Museum.
Attic Red-Figure Jug
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An Athenian lady with her oriental servant surmounts the moulded head of a bearded Persian warrior; Attic red-figure jug c. 410-400, from Nola, Italy.� © The Trustees of the British Museum.
The Immortals
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The 'Immortals', as the Greeks knew a Persian King's elite guard on campaign, depicted on glazed bricks from the Palace of Susa, Iran�. Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY.
Spartan Commander
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Small bronze figurine, �6th-century BCE, depicting a Spartan commander, possibly a king, wearing his characteristic (red) cloak�. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art/Art Resource, NY.
Bronze helmet of the Corinthian
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Bronze helmet of the 'Corinthian' (all-over) type, of the period of the Battle of Plataea. �© The Trustees of the British Museum.
Serpent Column monument to Apollo
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The official monument dedicated by the victorious Greeks to Apollo at Delphi �(subsequently removed to Constantinople/Istanbul, where its partial remains subsist in the old Hippodrome) took the form of a triple-coiled, triple-headed snake, whence 'Serpent Column'; above the snakes' heads originally was perched a golden cauldron. �Vanni/Art Resource, NY.
Temple of Athena victory over Persians
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The Athenians' Temple of Athena Nike (Victory), c. 415/405 BCE, bore a relief frieze depicting a heroic victory of Athenians over Persians. �© The Trustees of the British Museum.
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Paul Cartledge is the inaugural A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture in the Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge, and recently the Hellenic Parliament Global Distinguished Professor in the History and Theory of Democracy at New York University. He is the author of After Thermopylae: The Oath of Plataea and the End of the Graeco-Persian Wars. His previous books include Ancient Greece: A Very Short Introduction, Thermopylae: The Battle That Changed the World, and The Spartans: The World of the Warrior-Heroes of Ancient Greece. He is an honorary citizen of modern Sparta and holds the Gold Cross of the Order of Honor awarded by the President of Greece.
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Why does nothing get done in Congress?
How did the “textbook” Senate of the 1950s — one of compromise and where people worked together to solve the problems America faced — transform into our current one of gridlock, lack of compromise, and partisan warfare? Sean Theriault, author of The Gingrich Senators: The Roots of Partisan Warfare in Congress, traces the roots of this transformation back to one group of senators, who started in the House of Representatives after 1978, which is when Gingrich joined. The University of Texas at Austin spoke with him about the Gingrich style of politics that continues to influence political debate, such as gun control, and political organization, such as the Tea Party.
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Sean Theriault is Associate Professor of Government at The University of Texas at Austin. In addition to The Gingrich Senators: The Roots of Partisan Warfare in Congress, he is the author of The Power Of The People: Congressional Competition, Public Attention, And Voter Retribution (Parliaments and Legislatures) and Party Polarization in Congress.
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Related Stories10 things to understand about diasporaA marriage equality reading listSmoke and mirrors
Demystifying the Hanging Garden of Babylon
For centuries, the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World have captivated scholars as some of the most magnificent — and last remaining — representations of classical antiquity. Of those seven, the Hanging Garden of Babylon has particularly intrigued scholars, due in large part to the ambiguity surrounding the history of its physical construction, geographical location, and enduring architectural legacy. Stephanie Dalley, author of The Mystery of the Hanging Garden of Babylon, discusses the most elusive of world wonders, evaluating the accuracy of popular interpretations, the uniqueness of its origins, and its disputed impact on several imitative gardens in ensuing eras, including those constructed by Herod the Great and Nero.
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On possible imitations of the Hanging Garden of Babylon:
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Stephanie Dalley is an Honorary Research Fellow at Somerville College, Oxford, and a member of the Oriental Institute at Wolfson College, Oxford. With degrees in Assyriology from the Universities of Cambridge and London, her academic career has specialized in the study of ancient cuneiform texts and she has worked on archaeological excavations in Iraq, Turkey, Syria, and Jordan. Her most recent book, The Mystery of the Hanging Garden of Babylon, was published by OUP in 2013.
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Related StoriesThe mystery of the Hanging Garden of Babylon10 things to understand about diasporaThe realities of spy fiction
June 28, 2013
Wimbledon, Shakespeare, and strawberries
It’s time to dust off your racket and wrestle the tennis balls from your dog’s mouth. Wimbledon 2013 is upon us! Wimbledon is now as much a feature of the British summer as barbecues, Henley Royal Regatta, and summer rain. Whether you grew up shouting ‘Come on Tim!’ or ‘Don’t cry Andy!’, Wimbledon seemingly captivates every generation of the British public for two weeks. But as spectators at SW19 reach for their scones, jams, and Pimms, I wonder if our perception of tennis is similar to Shakespeare’s? Was it all strawberries and cream and Henman Hill in the sixteenth century too? Using Oxford Scholarly Editions Online (OSEO) as my experienced, disciplined, but approachable coach, I cast a hawk-eye over Shakespeare texts to look for references to tennis. So if you’d like to take your seats at centre-court, I will serve up some aces for your enjoyment.
