Chilean Politics, 1920-1928

The Chilean Way to the Andes: Music, Politics and Otherness

Despite the dominant presence of the Andes Mountains in Chile, the country’s identity as an “Andean” nation, culturally speaking, has never been secure. As a nation ruled by Spanish, British and German descendants, with a majority of the population consisting of creoles and mestizos with no roots in indigenous Andean communities or cultures, “Andean” identity has in fact often been resisted by ...

Commentary: Salvador Allende: his role in Chilean politics.

Salvador Allende Gossens was born in 1908 and died in the coup against his government on 11 September 1973. He was four times candidate for the Presidency—unsuccessfully in 1952, 1958, 1964, and finally successfully in 1970. He qualified as a medical doctor in 1932 but from his student days he was also active in politics, helping to found Chile’s Socialist Party in the same year as his graduati...

Mathematics and Politics in the Soviet Union from 1928 to 1953

The paper describes the influence of politics on the life of Soviet mathematicians in Stalin’s era 1928–1953, years that witnessed the full unfolding of the dictator’s power. A few years following Stalin’s death are also covered. Various publications, private manuscripts, and recollections of my own experiences at the University of Leningrad served as sources. Leading themes include the adminis...

Regulating Railroad Innovation: Business, Technology, and Politics in America, 1840-1920

Arcetri, 1928 -1932

Early in 1928, a short time after receiving my doctorate at the University of Bologna, I was offered a position of assistant at the Physics Institute of the University of Florence. The Institute rose among olive trees, on the hill of Arcetri, a short distance from the villa where Galileo had spent the last years of his life as a political exile. The chair of physics was held by Professor Antoni...