HUMOUR, SATIRE, AND SEXUALITY IN THE CULTURE OF EARLY CHARTISM

ABSTRACTHistories of Chartism have tended to emphasize the hegemony of respectability within the movement, and with histories of the popular press have seen the 1830s as a decisive break with older radical traditions of sexual libertarianism, bawdy political culture, and a satirical, sometimes obscene print culture. However, the basis of this position is a partial reading of the evidence. Work on London Chartists has emphasized their moralistic politics and publications at the expense of their rich populist and satirical press and the clear survival of piracy and romantic literature well into the Chartist period. The neglect of an important early leader, Henry Vincent, has meant the bawdy, sensual, and sometimes scatological letters he sent to his cousin in London have been overlooked as a source on the moral life of the Chartist generation. This article will address this by studying Vincent's letters in the context of London's populist press, particularly the work of his friends John Cleave and Henry Hetherington. Vincent's humour and attitude towards sexuality clearly reflect a broader tendency in London radicalism, while his own efforts as a newspaper editor in Bath indicate that acerbic humour was an important aspect not just of Chartism's political critique, but of its appeal to the provincial working class.

Baptist Autographs in the John Rylands Library, Manchester, 1741-1907

Within the holdings of The University of Manchesters John Rylands Library is a remarkable collection of 337 letters to and from Baptist ministers and laypersons written between 1741 and 1907. Nearly half (165) can be found among the autograph collections of Thomas Raffles (1788-1863), Liverpool Congregationalist minister and educator, with another 103 letters belonging to the collections of the Methodist Archives. John Sutcliff (1752-1814), Baptist minister at Olney and an early leader within the Baptist Missionary Society, was the recipient of more than seventy of these,letters. Among the correspondents are the leading Baptist and Congregationalist ministers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Although largely unknown today, these letters provide important insights into British Baptist history between 1740 and 1900, establishing the John Rylands Library,as a valuable resource for Baptist historians.

Die ,,Wissenschaft des Judentums“ und die Anfänge der kritischen Koranforschung Perspektiven einer modernen Koranhermeneutik

This article traces the beginnings of critical Qur'anic Studies to the nineteenth-century scholars of the so-called Science of Judaism school (Wissenschaft des Judentums). Until the 1930s, when the rise of the Nazis violently suppressed Jewish scholarly activities in Germany and elsewhere, generations of scholars such as Abraham Geiger, who is better known as an early leader of the Jewish Reform Movement, dedicated their lives to the study of the Qur'an and established a new discipline: Qur'anic Studies. These scholars, in many ways pioneers in their fields, authored a series of significant studies that contextualized the foundational documents of Islam with Rabbinic literature and were the first to undertake an unbiased study of early Islamic writings.

Leader Interview: Mentoring: A professional obligation

Connie Vance, RN, EdD, FAAN, was an early leader in the nurse-mentoring movement and continues to be a leading proponent of mentoring and the benefits it can bring to the profession. She and coauthor Roberta K. Olson, RN, PhD, wrote the Mentor Connection in Nursing (Springer, 1998), a definitive booh on the topic. Vance is a professor at the College of New Rochelle School of Nursing, in New Rochelle, N.Y. Mae McWeeny, RN, MS, a nurse educator and member of the Creative Nursing Journal editorial board, conducted the interview