Quiet please, Will Shakespeare to serve. First set. Play!
Perhaps the most direct reference to tennis in Shakespeare’s texts comes from Act I Scene ii of Henry V. This scene depicts King Henry V in his royal throne room discussing with his advisors the validity of his claim to the French throne before he meets with Ambassadors from France. When the Ambassadors arrive, they provide tennis balls that form a ‘tun of treasure’ (line 255) they give as a gift to ensure ‘the dukedoms that you claim / Hear no more of you’ (256-257). The tennis balls are used in place of ‘treasure’ in reference to Henry V’s wild past, and imply that the Dauphin of France will not treat Henry V with respect as he attempts to dissuade the King from invading France. King Henry V’s response to the Ambassadors uses a tennis metaphor and tennis puns as a thinly veiled threat to suggest that the war will be like a game — and that the victor will claim the kingship of France: ‘When we have matched our rackets to these balls, / We will in France, by God’s grace, play a set / Shall strike his father’s crown into the hazard’ (261-263). Later in the speech (and with considerably less subtlety) Henry V informs the French Ambassadors that ‘This mock of his / Hath turned his balls to gunstones’ (281-282).
Tennis puns punctuate Henry V’s threat on France in this famous speech; for example, the use of the word ‘crown’ (263) in this context could refer to the Royal crown or to the method of scoring which was derived from betting on the game. According to several editions of the text, each scoring point was called a denier d’or (15 sous) until the first player to reach 60 sous won the final point, which was called ‘couronne’ or ‘crown’. Therefore, the scoring system we use today in major lawn tennis tournaments like Wimbledon is strikingly similar to the scoring system used in real tennis when Shakespeare wrote Henry V. It may be a stretch to say that if Andy Murray wins the final point in the final game in the final match at Wimbledon he would win a ‘crown’ — but he would certainly become British sporting royalty!
But Wimbledon isn’t just about tennis, oh no! It’s an opportunity for thousands of spectators to embrace the British summer — and what says British summer louder than strawberries and cream?! A quick search through Shakespeare’s works came up with nine references in total for the search term ‘strawberries’. From Othello to The Tragedy of King Richard III to Henry V, strawberries can be found in the Bard of Avon’s texts as easily as they can be found in the stands at centre-court. According to the notes in the Michael Neill edition of Othello, the strawberries embroidered on Desdemona’s handkerchief in Act III Scene iii are ‘capable of a remarkably contradictory set of meanings’. On the one hand, the strawberry’s simultaneous flowering and fruiting made it an emblem for the chastity and fertility of the Virgin Mary in Christian tradition. On the other hand, the strawberry was often used in Renaissance Emblem Books with a serpent coiled around its leaves to signify deceit. It is Othello’s recollection of this paradoxical handkerchief that seemingly sets off his fit in Act IV scene i, and that turns his own heart to stone as he envisages it once again, clasped in Cassio’s hand, just before the murder in Act V scene ii. So remember the charged symbolism of the strawberry when you prepare a bowl to eat with the Wimbledon Final!
Game, set, and match — Shakespeare wins six love, six love, six love. (Despite ‘love’ being an ever-present motif in Shakespeare’s sonnets and plays, he would not have punned on the tennis term ‘love’ as, according to the OED, it was first recognized in scoring games in 1742.) So that’s it I’m afraid. The clouds are forming overhead and the covers are being rushed on to preserve the pristine playing surfaces at Oxford University Press, so farewell, and we’ll see you next year for Wimbledon 2014!
Daniel Parker is Publicity Assistant and handles publicity for online products such as Oxford Scholarly Editions Online.
The electronic environment of Oxford Scholarly Editions Online (OSEO) provides a new research method and tool for the reader, who can quickly examine the history of the scholarly editing of a work or see instantly how a particular word used in a text has changed over time. OSEO makes it possible for students and scholars to interrogate texts in ways that could never have been done before.
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Image credits: (1) Screenshot of OSEO taken by Daniel Parker. (2) Centre Court Wimbledon. Picture taken in 2005 by Spiralz. Creative Commons License via Wikimedia Commons.
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The History of the World: Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated and the Treaty of Versailles
28 June 1914 and 1919
The following are brief extracts from The History of the World: Sixth Edition by J.M. Roberts and O.A. Westad.
