Level 3 Health and Social Care Unit 4 M1

The nature vs nurture debate has been around for many centuries which argues about the role for heredity and environment in human development. Theorists in the past have argued that all humans are born with instincts which we have in life although other theorists have argued that the way we have been brought up, environment, culture around us are influential in what defines our personality traits and characteristics an example of nature vs nurture debate is the gay gene.The nature side of the debate is that gay is heritable a theorist named George Howt had claimed in 1998 that â€Å"being. Gay is in are genes† even though this has not been proven it could be possible that being gay is normal difference which can occur in human nature. The nurture side of the debate is that are sexual orientation is impacted by our environment the theorist who support the nurture side of this debate claim the environment factors involved with our up bringing decide out sexual preference these f actors could be friends, culture and friends.Another example of nature vs nurture debate is the twins studies which argues about how much of a twin personality is controlled by are genes and how much by are environment. The nature side to thE debate is that either that twins are grown up far away from each other or together have the same personality, behavior and preferences. If grown apart from each other nurture will not have much of a big impact on the twins to have them change their characterize this would prove that nature when it comes to twins is more dominant. Level 3 Health and Social Care Unit 4 M1 The nature vs nurture debate has been around for many centuries which argues about the role for heredity and environment in human development. Theorists in the past have argued that all humans are born with instincts which we have in life although other theorists have argued that the way we have been brought up, environment, culture around us are influential in what defines our personality traits and characteristics an example of nature vs nurture debate is the gay gene.The nature side of the debate is that gay is heritable a theorist named George Howt had claimed in 1998 that â€Å"being. Gay is in are genes† even though this has not been proven it could be possible that being gay is normal difference which can occur in human nature. The nurture side of the debate is that are sexual orientation is impacted by our environment the theorist who support the nurture side of this debate claim the environment factors involved with our up bringing decide out sexual preference these f actors could be friends, culture and friends.Another example of nature vs nurture debate is the twins studies which argues about how much of a twin personality is controlled by are genes and how much by are environment. The nature side to thE debate is that either that twins are grown up far away from each other or together have the same personality, behavior and preferences. If grown apart from each other nurture will not have much of a big impact on the twins to have them change their characterize this would prove that nature when it comes to twins is more dominant.

Comparative Analysis of “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” and “The Dance” Essay

The Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907, Museum of Modern Art, New York), is an oil on canvas painting by Pablo Picasso. This is an image of five nudes grouped around a still life. Of the five figures, four of the figures are facing the viewer. There is a disjunction in the fifth figure as she is crouched on the floor, her back away from the viewer, while her face, or mask, addresses the viewer. This vertically aligned painting measures 8’x7’8†³ and was painted after the Blue and Rose periods. The Dance (First Version, 1909, Museum of Modern Art, New York), is an oil on canvas painting by Henri Matisse. This is an image of five nude women linking arms in an oval. This horizontally aligned painting measures 8’6†³x12’9†³. This painting lacks detail and complexity. The artist has used four colors throughout the painting. These colors are green, pink, black and blue. Picasso painted Les Demoiselles d’Avignon after a notorious place of prostitution. The viewer is both attracted to the advances of the demoiselles, yet at the same time, recoiled with the horror of these prostitutes. This art belongs to a style of art known as Cubism. The savage, inhuman heads of the figures are the direct result of Picasso’s recent exposure Iberian art from the sub-Saharan, Western African region. The emphasis on abstraction, flatness and angularity prevalent in the painting are attributes of Iberian art. Through this painting Picasso has lost the interest of naturalistic curves of the anatomy and has chosen to create planes. The figures seem flat, two-dimensional and weightless. We can divide the painting into portions, i.e., the three-fifths on the left and the two-fifths on the right. The left hand portion relates to the colors of the Rose period, while the shift in colors towards blue on the right is reminiscent of the Blue period. The primary difference between the left and the right sides however lies in the heads of the two figures. The figures on the right are missing ears, their mouths are oval, their chins pointed and their nose oddly shaped. The ears, eyes, nose and mouth seem to be disjuncted and perhaps even dislocated for these two figures. Their shapes when compared to those of the left are grotesque. The excessive use of shadowing adds to the exaggeration of the African-like faces. Another  example of disjunction within the painting is the right leg of the women in the far left seems to morph in a block. In the Dance the viewer is no longer addressed by the gazes of the women. There is no audience-artwork participation. The women are no longer concerned with the audience. The dance seems to originate with the figure in the foreground, following a clockwise rotation. The painting offers soft linear contours that is pleasing to the viewers eyes. There is a disjunction which appears when the women in the foreground is unable to clasp the hand of the figure to her left. This is where the tension arises. This break in unity shows that the circle is not complete. It shows the that the dance cannot continue eternally. The fact that one link in the chain is missing causes an unbalance. This unbalance is captured in the figure to the right of the figure in the foreground. It seems that since the figure in the foreground hastens her movement in order to clasp her hand with the figure on the left. This sudden movement throws the figure on her right off balance. The five figures in the Dance are portrayed as caricatures rather than as real women. Les Demoiselles d’Avignon is radically different in style to any of the paintings we have examined up till now in class. The simplicity of the painting may suggest that it was intended to be a rudimentary experiment in form. It is almost as if the painting is layered with broken glass, and the viewer is expected to view this new, distorted image. In the painting, spatial depth and symmetry are destroyed. The space in which figures stand almost seems sculpted rather than painted. By observing the women on the far right, between the curtain, we notice how planar her body really is. Through the painting Picasso has distorted the ideal form of the female nude, which he has reconstructed into harsh, angular shapes. Within the painting are several sexual references. The pointed edge of the table in the foreground can be seen as a representation of penetration. From the posture of the second women from the left we can view her as either standing up or lying down. Though in the painting, the figure is painted standing vertically, the posture indicates that the position is more suited  for a horizontal position as though she was on a bed. This dual pose can be read perhaps as the rhythmical oscillation of a sexual act. The watermelon placed at the edge of the table can be considered a phallic symbol. The way the watermelon slice extends beyond the table and towards the women can also be seen as another reference to penetration. Picasso has approached the theme of eroticism in a less conventional manner. In the Dance the viewer is no longer involved in the painting. One cannot read the painting on a higher level. Unlike Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. There are no phallic symbolism. There is no eroticism expressed within this painting. It is the simplicity of the painting the audience appreciates. Matisse has gone back to the very fundamentals; creating a painting of minimum detail and a very simple background. He has used blue in the background to represent the sky while using green to represent the grass. I am not suggesting that his painting was too simple to be considered a masterpiece. The simplicity is the beauty of it. Both the paintings consist of five nude women, whose identities are unknown. Each artist has painted the basic forms of women, leaving out genitalia to illustrate that they were concerned with only the forms of the figures. Both paintings offer an aura of high energy. The energy derived from the Dance is a result of the urgency the dancers have in forming the perfect circle and their inability to do so. In Les Demoiselles d’Avignon the energy originates from the savage power these women possess. The fear deriving from barbaric intensity of these two figures on the right dispel the alluring qualities the three figures on the left portray. In the Dance the artist has created the painting out of contours while in Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, Picasso has firmly defined planes with minimum of contours. Les Demoiselles d’Avignon illustrates Picasso’s intense fear of women, his need to dominate and distort them. Even today when we are confronted with this painting, it is hard to restrain a momentary fear. The Dance captures the beauty of women and dance through the traditional beauties of art. Picasso no longer considers the themes of traditional beauty of art nor the realistic portrayal of his subject. The Les Demoiselles d’Avignon stands as  a cruel representation to the delight of the senses that Matisse’s the Dance exalts.

