1.LIU Jinghua, “An Analysis of the Meaning and Evolution of Concepts Relating to ‘Urbanization’”.
NewUrbanization is an important strategy for the economic and social developmen in China at present. We must have a correct understanding and use to the “urbanization” and other related words. This paper has carried on an analysis of the semantic evolution of the concepts of “city”, “town”, “metropolitan”, “urbanization”, “rural urbanization”, “counter-urbanization”, especially the concept “local urbanization”.
2.ZHANG Weiliang, “The System of Rural Towns and Urbanization in Britain before Industrial Revolution”.
The system of rural towns in Britain began to sprout in the middle ages, and the basic pattern ofthe rural towns had been formed by the late middle ages. In the early modern times, the role ofmarket towns became more and more important in the local society, the specialized market towns,manufacturing towns, seaports, health and leisure resorts and seaside towns turned out to be the newforms of the development of rural towns. At the same time, the British rural towns had appearedmany features of the modern city, agricultural nature decreased, the occupation of urban residentstended to diversification, a close relationship between the specialized market and the rise and fall ofrural towns was setting up, the proto-industrial towns promoted the growth of the new-type relationin urban and rural areas, the increase of urban population, specialized degree and social serviceability made rural towns became the social center of life and work.
3.MENG Zhongjie, “A Start of the Verstädterung in German Region in the First Half of 19th Century”.
It is called as the "starting period" in the process of "Verstädterung" (similar with urbanization butstill with a little difference) in German region from the beginning of 19th century to the year of1840, in which the external form, inner structure, relationship between town and country, as wellas the culture of city had been changed obviously. Such the movement of "Verstädterung" showedus the diversity and complexity of the process, some of which were the results of the fragmentationof Germany in reality, some of which were similar as the tendencies of the development inother European countries, but both had given us a united picture of "Verstädterung" in westernworld. Moreover, it could be just considered as two sides of one coin, if we compare the idea ofparticularity and the universal perspective in the research of German "Verstädterung".
4.XIONG Fangfang, “Urban-Rural Relations and Urbanization during the Proto-Industrialization in France”.
From the late middle ages to the first half of the nineteenth century, like the other parts of Europe, proto-industrialization took place in France during the transition from traditional agrarian societyto modern industrial society. Industries, such as textile industry in particular, expanded and shifted to the countryside in different regions. In the phase of proto-industrialization, rural industry isclosely linked with the cities; it has still relied on the resources in cities and towns in production andmarketing. Meanwhile, to a certain extent, proto-industrialization has boosted the urbanization inmodern France.
5.XU Hao, “On the Institutions of Markets and Fairs in Medieval Western Europe”.
Markets and fairs are the main business channel of Medieval Western Europe, which were always in changing. The forums of ancient Roman cities were operating every day. However, while thecities and commerce declined in the Later Roman Empire, the consecutive commerce changed into periodic gradually. Although the number of the markets and fairs were quite small in the beginning of the early middle ages, it grew rapidly later as for the increasing domestic demand of WesternEurope. In the high middle ages, the commerce has given impetus to the prosperity of markets and fairs in both cities and villages, and the marks and fairs in the villages has outnumbered those in thecities. In the late middle ages, the markets and fairs were in transition, the number of village marketsdecreased, which resulted in the optimization of market structure and gave the rise to predominanceof city markets.
6.Robert N. Swanson, “The Changing Church of Pre-Reformation England”.
In the last decades of the twentieth century, "revisionist" scholars developed a model of the pre-Reformation English church which is now generally accepted among historians of the English Reformation itself. Recent work among medieval historians is, however, bringing further changes to the picture of the pre-Reformation English church, and these changes have not yet been fitted into the `revisionist' model. This article considers some of those recent developments. It begins by looking at two major books which set out the "revisionist" view of the late medieval church. It then gives a brief survey of recent work among medieval historians on the religious orders, Lollardy, and the potential for reform in the late-medieval church, to show how this is changing ideas about those key aspects of pre-Reformation English religious life. These developments mean that the history of the origins of the English Reformation is still uncertain.
7.MO Yumei, “Christian Money-lending Activities in Medieval England”.
In Medieval England, the Jews were not the only money-lending group. Foreign merchants andEnglish Christians took part in money-lending activities since the 12th century. By the mid-13thcentury, Italian merchants and banks, English merchants and royal clerks became the main money-lending power. The number of these Christian moneylenders and their money-lending scale hadsurpassed those of the Jews. Their money-lending activities, to some extent, not only met the domesticneed of money, but also propelled the development of English monetary economy, made English tradeinto prosperity and thus accelerated the evolution and stratification of English social classes.
8.CHEN Jianjun, “Attitudes of English Society to Jewry(1066—1656)”.
The attitudes and policies of Medieval English society to Jewry mainly embodied in the activities ofthe king, the local governments, the baronage and the church concerning Jewry from 1066 to1656. Their attitudes and policies were mainly indiscrimination, oppression, exploitation and persecution.Under those dominant negative attitudes and policies, Anglo-Jewish properties were levied and confiscated. Some of them were spiritually compelled to convert Christianity, their synagogues were often misappropriated, and their communities were eliminated. They were often afflicted and even killed.
9.GENG Zhi,“Reconsideration on American Grand Strategy of ‘Europe First’ after the Outbreak of the Pacific War”.
Although Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japan on December 7 of 1941，the United StatesGovernment carried out the grand strategy of ‘Europe First’ which aimed to defeat Germanyprimarily. This is the combination of some factors, such as geopolitics, cultural concepts andtraditional long-term strategy, not the product of hasty response to the situation, thus to a certainextent inevitable. For China, however, who made the greatest sacrifice, its strategic status in theAnti-Fascist War undermined, consequently wartime contributions of Chinese were not evaluatedfairly and deservedly.
10.GAO Fushun, “A Study on the Ancient History of Korean Peninsula from the Perspective of Regional History”.
With the academic idea, view and method of regional history, it could arrange theme clues andrestore the phase of ancestry of history of Korean Peninsula by integrating time and space and usingfragmentary data. It also could reject the influence of political and national mood and throw off thelimit of history of individual countries. At last, we could objectively carry out the study of history ofKorean Peninsula in the field of national origin, political affiliation and ancestry of regimes, whichcould avoid tendency of actualization of historical issues and historicization of realistic issues.
11.CHANG Jianhua, “Village Commune Management and Life in Shanxi Area during Middle Period of Qing Dynasty————Based on Penal Memorials to the Throne in Jiaqing Era”.
Archives about Shanxi area contained in Penal Memorials to the Throne in Jiaqing Era have provedthat in the village commune there were customary rules made by villagers themselves and alsocorvee set up by authorities. So the villagers' life was supervised by corvee responsible for localaffairs such as Convention, Xiang-di, Li-jia, and Bao-jia. Grass-roots organization was diverse inprefecture level. But in county level organizational form was unitary. These formed a characteristicshape of grass-roots organizations in the Qing Dynasty in Shanxi. Village commune constructed shetemple to pray for rain and acting and so on. In addition Village commune managed the use of waterresources.
12.ZHANG Naihe and REN Shijiang, “The Annual Conference 2015 of the Division of History of the Commission of Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education with a Symposium on China and the World from the Perspective of the Diversity of Civilizations”.
13.ZHAO Huibing and ZHANG Wende, “On Society and Social Transformation in the Medieval East and West —— A Summary of the 8th Congress of the Chinese Society of Medieval World History with a Symposium”.