Serbia did well in the ‘Balkan Wars’ of 1912–13, in which the young Balkan nations first despoiled the Ottoman empire of most that was left of its European territory and then fell out over the spoils. Serbia might have got more had the Austrians not objected. Behind Serbia stood Russia, launched on a programme of rebuilding and expanding its forces which would take three or four years to bring to fruition. According to Austrian thinking, if the South Slavs were to be shown that the Dual Monarchy could humiliate Serbia so that they could not hope for her support, then the sooner the better. Given that Germany was the Dual Monarch’s ally it, in turn, was unlikely to seek to avoid fighting Russia while there was still time to feel sure of winning.
The crisis came when an Austrian archduke was assassinated by a Bosnian terrorist at Sarajevo in June 1914. The Austrians believed that the Serbians were behind it. They decided that the moment had come to teach Serbia her lesson and kill forever the pan-Slav agitation, and the Germans supported them. The Austrians declared war on Serbia on 28 July.
A week later all the great powers were at war.
[...]
Europe in WWI (c) Helicon Publishing Ltd
The main concern of the [world] peace conference [after World War I] was the settlement with Germany, embodied in the Treaty of Versailles, signed in June 1919.
This was a punitive settlement and explicitly stated that the Germans were responsible for the outbreak of war. But most of the harshest terms arose not from this moral guilt but from the French wish, if possible, so to tie Germany down that any third German war was inconceivable. This was the purpose of economic reparations, which were the most unsatisfactory part of the settlement. They angered Germans and made acceptance of defeat even harder. Moreover they were economic nonsense. Nor was the penalizing of Germany supported by arrangements to ensure that Germany might not one day try to reverse the decision by force of arms, and this angered the French. Germany’s territorial losses, it went without saying, included Alsace and Lorraine, but were otherwise greatest in the east, to Poland. In the west the French did not get much more reassurance than an undertaking that the German bank of the Rhine should be ‘demilitarized.’
The most obvious non-European question concerned the disposition of the German colonies. Here there was an important innovation. Undisguised colonial greed was not acceptable to the United States; instead, tutelage for non-European peoples, formerly under German or Turkish rule, was provided by the device of trusteeship. ‘Mandates’ were given to the victorious powers (though the United States declined any) by a new ‘League of Nations’ to administer these territories while they were prepared for self-government; it was the most imaginative idea to emerge from the settlement, even though it was used to drape with respectability the last major conquests of European imperialism…
Huge hopes had been entertained of this settlement. They were often unrealistic, yet in spite of its manifest failures, the peace has been overcondemned, for it had many good points. When it failed, it was for reasons which were for the most part beyond the control of the men who made it. In the first place, the days of a European world hegemony in the narrow political sense were over. The peace treaties of 1919 could do little to secure the future beyond Europe. The old imperial policemen were now too weakened to do their job inside Europe, let alone outside; some had disappeared altogether. In the end the United States had been needed to ensure Germany’s defeat but now she plunged into a period of artificial isolation. Nor did the Soviets wish to be involved in stabilizing the continent.
The isolationism of the one power and the sterilization of the other by ideology left Europe to its own inadequate devices.
Reprinted from THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD: Sixth Edition by J.M. Roberts and O.A. Westad with permission from Oxford University Press, Inc. Copyright © 2013 by O.A. Westad.
J. M. Roberts CBE died in 2003. He was Warden at Merton College, Oxford University, until his retirement and is widely considered one of the leading historians of his era. He is also renowned as the author and presenter of the BBC TV series ‘The Triumph of the West’ (1985). Odd Arne Westad edited the sixth edition of The History of the World. He is Professor of International History at the London School of Economics. He has published fifteen books on modern and contemporary international history, among them ‘The Global Cold War,’ which won the Bancroft Prize.
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10 things to understand about diaspora
The word diaspora, as explained on Oxford Dictionaries Online, is most closely associated with the dispersion of the Jews beyond Israel. However, it is also defined as ‘the dispersion or spread of any people from their original homeland’. To learn more about diasporas around the world, we asked Kevin Kenny, Professor of History at Boston College and author of Diaspora: A Very Short Introduction to share some of his extensive knowledge.
By Kevin Kenny
Diaspora came into widespread usage in the Jewish case when scholars in Alexandria translated the first five books of the Hebrew Bible into Greek around 250 CE. In this translation, known as the Septuagint, the verb diaspeirein and the noun diasporá described a condition of spiritual anguish accompanying the dispersal of the Jews by an angry God. In the words of Deuteronomy 28:25 (NSRV): “The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven, and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth.”
For 2,000 years the term Diaspora — with an upper-case D — was associated almost exclusively with Jewish history. The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary cites Deuteronomy 28:25 in support of its primary definition: “the dispersion of Jews among the Gentile nations; all those Jews who lived outside the biblical land of Israel.”