History of My Surviving in Math Classes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

History of My Surviving in Math Classes - Essay Example Second grade, third grade and fourth grade passed and I struggled to at least survive in math class. I felt isolated from the rest of the class by just the mere sight of them participating in recitations, taking a look at each other's satisfactory score, whilst I hardly pass any quiz or seatwork at all. Whenever I get a grade that was barely passing, I felt happy while my classmates frown upon looking at theirs, despite the wide gap their scores possess over mine. I thought I was never meant to go to college if my math malady was not going to be resolved. I was a bright student in other subjects and my classmates sounded upset whenever I told them my math problems. I thought I was the only one who had it - excellence in other subjects and a loser at math. I approached my Math teacher and told her that I feared to flunk the subject and that it would not be unfair if she were not to give me any consideration; I deserved a failing grade. She had that look on her face that looked as if she understood my situation right away, as though she had also been through a struggle exactly like mine. "In the first place, why did you not come earlier I was more than willing to boost your spirits up.  When I saw you, I saw myself.†   Right there and then, she had told me her story; she not only hated math when she was my age but failed a number of times, then got encouraged by her teacher.

Balanced Scorecard Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Balanced Scorecard - Assignment Example Essentially, the balanced scorecard is concerned with analysis of four areas including customers, finance, business processes and learning and growth. Managers are usually engaged in collection of quantitative data and then analyzing it with the aim of making appropriate and long-term decisions courtesy of balanced scorecard technique. This paper will analyze five different papers, which have examined balanced scorecard through case studies, primary data collection and as well as secondary research. The papers have good insight on the applicability, advantages as well as the challenges of balanced scorecard in different organizational setups. The study will involve analysis of the aims, methods and results of each of the papers and then a different section will compare their results. Finally, the paper will end by a conclusion, which will explain what I have understood from this study. Purpose of the study The purpose of this study is to have a critical analysis of balanced scorecard based on the studies of other authors who have conducted their studies in various settings and using different methodologies. Analysis of researches done in different settings and based on different methods and results will provide insightful information on what balanced scorecard entails, its challenges and application in different organizations.... Using the insights derived from Yin (1994), the authors have researched the manner in which balanced scorecard performance management system has been fruitfully put into practice in two major hotel chains including Towers and ITC Maurya, which are located within the India’s capital. This case study comprises of the organizations’ interaction of 45 several stakeholders. Among those who participated in providing information in this study included the vice president, HR. In addition, secondary sources were examined for more evidence, which included power point presentations used to make communications in the organizations. Also conducted in the study was a cultural analysis that espoused the innovative intervention, whereby 20 employees including managers holding the top, middle and lower level positions were interviewed and the results recorded in an open-ended format. The results of the study show that a strategic and innovative HRM intervention in ITC Maurya leads to a relearning of a fresh performance-based culture and unlearning of the past culture, hence enhancing the successful execution of the balance scorecard technique. Nonetheless, this leads to institutionalization of HR role and the innovative process. The case study also typified BSC implementation in Maurya hotels. However, it is found that HR managers will have a challenge of repeating this intervention in the rest of the hotels in the capital, particularly depending on how the stakeholders are involved in the process as well as the manner in which the intervention involves the non-managerial staff. Service quality management applying the balanced scorecard: an exploratory study - Ratnasingam,

Photograhy analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Photograhy analysis - Essay Example One is in Muslim culture, whereas other is about the western Indian culture. The photographer Roberto Cattani took this shot in Shiraz, Iran. This mosque is known as Nasir al Malik mosque is one of the famous mosque. It is the representational image and the theme of the picture is the semblance of life with colors. The picture depicts the idea that ‘life is in colors’ that is also an undeniable fact .The photographer captured this photograph from an eye level in the daylight. This photograph is consisting on the interior of the mosque. The focus of the picture is on the woman, who is seen as praying in the mosque full of colors that represents the relation of the being to the divine as well as affiliation of life with colors. In this image woman is wearing white, long, and well-draped veil from head to toe and offering prayers on the colorful praying rug, as it is one of the ritual of the religion, which demonstrates soulfulness. Along which there is a sequence of colorful patterned red carpets. Right at the back of the women the wall is delight fully ornamented with the beautiful wall art the shows the essence of Muslim architecture. The walls in the surrounding festooned with the skillfully patterned kaleidoscope windows that demonstrates the value and the reflection of colors on life. In the image, the woman lays in the middle if the picture and surrounded by the beautiful pillars and kaleidoscope at uniform distance that illustrates tranquility and uniformity in the picture. The walls, ceilings, pillar consisting on sequenced, repetitive geometrical motifs and shapes (squared / rectangular and ornamental shapes) that maintains the equilibrium in the photograph. This photograph is properly focused on the kaleidoscope and its reflection as well the exuberance of colors in the surrounding. The palate of the picture shows the vibrancy of the sharp colors that is balanced with the tints of browns and the mildness of

Identifying Characteristics of Gifted Children Essay

Identifying Characteristics of Gifted Children - Essay Example There has been a debate regarding nurturing and dealing with gifted children with normal children, and one can observe mix responses of experts and nonprofessionals. Still, experts believe that it is very imperative that parents identify particular characteristics in their gifted children, as their ignorance or avoidance may result in adverse outcomes, and in other words, it is very important that gifted children should receive proper guidance or path to utilize their skills, an absence of a platform may result in inappropriate usage. Analysis has indicated that gifted children usually have the ability to carry out any creative task like a professional artist, for instance, they can create paintings at the age of eight without any professional training. There have been few instances of gifted children reading professionally at the age of three or four. Particularly, experts believe, â€Å"Gifted children interpret life differently from others† (Distin, pp. 22-23). In this rega rd, it is essential that parents and teachers play a significant role in identifying different perceptions and skills of gifted children, and at the same time, they appreciate their different skills and perspectives (Distin, pp. 22-23). ... l that is very uncommon in gifted children, there is a possibility that the same child will be doing something exceptional at home or somewhere else, and here, one requires efforts of parents and teachers to identify their skills and extraordinary talent. In addition, a majority of studies have recognized higher retaining power of gifted children that is one of the major reasons for their exceptional achievements on academic, as well as non-academic levels. On one hand, gifted children have a higher IQ level; on the other hand, experts and psychologists have always found gifted children to be highly sensitive, and thus, parents and teachers should stay ready to expect adult behavior at one time and a little crying child at the next minute. In this regard, one can go for dealing with gifted children along with normal children; however, once again it will be a tiring experience and will require a huge amount of efforts. Moreover, gifted children’s needs would not be in any diffe rent from that of normal children; however, case studies have identified a few problems and issues with the gifted children. For instance, gifted children will need a higher amount of care and consideration in terms of their emotional development (Distin, pp. 157). In addition, most of the gifted children show impatient characteristics, as they are always full of ideas. However, they expect same abilities from others and when they do not get similar responses; it results in impatience and irresistible behaviors at times that can be troublesome. Another important thing to consider while dealing with gifted children is their resistance against directions.

