Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2021 March 10

= March 10 =

Industrialization in North Vietnam and South Vietnam in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s
Which country was more industrialized in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s: North Vietnam or South Vietnam? Also, what about more urbanized? Futurist110 (talk) 01:59, 10 March 2021 (UTC)
 * There's a little bit of information at Economic history of Vietnam, which notes that by the end of 1966, the U.S. bombing campaign, Operation Rolling Thunder, decimated the North's industries, it basically had no industry for a while after that. There was no similar crippling of industry in the south.  -- Jayron 32 12:56, 10 March 2021 (UTC)


 * Interesting! Futurist110 (talk) 22:20, 11 March 2021 (UTC)


 * And earlier: "North Vietnam inherited 28 factories from the French; with Chinese and Soviet materials and advice, they constructed more than 100 new factories. By 1960, the North was able to mine its own coal, manufacture its own farm machinery, produce its own bricks and building supplies, build its own barges and ferries and generate its own electricity. Industrialisation was not without its problems. North Vietnam was desperately short of skilled technicians and experts, such as engineers, architects and metallurgists to oversee its larger projects".  Alansplodge (talk) 11:16, 11 March 2021 (UTC)


 * Where did North Vietnam import these experts from? China and the Soviet Union? Somewhere else? Also, what about South Vietnam's industrialization? Futurist110 (talk) 22:20, 11 March 2021 (UTC)

Maison de Robespierre
What was the name of the royalist lawyer arrested in 1933? --95.232.235.71 07:32, 10 March 2021 (UTC)
 * La Mémoire de Robespierre à Arras mentions on page 1044 the arrest, on that day, of Maître Degraeve, a member of the Camelots du Roi. Alansplodge (talk) 12:43, 10 March 2021 (UTC)
 * This book here mentions the protests and the painting of the mayor's house in some detail, but does not name the lawyer in question. -- Jayron 32 12:49, 10 March 2021 (UTC)
 * Thank you very much. --95.232.235.71 14:24, 10 March 2021 (UTC)

Freisler and Vyshinsky
In 1937, Roland Freisler was at Moscow to take legal lessons from Andrey Vyshinsky during Mikhail Tukhachevsky's trial. Are there some information about that meeting? --95.232.235.71 08:21, 10 March 2021 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.232.235.71 (talk)

Lupu Dinescu
There's a Romanian minesweeper Lieutenant Lupu Dinescu, but my search didn't find anything about Lupu Dinescu. Apparently, he must have done something notable to become a ship's namesake, but books don't have anything on him either which a bit strange. 212.180.235.46 (talk) 14:12, 10 March 2021 (UTC)
 * PS. It appears that the Romanian Navy has a whole bunch of ships named after otherwise unknown military personnel: Admiral Petre Bărbuneanu (ship), Rear-Admiral Eustațiu Sebastian (ship), etc. 212.180.235.46 (talk) 14:25, 10 March 2021 (UTC)

Maybe part of the reason these aren't so easy to find in a search is that Romanian often uses names in a different order, family name first. This book seems to have something relevant: "La 2 decembrie 1941, Aspirantul DINESCU LUPU şi-a pierdut viaţa împreună cu echipajele a două şalupe dragoare de sub comanda sa. A fost avansat post-mortem la gradul de locotenent şi decorat cu „Ordinul Mihai Viteazu cu spada”" (Google translate: On December 2, 1941, the aspirant Dinescu Lupu lost his life together with the crews of two minesweepers under his command. He was promoted post-mortem to the rank of lieutenant and decorated with the Order of Michael the Brave with swords." He's listed as "Lupu St Dinescu" hereFut.Perf. ☼ 17:42, 10 March 2021 (UTC)


 * The Romanian Wikipedia has an article Petre Bărbuneanu, he was the commander of the Romanian Navy 1937-1940 and 1945-1946. Likewise article for ro:Eustațiu Sebastian, commander of the Romanian Navy 1909-1917. DuncanHill (talk) 18:11, 10 March 2021 (UTC)

Is there a name for this type of book?
I'm thinking specifically about a genre of historical non-fiction, which takes as its starting point one particular subject, such as 'salt' and then goes on to explore various aspects of world history from that starting point. For example, who first discovered salt, who first brought salt to China, how salt affected trade in the Middle Ages, how salt started a particular war, etc. I know they had salt in China, but you catch my drift, I'm just using salt as a crude example because I know there is a book called 'Salt: A World History' which does something similar. My question is... is there a name for this type of history book, where a variety of subjects are approached using one initial item, substance, field of study, etc.?95.150.37.158 (talk) 22:51, 10 March 2021 (UTC)


 * It would fall broadly under "topical history" (something which doesn't seem to have a Wikipedia article). By the way, there's a book "Salt as a Factor in the Confederacy" by Ella Lonn whose title seems odd to me, but which is apparently a serious subject (we have an article Salt in the American Civil War)... AnonMoos (talk) 00:51, 11 March 2021 (UTC)


 * The general premise reminds me of Connections. <-Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots-> 03:27, 11 March 2021 (UTC)


 * Connections jumped from one thing to the next in the chain, hence the name. I'm not sure there is a good name for this kind of book; in a way, every history book is a topical history book, so it's all about degree. If you want to be very generous with the terminology, you might call such things longitudinal studies, but that's maybe not helpful. I took a look in my copy of One Good Turn and the frontispiece only suggests it get categorized under screwdrivers - history and screws - history rather than attempting to group it with books of a similar style. Matt Deres (talk) 16:53, 11 March 2021 (UTC)


 * We have an article on monograph. --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 11:48, 12 March 2021 (UTC)
 * So one might refer to a book of this type as a "diachronic monograph". --Lambiam 07:49, 13 March 2021 (UTC)


 * In linguistics (where the word was invented) "diachronic" means concerned with the sequence of events over time, and so would appear to be somewhat the opposite of topic-focused history... AnonMoos (talk) 10:35, 13 March 2021 (UTC)


 * Mark Kurlansky is the author of Salt: A World History (2002), ISBN 0-8027-1373-4. He has also books on cod, Basques, oysters, non-violence, paper, milk, salmon. He is in Category:Microhistorians, so maybe you are looking for microhistory. --Error (talk) 12:15, 15 March 2021 (UTC)


 * According to our "Microhistory" article, it's often a narrow focus on one individual or small community at one period of history, which to me doesn't sound similar to exploring the role of salt everywhere across the globe during all periods for which information exists... AnonMoos (talk) 16:38, 15 March 2021 (UTC)


 * It may be that the term "commodity history" suits the genre you are looking for. A shy person on IRC suggested this term for a response to this question. Kurlansky's books are quite popular examples, but the whole genre comes in for a certain amount of criticism, as can be seen here: https://s-usih.org/2018/12/commodity-histories-complicity-and-the-new-history-of-capitalism/  — jmcgnh (talk) (contribs) 02:00, 16 March 2021 (UTC)