In the twentieth century, many other globally scattered groups began to use diaspora to describe themselves. Among the first to do so were the Armenians and people of African descent. For the latter, Exodus provided a central theme.
Babylon is a central symbol in the lexicon of diaspora. After the destruction of the Temple in 586 BCE, the Jewish elite was exiled to the city of Babylon. As depicted in Hebrew scripture, Babylon conjures up images of sorrow and despair. Members of the Rastafari movement today, likewise, use the word Babylon to refer to Jamaica and the West – the land of slavery and alienation. Yet Babylon, in both the literal and metaphorical sense, was also the site of immense cultural creativity.
Since World War II, the idea of diaspora has proliferated to an extraordinary extent. One reason for this development was decolonization, which forged transnational bonds of solidarity among globally scattered populations, notably those of African origin. Decolonization also led to the expulsion and forcible remigration of many groups, especially those of Asian origin (e.g., ethnic Chinese in Indonesia and Vietnam or South Asians in East Africa).
Immigration to Israel
Another reason for the increased popularity of diaspora is the international recognition of refugees. There have been refugees in history as long as there have been wars, plagues, and famines. But formal recognition by the UN brought new attention to the problem. Today the various UN agencies classify 15 million people as refugees, in addition to another 15 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and 3.5 million stateless persons. In 2000 the UN designated the 20th of June as World Refugee Day.
The massive scale of contemporary international migration leads some commentators to proclaim an Age of Diaspora. If the 217 million people currently classified as international migrants moved to an unoccupied country, they would make up the fifth largest country on earth. In 2000 the UN designated the 18th of December as International Migrants Day. Yet, as a proportion of the world’s population, the rate of international migration is lower than it was a century ago.
Almost every diaspora involves the idea of return. Sometimes return is literal and physical, as in the case of the Zionist movement or the relocation of African-origin people from the Americas. More often, the desire to return is heightened by the knowledge of its impossibility; in these cases it can assume potent political, cultural, and spiritual dimensions. The great majority of African-descended people in the Americas, for example, could never hope to move literally to Africa — but this very fact helps explain the efflorescence of Back-to-Africa movements.
The Gathering is one example of the recent movement by governments around the world to reach out to “their” diasporas, establishing new networks of commerce and culture and tapping into enormous financial and political resources. The Irish government, led by Enda Kenny, launched The Gathering, which per its official website “invites anyone who has a link to Ireland or just a love of the country, to come to Ireland for a series of events throughout 2013.”
Ireland is by no means alone in this move; many other governments are doing much the same thing. Armenia, China, and India have special divisions and departments dealing with diaspora affairs. The African Union recognizes the African diaspora as its sixth region. Governments are experimenting with dual or flexible citizenship, including economic privileges and voting rights.
Today the term diaspora is used to describe migrants of every kind. But if migration and diaspora are synonyms, why are both words necessary? What does using the word diaspora explain?
Kevin Kenny is Professor of History at Boston College. His principal area of research and teaching is the history of migration and popular protest in the Atlantic world. His books include Diaspora: A Very Short Introduction, Peaceable Kingdom Lost: The Paxton Boys and the Destruction of William Penn’s Holy Experiment, Making Sense of the Molly Maguires, and The American Irish: A History. He is currently researching various aspects of migration and popular protest in the Atlantic world and laying the groundwork for a long-term project investigating the meaning of immigration in American history.
The Very Short Introductions (VSI) series combines a small format with authoritative analysis and big ideas for hundreds of topic areas. Written by our expert authors, these books can change the way you think about the things that interest you and are the perfect introduction to subjects you previously knew nothing about. Grow your knowledge with OUPblog and the VSI series every Friday and like Very Short Introductions on Facebook.
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June 27, 2013
A marriage equality reading list
Yesterday, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down part of the Defense of Marriage Act in their decision on the United States vs. Windsor. The judges also dismissed the Proposition 8 case (Hollingsworth vs. Perry), clearing the way for same-sex couples in California to marry. While such decisions may make the future of marriage equality seem clearer, there is still a great deal of debate and controversy in the United States and around the world. For those of you who are seeking to get a grip on the issue, we’ve compiled a brief list of resources.
Debating Same-Sex Marriage by John Corvino and Maggie Gallagher
In a point/counterpoint approach, John Corvino (a philosopher and prominent gay advocate) and Maggie Gallagher (a nationally syndicated columnist and co-founder of the National Organization for Marriage) explore fundamental questions surrounding same-sex marriage. John Corvino also discusses the same-sex marriage in a series of videos on YouTube (one below).
Click here to view the embedded video.