Perspective on International Trade and Finance Assignment

Perspective on International Trade and Finance - Assignment Example This paper focuses on the trade disputes involving China, the impact and the determinants of foreign exchange rates, the valuation of the Chinese currency before and after the reforms. This paper also discusses the options that are available to China for reform of its exchange rate system. Introduction The level of exports by China had amplified radically from $250 billion in the year 2000 to a proposed $1,500 billion in the year 2009. This massive increase of Chinese exports severely hampered rival businesses in the developed countries, predominantly the Europe and the United States. In 2001, China entered the World Trade Organization (WTO), which ascertained China the right to export to countries like US and the Europe. Nevertheless, the entry to the WTO necessitated China to stick on to certain regulations that were required to endorse fair trade and generate a level playing ground for all. Various issues such as the safeguard of intellectual property, labour and environmental ben chmarks, health and safety apprehensions about Chinese products, China's management and manoeuvring of their currency, and expenses and prices established by the government instead of the free markets gave rise to a number of trade disputes. This paper investigates the different types of trade disputes and the endeavours made by China to solve them. A lot of disputes were rooted in the Chinese cultural practices as well as in ideological outlook and hence take time to resolve. Deficiencies in the legal and court arrangement in China also effected the enforcement of various rules. Additionally, many of the disputes originated due to the government's wish to guard the welfare of Chinese organizations and their workforce, and consequently China might modify its practices only if faced with convincing penalizing threats. The central government of China also encountered the "principal-agent" crisis where its decisions or requests could be overlooked by the local governments and organizat ions. In the meantime, modifications in business structure within the developed countries were changing the negotiation positions of the governments of those countries (Conklin & Cadieux, 2009). Analysis of the Case Issues Arguments of the different parties After the entry into the WTO, China started taking part in international trades. However, China did not impose criminal procedures and punishments on the infringement of intellectual property rights; neither did it build identical health and safety standards that were implemented in the western countries. The extensive health and safety, along with the labour and environmental regulations in the developed countries, added the expenses involved for the manufacturers located there. Since China did not enforce such strict standards, the Chinese manufacturers had unfair advantage over the western ones. Moreover, China did not honour the property ownership of western manufacturers because the Chinese manufacturers were creating employ ment and promoting domestic prosperity via counterfeiting. But this activity of Chinese manufacturers hurt the volumes of sales and the profit margins of the western

DRUGS AND ADDICTION ASSIGNMENT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

DRUGS AND ADDICTION ASSIGNMENT - Essay Example Manifestly, the quality of the social setting influences a person’s varieties. Thus, it accentuates the prominence of social factors for enhancing behaviors and addictions. The work provides explanation people’s perceptions and main motives that facilitate abuse of specific drugs based on sociological theories. Specific areas of interests include the symbolic interactionism, structural functional and conflict forces (Brent & Lewis 2013). Besides, genetic dynamics influence individuals worth and societys reactions. Structural functionalism Interprets society as a complex system whose components work together to stimulate stability and solidarity. Thus, positive or negative individuals’ appeals are products of order ultimate provisions or the absence respectively. Consequently, drug abuse is a reaction to the weak or deteriorating standards in the American society. Significant modernization presents complex structures and prompt social variations. In turn, shared morals and norms become indefinite and indistinguishable. To a wider context, the situation causes social instability, which is responsible for inconsistencies, and social strains that increase drug abuse. Likewise, contradiction between the American Government agencies, health care providers, and advertisers promotes drug use among citizens. For instance, the health care warn about dangers associated with the drugs, promoters venerate the use of drugs and the government subsidizes prices of other substances like tobacco and alcohol industries. Whether it is controlled substance or legal products, the drugs still exist for human consumption. In addition, culture fosters drug use for example toasting champagne with groom and bride. Conclusively, substance abuse results from lack of a strong links between the society and individuals. Social challenges also arise from individual’s interaction with peers. The symbolic interactionist

Maladaptive Consumer Behavior Project Research Paper

Maladaptive Consumer Behavior Project - Research Paper Example Therefore, other institutions should take part in the initiative to campaign against smoking. This paper is aimed to address the problem of smoking among the youth. First, it describes the maladaptive behavior and its detrimental effects to the youth. Second, it identifies the factors that lead to the development of the behavior, and explain the role of parents and society in getting rid of this maladaptive behavior. Third, the study also determines the role of other institutions such as marketers in minimizing, eradicating or correcting the maladaptive behavior. Smoking can be considered a maladaptive behavior because those who smoke consider the habit as a way to rid of stress. However, smoking can actually cause even more problems especially physical illness. Cigarette smoking has been found to have many negative effects that could endanger lives of smokers and non-smokers alike. In particular, long-term smoking can cause different diseases in the lungs, oral cavity, and the throat. In addition, it is also associated with certain cancers especially of the lung and the heart, and even of the breast (Chaudhuri et al., 2006). Other negative effects include allergies, peptic ulcer, stroke, asthma, and other serious illnesses. Moreover, a study conducted by researchers at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center found out the possible role of nicotine from cigarettes in breast cancer development and metastases (â€Å"Study Suggests a Possible Role for Nicotine in Breast Tumor Development and Metastases,† 2008) Informing children of the possible risks of smoking is not enough to make them realize the negative effects of smoking. The parents serve as the main motivators to make children avoid the habit. The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) suggests the importance of being involved in children’s affairs. By knowing their children’s

Create a Multicultural Theme Unit (8) Coursework

Create a Multicultural Theme Unit (8) - Coursework Example Furthermore, this process is implemented within a lower level of elementary grade and preschool level. This thematic unit benefits students to encourage and enhance their appreciation towards individualism and eccentricity among other members in the classroom.The prime purpose of the paper is to provide developmentally methodology towards learning and teaching process by the creation of multicultural theme unit. Moreover, week long detailed information about multicultural theme unit is created. This includes identification of four developmental goals and definition of criteria with teaching strategies. In case of literature-based program, the widely used units for organization of instruction is described to be as thematic units. The fundamental part of thematic units is multicultural literature. The foremost view which defines the concept of multicultural theme unit is differentiating the concept of multiculturalism. The multiculturalism is defined as the combination of cultures and multiple. Therefore, it can be notified that it is vital to include many cultures in the learning process to nullify difference between the dominated and dominant. The lesson plans for multicultural theory should bring diversity on the understanding with the combination of hands-on learning practices. Furthermore, children are confronted with critical thinking skills and fresh ideas. According to Barbara Biles, the early childhood education that has been incorporated in the preschool is described as an effective procedure for the development of racial identity and racial biases. One of the primary activities that I personally think would be included in the preschool activities is Passports. A passport craft activity is beneficial for a week multicultural theme unit. The passport craft is effectively modeled and presented after American passport. Furthermore, it modeled by showing the national bird and blue cover. This activity would be fruitful by

