Всеобщая история и международные отношения

Статья посвящена изучению процесса формирования политики помощи слаборазвитым странам администрации Дж. Ф. Кеннеди в контексте политико-идеологического противостояния двух подходов – «помощи развитию» и «взаимной безопасности». Особое внимание уделено исследованию первых речей и выступлений президента Кеннеди, которые обозначили поворот его администрации в сторону радикально-прогрессистской модели развития азиатских стран.

The article deals with the issue concerning the destruction of famous commercial city Ugarit in northern Syria (earthquake, enemy invasion). Based on the Akkadian letter RS 94.169 from Urtenu archives, the author joins the opinion that Ugarit was devastated by the Sea Peoples. In his view, this letter was written by the last king of Ugarit Ammurapi to the Pharaoh Ramses III to ask for military aid but not to the king of Carkemish, as the publishers of RS 94.169 believed. A sudden attack of the Sea Peoples prevented to send the letter to addressee. 

The article considers history of lead in the use of antique shipbuilding. The author shows that extension of trade routes in the 6th-5th centuries BC required the creation of a new type of merchant ship that could stay at sea longer and carry more cargo. Trying to solve the problem of creating such a ship, ancient shipbuilders faced a number of technical problems. Among these problems was the protection of the underwater hull from pests. In addition, it was required to pick up material for a number of auxiliary parts and mechanisms – anchors, balancers, pipes, etc.

The article deals with the recommendations of Luigi Cornaro on how to live a long and happy life. The focus of the author’s attention is the treatise of Luigi Cornaro, which has repeatedly become the object of study of researchers. Considering the provisions of the treatise by Luigi Cornaro, the author concludes that his recommendations reflect the ideas of ancient and medieval authors to promote moderate nutrition, healthy lifestyles as factors of human longevity.

The article is devoted to London crimes in late Medieval period. Various factors that influenced the manifestation of criminal inclinations among citizens are considered. From all of the crimes committed in London the author divided them into categories. The author pays special attention to the most socially dangerous and serious crimes: treason, rebellion and heresy.

The paper deals with one of the important aspects of the Bodin’s political theory, the question of the environmental influence on the peculiarities of the development of peoples and the nature of nation-building. The author analyzes this problem in the context of general trends in the development of political thought of the epoch and the dispute about the problem of ethnic identity, emphasizing the practical orientation of Bodin’s views.

The “cultural turn” in socio-humanitarian knowledge led to an intensive analysis of collective representations, including ideas about the past, and at the border of the 20th and 21st centuries the “memorial turn” emphasized the need of the discussions about such analytical category as an event, which acquired a special epistemological status. In “memorial studies”, the principal cognitive attitude is to take into account the socio-historical context and its spatio-temporal dynamics, the probabilistic nature of events and the subjectivity of the actors.

The manuscript of Henry VII’s “The Book of Astrology” of the British Library (Arundel MS. 66), in which astronomical treatises and political prophecies are accompanied by numerous illustrations, reflecting various symbols of the royal power of the new dynasty in England, is considered in the article as an imagographic historical source.

The article on the material of wills examines the social side of the life of Londoners in the era of the late Plantagenets. The author finds out that the majority of testaments refers to a professional community: to merchants and mongers, to artisans and workers in the service sector, as well as to the nascent intelligentsia and administrative apparatus. These categories are disproportionate – the majority of testators belong to the merchants and craftsmen of the townspeople.

In this article an attempt to correlate the ideas of Geoffrey Chaucer’s «Canterbury Tales» with data of historical sources of the considered period is made. The documents give the basis to draw a conclusion, that characters and the plots presented on the pages of «Canterbury Tales» reflect reality contemporary to English writers, and Geoffrey Chaucer by right is possible to be considered as one of the first writers-realists.