From Closet to Altar: Courts, Backlash, and the Struggle for Same-Sex Marriage by Michael J. Klarman
While this seems like an issue that has only recently emerged, Klarman provides a narrative of the legal proceedings from World War II leading up to yesterday’s decision, and studies litigation, social reform, and the phenomenon of political backlash to court decisions.
Courthouse Democracy and Minority Rights: Same-Sex Marriage in the States by Robert J. Hume, Ph.D.
Political science professor Robert Hume assesses the impact of state courts and provides background on their judicial impact. Also be sure to read Hume’s article on what’s next for same-sex marriage on the OUPblog.
How Sex Became a Civil Liberty by Leigh Ann Wheeler
The United States Constitution makes no mention of sexual rights or liberties, so why is it often invoked in sexual political arguments? Leigh Ann Wheeler explores the establishment of sexual rights and the ongoing debates surrounding it, including marriage equality.
What’s Wrong with Homosexuality? by John Corvino
Many people object to same-sex marriage on moral — rather than legal — grounds. Corvino argues that the fight for same-sex marriage, ultimately, is a fight for full inclusion in the moral fabric of society.
“Immodest Claims and Modest Contributions: Sexual Orientation in Comparative Constitutional Law” by Kenji Yoshino, Michael Kavey in The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Constitutional Law
In the context of sexual orientation, constitutional arguments often assume a categorical, ‘always/everywhere’ tenor that exposes them to contestation on comparative grounds, such as bans on lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals from military service; the criminalization of same-sex sexual conduct; and relationship recognition for same-sex couples.
Same Sex Relationships: From ‘Odious Crime’ to ‘Gay Marriage’ by Stephen Cretney
How is the law responding to a remarkable change in social attitudes? Cretney considers the different techniques for bringing about change in the law, and contrasts what can properly be achieved by judicial decisions with what can only be achieved by legislation
“Same-Sex Marriage and the New Judicial Federalism: Why State Courts Should Not Consider Out-of-State Backlash” by Neal Devins in New Frontiers of State Constitutional Law: Dual Enforcement of Norms
What are the implications for the new judicial federalism in state constitutional interpretations in the context of same-sex marriage? While state supreme courts construing state constitutions should not take into account out-of-state backlash, it is entirely appropriate, and even desirable, for them to consider in-state inter-institutional implications of their decisions when contemplating the recognition of new constitutional rights.
The Bush Administration, Sex and the Moral Agenda by Edward Ashbee
A detailed and comprehensive survey of the George W. Bush administration policy-making towards issues such as abortion, sex education, obscenity and same-sex marriage.
Equality for Same-Sex Couples: The Legal Recognition of Gay Partnerships in Europe and the United States by Yuval Merin
How can we put yesterday’s decisions in a worldwide context? Merin identifies and critically compares four principal models for the legal regulation and recognition of same-sex partnerships: civil marriage, registered partnership, domestic partnership, and cohabitation.
Same Sex, Different Politics: Success and Failure in the Struggles over Gay Rights by Gary Mucciaroni
Why is it so much harder for American same-sex couples to get married than it is for them to adopt children? Mucciaroni explains why gay rights advocates have achieved dramatically different levels of success from one policy area to another.
‘Fairytale wedding’ by Meghan Hess. Creative Commons License CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0. via Flickr.
“The Peculiar Stake U.S. Protestants Have in the Question of State Recognition of Same-Sex Marriages” by Mary Anne Case in After Secular Law
Why do evangelical Protestant religious conservatives claim that same-sex marriage recognition would undercut their own marriages? Case argues this can best be understood as the result of Protestant dependence on the state to enforce its legal traditions.
States of Passion: Law, Identity, and Social Construction of Desire by Yvonne Zylan
How does legal discourse shape sexual experience, sexual expression, and sexual identity? Zylan examines how sexuality is socially constructed through the institutionally-specific production of legal discourse.
Gay, Straight, and the Reason Why: The Science of Sexual Orientation by Simon LeVay
Where do LGBT rights fall on the spectrum of civil rights? Neuroscientist Simon LeVay presents the best current summary of the science of sexual orientation.
Gay Marriage: for Better or for Worse? : What We’ve Learned from the Evidence by William N. Eskridge, Jr. and Darren R. Spedale
Drawing from 17 years of data and experience with same-sex marriage in Scandinavia (in the form of registered partnerships), Spedale and Eskridge find that the evidence refutes conservative defense-of-marriage arguments and, in fact, demonstrates that the institution of marriage may indeed benefit from the legalization of gay marriage.
“The Supreme Court of the United States” in Oxford Bibliographies in Political Science
A number of gay and lesbian legal scholars have focused their attention on the battle over gay marriage, incurring criticism from other queer theorists for a limiting and conservative focus that asks society merely to treat gay unions just like other marriages rather than using queer theory to challenge the way law sees.