Quality Special Education Program Essay Example for Free

Quality Special Education Program Essay Recent reforms in education have emphasized the need for sensitivity and responsiveness to students social contexts. This is to increase not only the effectiveness of educational programs but also to create individual relevance to the student learning. Behavioral management is critical in special education programs because students behavior are often used by the public to determine the social roles and value of special-needs children. This can prove to be challenging for special education programs since social standards may vary in communities and therefore behavioral and social integration requirements will vary as well (Kopelowicz et al, 2006). Therefore, there is a need for special education teachers to have the means to evaluate individual student socialization requirements to ensure that they accomplish not only academic and behavioral educational goals but also to enhance their social integration and empowerment. Proposal The development of academic and behavioral programs that highlight socialization requires educators access to relevant research and the capacity to both research and their individual experience in developing interventions. In either case, Williams and Reisberg (2003) point out that teachers depend greatly on institutional support of such objectives and often have little direct participation in program development. This may be because of the need to develop general policies, procedures or methodologies but it also limits social context input thus diminishing the social relevance of interventions (Sailor et al, 2007). Therefore, there is a need for individual educational programs to develop their own evaluation methods to determine the socialization and social integration requirements of their students Recognizing the limitation on resources and manpower common to special education initiatives in public schools, the researchs target population will be limited to its existing students and extent of integration will only range from family to the school community interactions (Kopelowicz et al, 2006). It should be noted that the project should emphasize community and professional collaboration to create awareness and collect to multi-dimensional perspectives in improving socialization components to currently implemented academic and behavioral programs. Moreover, the evaluation or assessment programs must be easy to replicate so that it can be utilized in other educational settings and provide a baseline for socialization component evaluation. Rationale The assessment will then serve to develop high-impact low cost interventions, each intervention or program having a duration of twelve weeks. According to the studies conducted by Barry and Burlew (2004), Smith and Gilles (2003) and Koh and Robertson (2003), educators level of commitment to educational programs is often used as an indication of institutional commitment and concern to an issue. Thus, it is important for educators to take an active role in initiatives particularly where external stakeholders are involved. This is not only to utilize the social recognition of teachers role in education but also to utilize their professional practical experience. This becomes even more critical in special education programs since there is a limitation to public awareness and understanding of the socialization requirements of special needs students (Sailor et al, 2007). Even more critical is that without direct involvement in the evaluation or assessment program, educators will diminish their capacity to rational research and study results which in turn will impair the development of individual interventions and programs. Considering that the component of concern is socialization, the degree of sensitivity and relevance of the programs to specific social contexts will directly impact the level of social competency developed by students (Kopelowicz et al, 2006). More importantly, the assessment or evaluation program will be able to create a means to discuss perceived limitations in special education programs in addressing social stigmas and misconceptions regarding special education students, curriculum and requirements (Sloan et al, 2003). This will afford educators insights to the socialization impediments not only in education settings but society as a whole. In addressing such issues, programs will not only be able to sustain the relevance of programs after school but also initiate long-term social support systems for students. Conclusion In the case special education, this has become even more critical as the advocacy for social recognition and participation become critical to policies and treatments (Kam et al, 2004). Furthermore, research suggests that social skills development has been linked directly with perceived quality of special education and overall social acceptance of conditions being addressed by special education curriculum (Koh Robertson, 2003). This has translated to the inclusion of social integration objectives in both academic and behavioral interventions. This has increased the demand for collaborations between schools, parents and community (Sailor et al, 2007). However, to be able to fully meet this need, education stakeholders must not only develop programs but also institute evaluation and feedback systems to ensure the fulfillment of not only program objectives but also create opportunity to develop competencies, collaborations and public knowledge about special education concerns and issues. References Barry, Leasha M. and Burlew, Suzanne B. ( 2004). Using Social Stories to Teach Choice and Play Skills to Children With Autism.Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, Jan; 19: 45 51. Kam, Chi-Ming, Greenberg, Mark T. and Kusche, Carol A. ( 2004). Sustained Effects of the PATHS Curriculum on the Social and Psychological Adjustment of Children in Special Education. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, Jan; 12: 66 – 78. Koh, Myung-Sook and Robertson, Janna Siegel ( 2003). School Reform Models and Special Education. Education and Urban Society, Aug; 35: 421 442. Kopelowicz, Alex, Liberman, Robert Paul and Zarate, Roberto ( 2006). Recent Advances in Social Skills Training for Schizophrenia. Schizophr Bull, Oct; 32: S12 S23. Sailor, Wayne, Stowe,Matthew J. , Turnbull, H. Rutherford and Kleinhammer-Tramill, P. Jeannie ( 2007). A Case for Adding a Social—Behavioral Standard to Standards-Based Education With Schoolwide Positive Behavior Support as Its Basis Remedial and Special Education, Dec; 28: 366 376. Sloan,Morris, Hughes, Marie Tejero, Elbaum, Batya and Sridhar, Dheepa ( 2003). Social Skills Interventions for Young Children with Disabilities: A Synthesis of Group Design Studies. Remedial and Special Education, Jan; 24: 2 15. Smith, Stephen W. and Gilles, Donna L. ( 2003). Using Key Instructional Elements to Systematically Promote Social Skill Generalization for Students with Challenging Behavior. Intervention in School and Clinic, Sep; 39: 30 37. Williams, Gregory J. and Reisberg, Leon ( 2003). Successful Inclusion: Teaching Social Skills Through Curriculum Integration. Intervention in School and Clinic,

