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Wellman reviews Religious Pluralism in America: The Contentious History of a Founding Ideal by William R. Hutchison.

There was in early-nineteenth-century France a widespread revival of religious sentiment, after the turmoil of the Revolution and the intellectual onslaught on religion so central to the French Enlightenment. Simultaneously, political economy became more prominent among "publicists"—educated people or theoreticians writing as journalists—and political elites. These two developments influenced those who sought to modernize society and who in their different ways expressed a new approach known as industrialisme. These writers put forward several versions of the links that should exist in industrial society between political economy and religion.A truly a-religious political economy based on self-interested behavior and utilitarianism, such as the one presented in Jean-Baptiste Say's writings, gained acceptance for most people interested in the "new" science. This point of departure is important not only because Say's thought became a major reference for the different conceptions of industrialisme but also because it provided a utilitarian evaluation of religious institutions and feelings.Some other conceptions of industrialisme can be found in the leading members of two distinct schools of thought: the Groupe de Coppet, with Germaine de Staël and Benjamin Constant; and the less homogeneous group formed by Claude-Henri Saint-Simon, the Saint-Simonians, and Auguste Comte. Both approaches presumed that self-interest was incapable of uniting the social body and emphasized religious feelings to explain how societies could function harmoniously.We examine how Staël and Constant dealt with these issues and how, while they accepted the principle of competition in economic activity, their conception of the specific nature of liberty in a modern society led them to a critique of utilitarianism and morals based on interest and also to the idea that the harmonious functioning of industrial society requires a morality based on religion.We then study how industrialisme was modified to fit the views of modern society held by Saint-Simon, the Saint-Simonians, and Comte. Political and civil liberty was not a central matter for these writers. Instead, they favored the creation of organizations capable of regulating a chaotic social order, and in this perspective new forms of religion were given a prominent place, specifically formed to suit the industrial social order and based on philanthropy or altruism.In the conclusion we briefly note that, after all such criticism, some leading liberal economists reacted in defense of political economy and developed their own conceptions of the links between economics and religion: they rejected the idea of the necessity of a new religion and insisted instead on traditional Catholic ideas. As a result, political economy and religion were conceived as two pillars of a conservative order following the rise of socialist ideas.

What is technology -- New worlds of technique: Native Americans and Europeans, ca 1600-1770 -- Debate over manufactures in the Early Republic, 1785-1820 -- Inside factory systems, 1820-1885 -- "Second Nature": steam, space and an new world order, 1840-1900 -- Telephony, 1872-1914 -- Inventing efficiency: scientific management, ca 1900-1939 -- Ford, automobility, and mass production, 1908-1941 -- Toys were us: invention and technological acculturation in hobbyist worlds, 1900-1940 -- Pest war: the shifting use and meaning of insecticides, 1940-1990 -- Military-Industrial-University complex, 1945-1990 -- Countdown to cyberspace: 1974-1990

Der erste Band der 2015 von Costanza D'Elia gegründeten Zeitschrift "Visual History. Rivista internazionale di storia e critica dell'immagine" wird mit einem Zitat aus "L'orologio" ("Die Uhr") eingeleitet, einer der bedeutendsten politischen Romane der italienischen Nachkriegszeit, den der Schriftsteller und Maler Carlo Levi 1950 veröffentlichte. Die Auswahl der Zeilen erfolgte nicht zufällig: Ein Mensch, verzweifelt ob der "Unfähigkeit zu leben", stößt "in immer neue Wissensgebiete vor, auf der ständigen Suche nach etwas, das ihm hoffnungslos verborgen bleiben würde".

Fifteen years after its collapse, communism has undoubtedly become part of Romania's recent past. Although this period is now the historians' field of research, its study remains indebted to the pre-1989 evaluations made by western political scientists. Among those who contributed to the understanding of Romanian communism, Vladimir Tismăneanu features prominently. This essay reviews the concepts coined by this author -such as national Stalinism or dynastic communism- and underlines the interpretations he proposed for some particular episodes – such as the power struggle based on three centers or the emergence of Marxism revisionism as the prerequisite for internal liberalization.

In this brief reflection on Shaun O'Dwyer's book, Confucianism's Prospects, I accept his central arguments regarding the implausibility of "Confucian democracy," and I suggest a further reason for the inapplicability of Confucianism as a perfectionist doctrine for modern pluralistic East Asian societies. Beyond the elitist paternalism that is the focus of O'Dwyer's analysis, I suggest that Confucianism's theory of power, as illustrated by reference to the Mencius and the Analects, is insufficient to the task of constituting and reproducing modern democratic practice. Thus, for democracy to develop in East Asia, it must be grounded in liberalism.