“Discrimination” in Oxford Bibliographies in Sociology
Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation includes a wide variety of individual behaviors and institutional practices, from antigay workplace harassment to laws prohibiting same-sex couples from marriage or adoption.
“Sexual Minority Parenting” in Oxford Bibliographies in Psychology
The study of sexual minority parenting is a relatively new area. Samantha Tornello, Rachel Riskind, and Rachel Farr provide resources on the legal and social implications of same-sex marriage on parenting.
“Gay and Lesbian Parents” in Oxford Bibliographies in Childhood Studies
Research on gay and lesbian parenthood is diverse, covering a wide range of topics approached from different theoretical perspectives and using different methodological approaches. One theme is youngsters’ reflections on the political issue of marriage inequality.
“Gay Men” in Oxford Bibliographies in Social Work
In recent years same-sex marriage has been the most visible GLBT-related issue in the United States. A section of James I. Martin’s bibliography includes some of the best sources of in-depth information about the marriage issue.
“Same-Sex Marriage and Civil Unions” by Paul R. Brewer and Clyde Wilcox in Public Opinion Quarterly
For many Americans, the issue of same-sex marriage burst upon the political scene in the fall of 2003, when the highest court in Massachusetts ruled that the state had no grounds to deny gay and lesbian couples the right to marry. Paul R. Brewer and Clyde Wilcox examine it from a broader perspective.
“Changing Same-Sex Marriage Attitudes in America from 1988 Through 2010″ by Dawn Michelle Baunach in Public Opinion Quarterly
Using OLS regression and decomposition techniques to analyze General Social Survey data, Dawn Michelle Baunach explains individuals’ attitudes toward same-sex marriage from 1988 to 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2010. The influences on same-sex marriage attitudes differed substantially over time.
“Federalism and Full Faith and Credit: Must States Recognize Out-of-State Same-Sex Marriages?” by John P. Feldmeier in Publius
Are other states, under the full faith and credit clause of Article IV of the U.S. Constitution, compelled of recognize same-sex marriages solemnized in other states? Under Article IV, the Congress could legislate on the issue and provide further guidance to states. Federal courts could intervene, and offer interpretations of the full faith and credit clause as it applies to same-sex marriages.
“Federalism and Equality Rights Implementation in Canada” by Linda A. White in Publius
What was the impact of federalism on reproductive and sexuality rights in Canada? Despite favorable Supreme Court rulings recognizing the essential validity of these actions (namely access to abortion and contraception, and marriage between same-sex partners), cooperation by another level of government is necessary in order to implement access.
Federalism and the Tug of War Within by Erin Ryan
Federalism versus states rights is a major legal issue for same-sex marriages in the United States. Erin Ryan has written previously for the OUPblog on why equal protection trumps federalism in same-sex marriage cases.
Blackstone’s Guide to the Equality Act 2010, Second Edition, edited by John Wadham, David Ruebain, Anthony Robinson, and Susie Uppal
This guide to one of the most significant reforms of discrimination legislation in the UK includes information on civil partnerships.
Alice Northover is a Social Media Manager at Oxford University Press. She is editor of the OUPblog, constant tweeter @OUPAcademic, daily Facebooker at Oxford Academic, and Google Plus updater of Oxford Academic, amongst other things. You can learn more about her bizarre habits on the blog.
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Smoke and mirrors
“Imagine a global spying network that can eavesdrop on every single phone call, fax or e-mail, anywhere on the planet. It sounds like science fiction, but it’s true.”
—Andrew Bomford, correspondent, BBC Radio4
Recent weeks have seen a plethora of media postings concerning revelations about the US government’s systems for obtaining access to communications data. The passage quoted above would seem to fit well into these but actually comes from 1999 and relates to the disclosure of a massive surveillance operation, known as project ECHELON which allegedly allowed the US security agencies (and also those from the UK and a number of other countries) to monitor the content of all email traffic over the Internet (a report on ECHELON produced by a European Parliamentary Committee).
In the world of espionage and national security, little seems to change. There are always more questions than answers.