Ryanair business strategies and implications for Human Resources

Ryanair business strategies and implications for Human Resources This report covers the implications the business strategies proposed by BBAMBI consultants will have on the Human Resource Management (HRM) function of Ryanair. The strategies proposed by BBAMBI were to improve customer service, build the brand, and increase revenue and reduce costs. The implications these strategies have on the HRM function are managing the change associated with the strategies, training of customer facing staff, and introducing an effective performance appraisal system throughout the organisation. For Ryanair to maintain economic primacy in the budget airline sector they must be able to successfully manage the recommendations listed above. Introduction BBAMBI Consultants conducted an analysis of the external environment for Ryanair in order to consider strategies for future business operations. BBAMBI have suggested a number of strategies for immediate implementation and made recommendations for longer term strategies. The short term strategies included improving customer service, developing the company brand, and increasing revenue and reducing costs. The strategies which were more involved were recommended to be put into effect over a longer term were becoming more environmentally friendly and developing into other transport markets. The strategies have significant implications for Ryanairs Human Resource Management (HRM) function and this report will critically review these implications. The primary implications are change management, training, and implementing a more effective performance appraisal. Managing Change The report has identified some of the changes that will face Ryanair in the next few years due to the change in strategy. According to the CIPD, people management and development professionals have a significant role to play in any change management process. HRs involvement in various aspects of change can make the difference between successful and less successful projects (CIPD, 2009a). A number of issues have been addressed in the literature as having a negative impact on change management. Resistance to change is the main issue with individuals or groups possibly engaging in acts to block or disrupt an attempt to implement change. Evidence suggests that that this can be reduced by involving those it will affect in the decision making process. Individuals who have been involved in the diagnosis, planning, devising and implementation of change are more likely to feel positive about it (Marchington Wilkinson, 2008). 2.1 Lewins Three Step Model HR and management can plan for the changes at Ryanair by implementing Lewins three-step model of unfreezing, moving and re-freezing. By looking at change as a process with distinct stages the organisation can prepare and plan to manage the transition (Marchington Wilkinson, 2008). Lewins model attempts to analyse the forces (driving and restraining) that impact on change. The model offers advantages in planning for organisational change by providing a simple approach to making and sustaining change (McCarty, 2007). Limitations of the model are that it does not take into account personal factors that can affect change. The model also assumes that organisations operate in a stable environment (Burnes, 2004). (Millet, 2004) The first step in the process of changing behaviour is to unfreeze the existing situation or status quo. It is necessary for HR to try and overcome the strains of individual resistance and group conformity. To prepare employees at Ryanair for change, HR and management need to build a trust and recognition for the need for change (Kritsonis, 2004). The second step in the process is movement where employees will begin to resolve their uncertainly about the changes. A method that HR can use in assisting employees in the movement stage is to persuade employees that the status quo is not benefiting them (Kritsonis, 2004). The final step attempts to re-freeze or create acceptance for recent changes, to replace old beliefs with new ones. If this step is not taken it is likely that employees will revert back to the equilibrium (Goode, 2008). An action that HR can use to reinforce the new values is to include them in policies and procedures (Kritsonis, 2004). Training Development Ryanair needs to be able to improve customer satisfaction to gain a competitive advantage over their main competition, easyJet. Training of customer facing staff is vital for Ryanair to be able to successfully improve customer satisfaction, retention, and loyalty. Despite being costly, training of staff will improve upon customer satisfaction as many studies have shown (Aragon-Sanchez, et. al, 2003, pg. 961). Studies have found that the number of customer complaints significantly decreased after implementing training of customer service staff (Office Depot, 2006). In developing the training further, Ryanair should conduct a Training Needs Analysis (TNA) before implementing an on-the-job training and coaching programs for their customer facing staff. 3.1 Training Needs Analysis Learning Plan A TNA will assist Ryanair in determining any skills gaps their customer facing staff have in relation to their job requirements and current performance (Marchington Wilkinson, 2008). A TNA study will not only highlight where skills gaps exist, but should also determine the cause and solution (Stetar, 2005). During the TNA the organization should consider means other than training to achieve their desired results as many practitioners highlight that training is not necessary in every situation. (Marchington Wilkinson, 2008) (Stetar, 2005). Following on from the TNA report Ryanair should produce a learning plan, which will focus on the clear aims and main objectives which they are trying to achieve through the further training of staff. (Harrison, 2005,p122). For Ryanair the general aim is to improve customer service. A well planned training initiative may act as an enabler to Ryanair in achieving the business strategy and objective of increasing customer satisfaction (Tannenbaum Wo ods, 1992). 3.2 Training Ryanair need to pursue follow on training from their induction process. It has been noted from a previous study conducted by Kinnie (2000) that it is not just induction and technical training, but employees ongoing investment in workplace activities which enhances their training and skills (Kinnie, et. al, 2000 cited in Redman Wilkinson, 2009). It is believed that focusing on on the job training is the most effective means of training (Marchington Wilkinson, 2008). On the job training could also include coaching or mentoring. The CIPD (2009b) surveyed coaching within a variety of organisations and just over half described coaching as a learning and development intervention and the rest suggested it is used for organisational development and change management. Coaching has also been said to assist in improving weaknesses, tackling underperformance, and improving productivity. (Marchington Wilkinson, 2008). Despite training being an additional cost for Ryanair it may prove to achiev e enhanced customer service, leading to an increase in customers, and therefore higher profits, as many studies have shown that training of customer service staff results in higher customer satisfaction (Aragon-Sanchez, et. al, 2003, pg. 961). After the implementation of on-the-job training Ryanair will need to evaluate the effectiveness using the Kirkpatrick model of reaction, immediate, ultimate, and analyzing the return on investment (Marchington Wilkinson, 2008). The most applicable means of measurement for Ryanair is the ultimate level, which measures the strategic impact of training on the organization (Marchington Wilkinson, 2008). To measure the impact Ryanair should compare the number of previous customer complaints to the number of complaints after the training commenced. 3.3 Barriers to Learning There are however disadvantages to training and development from an organisational point of view. Some barriers to training include cost, time, lack of resources, lack of line manager support, lack of awareness of potential benefits and employee motivation, and fear of trained staff being poached by competing companies. (Cannell, 2008). Many companies compete on cost, just like Ryanair, and training is seen as an unjustifiable wastefulness and too costly (Bach Sisson, 2000). Therefore, Ryanair may be hesitant to implementing further training. Ryanair are a low cost, no frills airline and therefore need to keep all costs to a minimum. Furthermore, the fear of trained staff being poached could also be utilised as an excuse for Ryanair to not increase their training budget as trained staff might leave for a more lucrative competitor. Performance Appraisal 4.1 360 Degree Performance Appraisal It is suggested that all staff at Ryanair undergo 360 degree performance appraisal, with customer appraisal forming part of the 360 degree feedback for front-line staff. 360 degree feedback would allow the performance of those staff involved in each different strategy (customer service, branding, revenue and costs) to be monitored and managed more effectively. 360 degree feedback allows performance to be viewed from different perspectives and increases self-awareness (Armstrong Barron, 2004). Maybe et al (1998) state that one difficulty with 360 degree feedback is that the employee may attempt to manipulate the process, although this can be mitigated by expanding the number of people who are appraising the member of staff. Customer appraisal, in the form of mystery shopping and customer surveys, has been established as one of the ways to improve customer service in the strategic analysis and will expand the number of appraisers involved in the process. This report reinforces the value of the use of this technique and it is proposed that it is an extremely effective way to monitor the level of customer service provided as it is evaluated at the boundary between the Company and the customer (Redman Wilkinson, 2009). Mystery shopping has been criticised as a cynical way for employers to spy on their employees (Cramp, 1994). However, Erstad (1998) states that mystery shopping should instead be viewed as a well-elaborated plan which serves as a management tool for improving customer service as well as enhancing human resource management. A well developed mystery shopping programme that is effectively linked to reward and incorporates training can result in improvements in customer satisfaction by up to 20% (Parker, 1988). According to Dorman (1994), Mystery shopping should not be punitive and employees who fail the shopping task should be provided with training until customer service improves. The proposal suggests that customer service data should be obtained at set intervals through the use of customer surveys. Customer surveys can be effectively used as part of customer appraisal and are now being used more frequently (Redman Wilkinson, 2009). 4.2 Implementing Performance Appraisals Performance standards and objectives should be prepared and communicated by the employees line manager (ACAS, 2005). Marchington Wilkinson (2008) propose that training to develop analytical skills, review information collected and to provide effective feedback may be necessary. Performance appraisals should occur throughout the year and be a continuous process (ACAS, 2005). The performance appraisal process should be continually reviewed in order to ensure that it working successfully (IRS Employment Review, 2003). According to ACAS (2005) the success of implementing 360 feedback appraisals depends on the culture of the organisation and how carefully it is introduced. 5.0 Conclusion It is clear that the proposed business strategies will have significant impact on Ryanairs HRM function. In order for Ryanair to maintain its competitive advantage, the HR function will need to consolidate these factors and have the flexibility to meet the challenges they engender. In doing so, the HR function will shape the culture of the organisation in such a way that will allow the other changes to take effect. Ryanair need to effectively manage the change required in implementing the proposed business strategies as they will involve introducing further training and a new performance appraisal system. Introducing further training and new performance appraisals is vital in this shift in culture and the reciprocal relationship between both will lead to the opportunity for Ryanair to achieve the proposed business strategies of improving customer service, building the brand, and increasing revenue, and reducing costs.

