The article discusses the proposed enlargement of the European Union by the inclusion of the five Central European Countries, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Estonia and Slovenia in terms of their history. In the past, they have been part of the West at times, but their recent economic history has not been encouraging. What will their prospects be when joining the European Union?

This article discusses the validity for historians of the concept of a pax britannica (a reminiscence, of course, of the pax romana), which Britain would have imposed during the 19th century, when she was the only superpower. Admittedly, from 1815 to 1914, there was no general war, even though ‘small’ wars broke out in Europe and overseas. The superior economic and naval power of Britain obliged France to avoid open conflict; Russia was also constrained, but not without the Crimean war. On the other hand, the influence of Britain in Europe had its limits, and eventually the British panicked before the rise of a strong German navy and this was a significant factor in the origins of World War I. Thanks to peace in Europe, Britain could devote her energies to overseas expansion. Besides her Empire stricto sensu, which grew relentlessly, she had a vast ‘informal Empire’ where the ‘imperialism of free trade’ prevailed. Altogether, the notion of pax britannica is most legitimate within the ‘formal’ empire. To her subject peoples Britain brought law and order, honest and efficient government, some economic development and a fast demographic growth. Pax britannica was both myth and reality, but it evaporated as Britain lost her economic and naval ascendancy.

The discussion on the relationship of democracy and development has only become meaningful after being freed from a purely dogmatic approach. International law, in particular international human rights instruments, commit States' Parties to establish and sustain a government based upon democratic elections and which is politically accountable. Development requires a policy towards achieving conditions where human beings can enjoy freedom from want and fear. Both policies, on democratization and development, are meant to achieve conditions in which human dignity is fully respected and they are therefore mutually reinforcing.

Erasmus was the first European intellectual to become famous, in the majority of European countries in his own lifetime. He thus illustrates the increasing importance of the international scholarly community or ‘republic of letters’ (respublica litteraria), a phrase which he helped to launch and which was common currency until the age of Voltaire. This article examines the ideal embodied in the phrase and suggests seven ways of testing the extent to which it was translated into practice (invitations to foreign scholars; the internationalization of libraries; correspondence; visits to famous scholars as part of the practice of travel; the album amicorum; the learned society; and the learned journal). A final section discusses the extent to which the republic may be said to have survived until our own day.

This article illustrates some of the challenges faced in trying to do research on little-known languages, particularly tribal languages. It refutes the widespread stereotype that tribal people share a ‘primitive’ language type. Functional bilingualism or even multilingualism is a natural feature of tribal communities. The question may be raised whether mastery of alternative languages promotes language death. A comparison is made with ‘small’ languages in contemporary Europe.

The popular acclaim for Alan Sokal's ‘Intellectual Impostures’ suggests a deep-seated suspicion about the value of much theoretical work in the humanities. But if the heroic age of scholarship is past, what are the humanities for? To teach us how to lead better lives?

As the year 2000 approaches there is a seemingly irresistible tendency to attach a label to the century that is ending. We here everywhere of “The American Century”, as if a stretch of time could belong to a country. Behind that expression, one can detect a set of attitudes, some of them holdovers from the nationalist sentiments that first surfaced in the nineteenth century, others expressions of anti-Americanism: if you don't like something about contemporary culture, blame it on the Yanks. In fact, most of the phenomena currently associated with America are global in nature, and the notion of an American Century makes little sense, except at the level of collective mentalities. Still, if one must associate a century with America, the best candidate would be the eighteenth. During the age of Enlightenment and Revolution, America epitomized everything enlightened and revolutionary. And Americans in Paris could bask in the glory of being identified not with McDonald's nor with Hollywood but rather with republican virtue and the rights of man. The real American century came to an end two hundred years ago.

The most important ethical issues in the use of the Internet and World Wide Web in scientific research are considered together with some of the conceptual problems that arise as a result of applying new information technologies to old institutions. The paper concentrates on a set of issues relating to moral responsibility for the production, utilization and diffusion of scientific knowledge in a networked environment. A conclusion is that reliability of information and hence the individual scientist's capacity to take full moral responsibility may be compromised by the environment provided by the World Wide Web.

Emile Zola (1840–1902) was one of the best known novelists of his time. In his work he gives a vivid description of French social and political life during the second Empire (1852–1870) and, in particular, of Paris. In this paper the author analyses the topography of the Paris of Emile Zola as described in one of his famous novels.

The common opinion that the history of Greek medicine can be characterized as the triumph of a rational, Hippocratic medicine, has been strongly attacked over the last 30 years. Instead of a single dominant theory of humoral medicine, scholars now point to the great variety of theories current in the time of Hippocrates, 450–350 BC, and to the great variety and number of those who offered healing in the medical marketplace. They are best described as craftsman, with similar behaviour and status to the local carpenter. Others sought the aid of the gods in temple medicine. The resulting picture emphasizes a dynamic situation.

The increased globalization of economics, communications and of medical care raises many issues of ethics and science and their applications on the global scale. A critical question to consider is the possibility of common agreement between people sharing different moral, philosophical or religious traditions. Common neurocognitive predispositions to moral judgement, which are found in the human species, may plausibly give access to common ethical values as a result of shared deliberations, despite differences in cultural traditions and social conventions. Various national bioethics committees have opened the debate at the national level, and extension to a global scale could be achieved by the creation of a Council for the Ethics of Science at the United Nations level.

Any reader of Tacitus' Annals may have noticed that poison played a prominent part at the imperial court during the Early Principate. In this article seven cases of suspected poisoning, mentioned by Tacitus in his Annals, are analysed and commented upon in some detail. The use of poison in general is studied against the background of Roman society, culture and mentality. It is argued that modern ideas about physicians, pharmacists, poisons and drugs may induce anachronistic interpretations of the texts. If the ambiguous position of the doctor, the root cutter, the drug-seller, the magician and of their products is taken into account, some cases of poisoning prove to be much more equivocal than they seem at first sight. It is likely that they are the unintentional result of medical practice – or of black magic.

In the first years after World War I there was a strong reaction against science and technology in Germany that was backed by the Lebensphilosophie and Anthroposophie movements. This sudden change in public opinion was not the result of new concepts and convictions that did not exist before; rather, the spectrum of opinions in the Weimar Republic continued those of the Wilhelminian period. However, the strength of critical voices was increased substantially as a result of the defeat in the war and its consequences. It may be that the enfranchisement of women in Germany in 1918 at least indirectly influenced the substantial shift in opinion after 1918. The continuity of a critical attitude towards science and technology from 1870 to 1933 seems deeply rooted in the German educational system and among the leaders of society, stemming from the so-called Bildungsbürgertum.

Whether history as a discipline is of any practical use, is a question that is open to debate. That many people find pleasure in ‘doing’ history however, is an undeniable fact. Professional historians find pleasure in writing history and even more so in working in archives and thus getting immediately in touch with the past. Many others find pleasure in reading history. Increasingly, professional historians also succeed in reaching a wide readership.