In early summer 2013 we learned much about two surveillance programmes apparently operated by the United States’ National Security Agency (NSA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Under the first, the authorities have apparently been granted a secret court order requiring the major US telecommunications company Verizon (which offers fixed line and mobile telecommunications services as well as broadband Internet access) to transmit on an ongoing basis a wide range of data concerning its users’ communications users to the NSA and the FBI. In the UK (and the EU more generally) we are not strangers to the notion that communications providers should be required to retain communications data and, under specified circumstances and procedures, transfer it to law enforcement agencies (and indeed to a range of public authorities). The transfer of communications data is authorised under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2001 and is supervised by the Interception Commissioner. In his most recent report published in July 2012, he indicated that:
During the reporting year public authorities as a whole, submitted 494,078 requests for communications data. The intelligence agencies, police forces and other law enforcement agencies are still the principal users of communications data. It is important to recognise that public authorities often make many requests for communications data in the course of a single investigation, so the total figure does not indicate the number of individuals or addresses targeted. Those numbers are not readily available, but would be much smaller.
This may seem a substantial figure but, to put it into some perspective, Verizon have nearly 145 million customers, data on all of whom is required to be submitted on an ongoing to the NSA and FBI. It is not known whether other United States communications companies (in particular AT&T which is similar in size to Verizon) have been served with similar court orders but there are suggestions that these networks have been very willing to cooperate with law enforcement. In theory the requirement to obtain a court order is stricter than the UK procedure which requires only approval by a senior member of staff within the public authority. The fact that proceedings are secret and the fact that the US Verizon order became known only through a leak does not inspire confidence.
The second element of US practice which was exposed by the whistleblower Edward Snowden, concerned NSA access to content related data held by a range of Internet related companies such as Google, Apple and Facebook. This data is clearly much more sensitive than the communications data discussed above. As with all aspects of the story there is uncertainty over even basic issues. The claim is that the NSA enjoyed direct access to servers. This has been vehemently denied by a number of the companies involved. A Google statement asserted that:
Google cares deeply about the security of our users’ data. We disclose user data to government in accordance with the law, and we review all such requests carefully. From time to time, people allege that we have created a government ‘back door’ into our systems, but Google does not have a back door for the government to access private user data.
Google publishes a ‘Transparency Report’ that provides data on the number of requests it receives from governments around the world for access to data on the browsing history of individuals. This does not, however, give details how many requests from the US authorities relate to national security concerns. A number of other Internet companies have produced similar statistics although again with very limited data about the proportion of national security requests. At the time of writing, Google and a number of other communications providers are seeking permission from the US authorities to publish more data about the extent of national security related requests for data.
In the United Kingdom, a draft Communications Data Bill (subsequently dropped following objections from the Deputy Prime Minister) was published in 2012. It was subjected to scrutiny by a joint Parliamentary Committee. In giving evidence to the committee the Home Secretary was asked to comment on the uses made of communications data. Her response was:
As I say, I do not make any comment about individuals in relation to the security service, or any of the other security and intelligence agencies. It would not be appropriate for me to do so. Everybody who is working on this Bill is doing so because this Government believes that it is important that the police and the other agencies are able to continue to have the powers that they have today to do as we have discussed earlier, which is to save lives, in a new technological environment. I understand that the police estimate they get 30,000 urgent requests for communications data per year, and they estimate that they save lives in 25% to 40% of those cases. I think that matters to the public.
Very large numbers but ones that sit rather uncomfortably with the statistic that a ‘mere’ 640 murders were committed in the UK during 2012. It does seem hard to credit that between 7,500 to 12,000 lives are saved annually in the United Kingdom because of access to communications data.
There is no doubt that communications data can be a valuable investigative tool for crime detection. In evidence before the Committee the Director General of the Serious and Organised Crime Agency indicated that it was used in ‘around 95%’ of their investigations. It is very common for information about Internet activity to be led in criminal cases. In 2012, the Telegraph newspaper reported on a murder trial in which the female victim had vanished from her home with her body being found several weeks later. At the trial of the accused:
Lyndsey Farmery, an internet use analyst who assisted police with the investigation, took the jury through Tabak’s online activity in the days after killing 25-year-old Miss Yeates.
Web records from work and personal laptops show he researched the Wikipedia page for murder and maximum sentence for manslaughter, she said.
While regularly checking the Avon and Somerset police website and a local news site, the Dutch engineer was also checking body decomposition rates.
Days after killing Miss Yeates at her Clifton flat on December 17, Tabak watched a time-lapse video of a body decomposing, Bristol Crown Court heard.
Tabak — who denies murder but admits manslaughter — also went on Google to look up the definition of sexual assault.
At another level of communication data, a freedom of information request in 2012 disclosed that the Metropolitan Police had made 22,000 requests over a four year period for access to data held by London Transport relating to journeys made using its system of Oyster cards. The data can be used to place a suspect (or a card registered in the suspect’s name) in the vicinity of an offence at the appropriate time. In another example of the use of electronic data, a magistrate was convicted of theft. A woman had lost a Rolex watch in a Tesco supermarket. Two years later the watch was handed in to a jeweller’s for repair. Its serial number was checked against a list of missing watches and this led to the arrest of the magistrate who had handed it in for repair. His defence that he had bought the watch as a present for his wife in a second hand shop (whose location he could not remember) was undermined when data relating to use of his Tesco Clubcard placed him in the supermarket at the time the watch went missing.