Cardiovascular Disease

Cardiovascular Disease Cardiovascular Disease Introduction This paper utilizes qualitative data drawn from a series of focus group discussions with patients living with coronary heart disease which explored their understanding of and adherence to a prescribed monitoring and medication regime. These findings are drawn upon in order to contextualize, from the patients perspective, the outcomes of the Departments of Healths Coronary Heart Disease National Service Framework strategy. The paper focuses attention on the consequences of this regulatory approach to clinical and risk management for those patients already living with coronary heart disease. Case Study Patient is 59 yrs old and had a myocardial infarction 2 years ago. He is obese, a smoker and poorly motivated. The case exemplifies many of the difficulties that frequently arise in managing cardiovascular disease, and suggests potential avenues for improving outcomes through the application of a disease management programme. The Coronary Heart Disease National Service Framework By the mid 1980s, it had been generally accepted by most clinicians that there was strong evidence to support the existence of a linear relationship between cholesterol levels and cardiac mortality (Shaper et al. 1985, Stamler et al. 1986), and that therefore lowering total cholesterol levels would reduce the risk of individuals developing coronary heart disease. This opened the way to the process of establishing a recommended cholesterol threshold level at which treatment should be instigated (Leitch 1989). Since then, the trend has been towards setting ever-lower threshold targets for treatment for those designated as being at high risk of developing coronary heart disease and for those already living with the disease. In 2000, the Department of Health published its Coronary Heart Disease National Service Framework which set out 12 standards for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the disease (Department of Health 2000). The National Service Framework standard Number 3 recommended that GPs identify and develop a register of diagnosed patients and those patients at high risk of developing coronary heart disease. Dietary and lifestyle advice (what the document terms ‘modifiable risk factors) was to be offered to these patients, and their medication reviewed at least every 12 months. It was also recommended that statins be prescribed to anyone with coronary heart disease or having a 30% or greater 10-year risk of a ‘cardiac event, in order to lower their blood cholesterol levels to less than 5 mmol/l or by 30% (which ever is greater). These recommendations were vigorously promoted when they were incorporated into the new General Medical Services contract that came into operation in 2003. The relative performance of an individual Primary Care Organization in meeting each of these indicators attracts points on a sliding scale that are then converted into payments for individual GPs. In relation to the management of patients with coronary heart disease, higher payments are received if a Primary Care Organization increases the percentage of patients with coronary heart disease who have their total serum cholesterol regularly monitored, and whose last cholesterol reading was less than 5 mmol/l (Department of Health 2004a). The most recent Department of Health progress report on the National Service Framework argues that the massive growth in statin therapy since 2000; ‘. . . is one of the most important markers of progress on the NSF, and was directly saving up to 9,000 lives per year (Department of Health 2005: 19). Statin prescriptions have been rising at the rate of 30% per year since 2000, and in 2004/5  £750 million was spent on statins, equivalent to some 2.5 million people on statin therapy in England (Department of Health 2005). In July 2004, low doses of statins became available over the counter without prescription for the first time, for those at moderate risk. The Public Health Discourse(S) Of Cardiac Risk The application of risk discourses in the field of public health (or more precisely the ascription of health risk to particular behaviours) as conceptualized within those elements of the risk literature most influenced by Foucauldian notions of governmentality, are seen as serving to construct the socially recalcitrant as distinct from the responsible citizen (Foucault 1977, Turner 1987, Lupton 1995). In a similar way, Dean (1999) argues that once risk has been attributed to particular health behaviours, the distinction is then drawn within public health policies between ‘active citizens who are perceived as able to manage their own heath risks, and ‘at-risk social groups who become the object of targeted interventions designed to manage these risks. Two distinct dimensions or approaches to the conceptualization and public health management of cardiac health risks also emerge from an examination of the ‘guiding values and principles which inform the Department of Healths Coronary Heart Disease National Service Framework (Department of Health 2000).While one approach (described below as the ‘epidemiological model of risk) largely conforms to the individualized ‘at-risk discourse, a second discourse (described below as the ‘social model of risk) which is much more concerned with health risk at a social and material level can also be discerned within the National Service Framework. These two distinct and arguably competing discourses of risk point to a complexity in current public health policy that might not be anticipated from a reading of the governmentality literature alone. The first conceptualization of cardiac risk within the Coronary Heart Disease National Service Framework is one that can be termed the ‘social model of health risk. This model essentially reflects a socio-economic understanding of the determinants of population health, and draws attention to the importance of addressing material, social and psychological risk factors in addition to the known biological factors in heart disease. In the National Service Framework, this social model is reflected in the endorsement (albeit at a rhetorical level) of an interventionist role for the state in addressing these wider determinants of the disease: ‘The Governments actions influence the wider determinants of health which include the distribution of wealth and income. A wide range of its policies will have an impact on coronary heart disease including social and legal policies and policies on transport, housing, employment, agriculture and food, environment and crime (Department of Health 2000: Section 1, Para 17). There is also an explicit acknowledgement that these risk factors disproportionately disadvantage particular sections of society, demonstrated in the higher incidence of coronary heart disease among the manual social classes. It is also acknowledged that there is inequity in health service provision; ‘. . . there are unjustifiable variations in quality and access to some coronary heart disease serv ices, with many patients not receiving treatments of ‘proven effectiveness (Department of Health 2000: Section 1, Para 13). This formal acknowledgement of the governments role in addressing the wider social and economic influences on cardiac health risk could to some degree be said to conform to Becks (1992) notion of the ‘risk society; wherein many of the health risks faced by the population are a consequence of unchecked scientific and industrial ‘progress. Beck asserts that in response a greater public awareness or ‘reflexivity of risk has emerged which reflects a shift from ignorance or private fears about the unknown to a widespread knowledge about the world we have created. The question of whether a reflexivity concerning the social and environmental factors associated with cardiac risk can be discerned in a patients own discourses of cardiac risk is something that will be explored in the discussion below. The second risk discourse emergent within the National Service Framework (Department of Health 2000) is one which reflects a predominantly epidemiological understanding of health risk. In this model, the relative risk of an individual developing heart disease is based upon a calculation of the mean values associated with certain ‘lifestyle behaviours such as smoking, diet and exercise that are drawn from aggregated population data for heart disease incidence. This is a statistical approach that all too often perceives such calculated health risk factors as being realities or causative agents in their own right, often with little acknowledgement of the social and material context of these health behaviours. Nevertheless, it is on the basis of this epidemiological model of health risk that the Department of Health has confidently set national guidelines that now require General Values and principles underlying the CHD National Service Framework Nine stated values underlying development of national policies for CHD Provision of quality services irrespective of gender, disability, ethnicity or age. Ready availability of consistent, accurate and relevant information for the public. Consideration of health impact in regard to social and legal policies and policies on transport, housing, employment, agriculture and food, environment and crime. Public health programmes led by health and local authorities to ensure targets for CHD are met. Reduction in health inequalities. Resources will be targeted at those in greatest need and with the greatest potential to benefit. Evidence-based. CHD policies are to be based on the best available evidence. Integrated approach for the prevention and treatment of CHD in health policy, health promotion, primary care, community care and hospital care. Maintenance of ethics and standards of professional practice. Recognition of the importance of voluntary organizations and carers at home in addressing CHD. Four stated principles underpinning the CHD NSF . Reducing the burden of CHD is not just the responsibility of the NHS. It requires action right across society . The quality of care depends on: ready access to appropriate services ii. the calibre of the interaction between individual patients and individual clinicians iii. the quality of the organization and environment in which care takes place. . Excellence requires that important, simple things are done right all the time. . Delivering care in a more structured and systematic way will substantially improve the quality of care and reduce undesirable variations in its provision. Practitioners to identify and monitor ‘high risk patients and to prescribe the recommended drug treatment regime. It can be argued that this regulatory or ‘managerialist approach to clinical decision-making constitutes a challenge to the discretion that has been traditionally enjoyed by general practitioners in relation to the clinical management of patients. This second ‘official discourse of health risk could be seen as indicative of the regulatory and surveillance forms of governmentality identified within Foucauldian social theory. From this perspective, those social groups whose health behaviour or lifestyle are seen to fall outside the acceptable bounds of self-management then become constructed as ‘at-risk. These are social groups who are seen to, ‘deliberately expose themselves to health risks rather than rationally avoiding them, and therefore require greater surveillance and regulation (Lupton 1995: 76); once identified these groups and individuals then become subject to various health promotion or ‘health improvement initiatives. Implicit in such forms of governmentality as applied within health policy interventions designed to manage risk are a set of assumptions about the nature of human action predicated on the notion of the ‘rational actor model. Jaeger, Renn, Rosa and Webler (2001) have argued such models of rationality operate at three levels of abstraction. In its most general form, it presupposes that humans are capable of acting in a strategic fashion by linking decisions with actions. That is, human beings are goal-orientated who have options available from which they are able to select a course of action appropriate to meeting these goals. The second level of abstraction which the authors term the ‘rational actor paradigm, and which is the level at which rationality is probably understood by policy-makers, contains the following assumptions: all actions are individual choices; individuals can distinguish between ends and means to achieve these ends; individuals are motivated to pursue t heir own self-chosen goals when making decisions about courses of action/behaviour; individuals will always choose a course of action that has maximum personal utility, that is it will lead to personal satisfaction; individuals possess the knowledge about the potential consequences of their actions when they make decisions. Finally, that rational actor theory is not only a normative theory of how people should make decisions about in this case health behaviour, but is also a descriptive model of how people select options and justify their actions (Jaeger et al. 2001: 33). Many of these rational actor assumptions underpin and inform the Coronary Heart Disease National Service Framework. Such assumptions manifest themselves in a seemingly unproblematic approach to the promotion of ‘risky health behaviour change which plays down the influence of culture, habitus and the material basis of group socialization. This uncritical rationality also threatens the sustainability of the National Service Framework strategy in other ways. The social psychological and sociological literature see the notion of ‘trust as constituted through two dimensions, the deliberative or rational and the affective or non-rational. As Peter Taylor-Gooby (2006) has pointed out in his work on the problematic of public policy reform, the rational deliberative processes associated with the achievement of greater efficiency in the provision of public services have unwittingly served to undermine the non-rational processes that contribute to the building of trust in public institutions and in public sector professionals. In this context, the National Service Framework will need to build trust both in terms of the presentation of the biomedical evidence for the effectiveness of statins and other cardiac drug interventions, as well as the more affective elements associated with the belief that the national targets are designed with the best interests of patients in mind rather than being driven by financial considerations alone. Significantly, given its centrality to a ‘disease management strategy, neither the Coronary Heart Disease National Service Framework (Department of Health 2000) nor the NHS Improvement Plan (Department of Health 2004b) which sets out the governments priorities Coronary heart disease and the management of risk 363 for primary and secondary healthcare up to 2008, attempts to define the use of the term ‘risk, and by extension ‘higher risk. Nevertheless, the conception of risk that shapes the practical interventions proposed within both these strategy documents is clearly the epidemiological one that is described above. In the past, such public health interventions have been largely concerned with bringing about health behaviour change, however now the strategy would appear to be less focused on encouraging greater responsibility for the ‘self management of cardiac risk and more on ensuring compliance with clinical management regimes of monitoring and drug treatme nt. Optimising Care Through Disease Management In the last 15 years, there have been dramatic advances in the pharmacotherapy of heart disease, most notably the introduction of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors. (Jaeger et al. 2001: 33) Unfortunately, numerous studies have suggested that ACE inhibitors are substantially underutilised in heart disease patients. Moreover, there are a multitude of factors which may confound heart disease management heart disease virtually never occurs in isolation, and comorbidities such as hypertension, diabetes, coronary artery disease, chronic pulmonary or renal disease and arthritis occur frequently. The presence of these comorbid conditions may interfere with heart disease management in several ways. In PATIENTs case, pre-existing renal insufficiency may have contributed to her intolerance to ACE inhibitors. In addition, her use of NSAIDs could promote salt and water retention and antagonise the antihypertensive effects of her other medications. (Jaeger et al. 2001: 33) Multiple comorbidities may also result in polypharmacy, which, in turn, may compromise compliance and lead to undesirable drug interactions. Adherence to dietary sodium restriction is often problematic (as in patients case), particularly in older individuals who are either not responsible for preparing their own meals, or who rely heavily on canned goods and prepared foods. Depression, anxiety and social isolation are common in patients with heart disease, and each may interfere with adherence to the heart disease regimen or with the patients willingness to seek prompt medical attention when symptoms recur. Similarly, the high cost of medications may limit access to therapy in patients with restricted incomes. Physical limitations, such as neuromuscular disorders (e.g. stroke or Parkinsonism), arthritis and sensory deficits (e.g. impaired visual acuity), may compromise the patients ability to understand and comply with treatment. Finally, cognitive dysfunction, which is not uncommon in elderly heart disease patients, may further confound heart disease management. Impact on Clinical Outcomes Despite the widely publicised effects of ACE inhibitors, b-blockers, angiotensin receptor blockers and other vasodilators on the clinical course of heart disease, morbidity and mortality rates in patients with established heart disease remains very high. heart disease is the leading cause for repetitive hospitalizations in adults, and in 1997 Krumholz et al. reported that 44% of older heart disease patients were rehospitalised at least once within 6 months of an initial heart disease admission. Remarkably, this rate was no better than that reported in several prior studies dating back to 1985. (Krumholz et al. 1998) From the