As the above examples show, communications and location data can be crucial evidence in criminal investigations. In the Tesco example, there is an issue why the loyalty card data was still available in such detail two years after the event. The Data Protection Act requires that data be retained for no longer than is necessary. It is difficult to see what justification there might be for keeping data at this level of detail for two years.
In any matters relating to criminal investigations and even more to issues of national security, there has to be a balance between the legitimate need for secrecy and public accountability. The key issue is perhaps proportionality. We live very large parts of our existence online. OFCOM data indicates:
The average UK consumer now sends 50 texts per week — which has more than doubled in four years — with over 150 billion text messages sent in 2011. Almost another ninety minutes per week is spent accessing social networking sites and e-mail, or using a mobile to access the internet, while for the first time ever fewer phone calls are being made on both fixed and mobile phones.
We have established laws relating to respect for our physical property. Search warrants are required to be issued before law enforcement agencies can enter our houses and it is perhaps time that our virtual houses received similar protection. Another recent tool which has been extremely useful for law enforcement agencies is DNA evidence. There is certainly controversy concerning the circumstances under which DNA is collected and retained but there does not appear to be a strong body of opinion in favour of universal DNA profiling. Effectively, however, that is what appears to be happening with communications data in the United States. UK practice is more restrained but we do need a more evidence based debate. I gave data relating to the number of requests for access to Oyster card data. There is no data that I have been able to find relating to the number of times it has been used in the course of criminal prosecutions. In the wake of the Prism revelations in the United States, some cases were cited as evidence of the value in communications data in preventing terrorist offences but other sources have cast doubt on this suggesting that other and older forms of intelligence gathering deserve the credit.
To finish on a lighter note, but one that does perhaps make the point about proportionality, I recall an intellectual exercise intended to identify the best way to reduce casualties in road accidents. We can all think of suggestions, invariably involving additional or improved safety features in cars. The winning suggestion was rather different. Prohibit seat belts and air bags. Instead make it mandatory to have a sharp spike fitted on the steering wheel pointing directly at the driver’s heart. I’m sure it would cut the number of accidents but …
Ian Lloyd is the author of Information Technology Law, now in its sixth edition. Ian received his PhD from University of Strathclyde. He has previously taught in the Department of Private Law at the University of Aberdeen and served as Professor of Information Technology Law at University of Strathclyde until 2010. He is now Professor of Information Technology and Telecommunications Law at the University of Southampton. He is on the editorial team of the International Journal of Law and Information Technology
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World music for woodwind
When you think of styles that are associated with the clarinet or saxophone you might think of classical, klezmer, or jazz, but these instruments are also well-suited to many world music styles. Ros Stephen explores this concept in the Globetrotters series, with original pieces in styles from across the globe.
Melanie Henry recording the Saxophone Globetrotters CD
For example, in this clip of ‘Guanabara Bay’ from you can hear the saxophone taking on the bossa nova, a style from Brazil that developed from the samba. As you’ll hear, bossa nova is very relaxed and laid-back—imagine sunning yourself on a beach in Rio de Janeiro. Bossa nova is characteristically performed by guitar and voice; in this piece the saxophone acts as the vocalist and the part of the guitar is taken by piano, double bass, and percussion.
Click here to view the embedded video.
In contrast, in this next video the clarinet plays a lively, upbeat Cuban cha-cha-cha. The cha-cha-cha is one of several dance styles that make up salsa music. Rhythm is very important in Cuban music, with many different rhythmic patterns played simultaneously. Listen out for the clarinet’s syncopated rhythms offset against the steady rhythmic pulse of the cowbell.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Woodwind instruments also work well in folk music. ‘Breton Mariner’s Song’ is in the chants de marin style, which grew out of Brittany, in northern France. The style is characterized by sea shanties and ballads traditionally sung by sailors, telling of travel and adventure or shipwrecks and war. Whereas the previous two pieces prominently feature syncopation, this piece is strictly rhythmic and firmly rooted in a lilting 6/8.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Of course, these are just a few examples, and there are many more world music styles to be explored. Moreover, many musical traditions have instruments that are very similar to the clarinet or saxophone—for example the Romanian taragot, the Egyptian arghul, and the Breton treujenn-gaol—and, thus, the music from these traditions translates particularly well to standard woodwind instruments. So, next time you’re thinking of music for clarinet and saxophone throw some world music styles into the mix.
Laura Jones is Editorial Assistant for Printed Music at Oxford University Press.
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