disease management perspective, it is important to recognise that the majority of heart disease readmissions are related to poor compliance and other psychosocial or behavioural factors, rather than to progressive heart disease or an acute cardiac event (e.g. myocardial infarction). Thus, Ghali et al. reported in 1988 that 64% of heart disease exacerbationswere attributable to noncompliance with diet, medications or both and that 26% were related to environmental or social factors. Similarly, in 1990 Vinson et al. (Vinson, 1995) found that over half of all readmissions were directly attributable to problems with compliance, lack of social support, or process-of care issues, and these authors concluded that up to 50% of all readmissions were potentially preventable. More recently, Krumholz et al, reported that lack of emotional support among older heart disease patients was a strong independent predictor of adverse outcomes, including death and hospitalization Rationale and Objectives The above considerations provide the rationale for a ‘systems approach to heart disease management. The objectives of this approach are as follows: To optimise the pharmacotherapy of heart disease in accordance with current consensus guidelines. (Vinson, 1990) To maximize compliance with prescribed medications and dietary restrictions. To identify and respond to any psychological, social or financial barriers that might interfere with compliance with the prescribed treatment regimen. To provide an appropriate level of follow-up through telephone contacts, home visits and outpatient clinic visits. To enhance functional capacity by providing an individualized programme of exercise and cardiac rehabilitation. To enhance self-efficacy by helping the patient and family understand that heart disease can be controlled, largely through the patients and familys efforts. To reduce the frequency of acute heart disease exacerbations and hospitalizations. To reduce the overall cost of care. The Disease Management Team Although the composition of a disease management team may vary both from centre to centre and from patient to patient, a suggested list of team members are given below: nurse coordinator or case manager dietitian social services representative clinical pharmacist physical therapist/occupational therapist exercise/rehabilitation specialist  · home health specialist patient and family primary care physician cardiologist/other consultants. Each team member provides their own unique expertise and/or perspective, and these are then woven into an integrated package tailored to meet each individual patients needs, expectations, and circumstances. Importantly, not all patients will require the services of all team members, and it is therefore essential to identify a team leader. In most cases, this will be the nurse coordinator or case manager, who, in addition to being the patients primary contact person and educator, is also responsible for coordinating the efforts of other team members, including the selective activation of appropriate consultations on an individualized basis. In addition to the team itself, several other components are essential for effective disease management. First, the patient and family should be provided with comprehensive information about heart disease, including common etiologies, symptoms and signs, standard diagnostic tests, medications, diet, activity, prognosis and the role of the patient and family in ensuring that heart disease remains under control. This information should be provided in a readily understandable patient-friendly format and several patient-oriented heart disease brochures are now commercially available. In addition to these materials, the patient should be given a scale (if not already owned) and a chart to record daily weights, an accurate and detailed list of medications supplemented by medication aids if needed (e.g. a pill box), and specific information about when to contact the nurse, physician, or other team member in the event that questions or new symptoms arise. In this regard, the importance of establishing an effective one-on-one nurse-to-patient relationship cannot be overemphasized, as this interaction will often be critical to the early diagnosis and effective outpatient treatment of heart disease exacerbations. Patient Perspective While the above studies indicate a beneficial effect on costs, hospital readmissions, etc., they do not address concerns related to the patients perspective on this interdisciplinary care. What issues are important to the patient, and what the advantages are to the patient of participating in an heart disease disease management programme? In recent years, it has become increasingly evident that it is insufficient to merely provide high quality medical services. In a competitive market, it is essential that the patient is also satisfied with the medical encounter, both in terms of the process of care as well as the clinical outcomes. Healthcare is an industry, and like all industries, customer satisfaction is critically important. However, unlike most industries, which deal with a tangible product, the healthcare industry deals with a multifaceted service, the myriad qualities of which are difficult to quantify. As a result, the assessment of patient satisfaction is often complex, and the development of a valid and universally accepted instrument for measuring patient satisfaction has been elusive. Despite these problems, several patient satisfaction questionnaires have been developed, (Garg, 1995) and these have been helpful in defining those issues which are important to patients, and in identifying specific concerns that patients often have with respect to current approaches to healthcare delivery. (Garg, 1995) Factors which have been consistently shown to play a pivotal role in determining patient satisfaction include: communication, involvement in decision- making, respect for the individual, access to care and the quality of care provided. (Philbin, 1996) Not surprisingly, problems in each of these areas are frequently cited as factors which diminish patient satisfaction. Several components of the heart disease disease management system will be of direct assistance in answering patients questions and helping her cope with this new and frightening diagnosis. In particular, the nurse case manager will establish an effective rapport with the patient and her family, and provide an ongoing source of information and emotional support. The patient education brochure and other printed materials will help answer many of Patients questions and assist in relieving some of her anxieties. The nurse, clinical pharmacist and physician (s) can provide detailed information and teaching about the medications used to treat heart disease, and the dietitian can directly address the dietary questions and provide an individualized diet that takes Patients current dietary practices and food preferences into account. The social service representative can assist patient with any financial concerns she may have, make provisions to ensure an adequate social support network, and serve as an additional source of emotional support. The physical therapist or exercise specialist can help in providing recommendations about activities and in the development of an exercise or rehabilitation programme. The nurse case manager, social service representative, home care specialist, and physician will provide assistance to patient in making the transition from the hospital back to the home environment, and they also will ensure a high level of follow-up care. Perhaps most importantly, the comprehensive care provided by the disease management team will reassure patient that she truly is being cared for, and that all of her needs and concerns are being met. Invariably, this will lead to a high level of patient satisfaction. In addition, in the case of patient there is good reason to believe that implementation of a disease management programme at the time of her initial hospitalization may have eliminated the need for a second hospitalization. (Young, 1995) To the extent that patient might have to pay for some of the costs of readmission (e.g. deductible or copayment), the disease management programme would also save her money, a benefit which is universally viewed in a favorable light. And finally, based on compelling data from recent clinical trials, optimizing Patients medication regimen should translate not only into an improved quality of life, but also into increased survival. Conclusion In summary, heart disease management systems provide a win-win-win situation. They are a ‘win for the providers, because they improve clinical outcomes and quality of life. They are a ‘win for the payors, because effective disease management programmes decrease health care expenditures. And they are clearly a ‘win for the patients, who reap multiple benefits, including improved quality of life and well-being, enhanced self-efficacy due to a greater sense of health control, improved exercise tolerance and functionality, increased survival (as a result of more optimal utilisation of heart disease medications), and, in some cases, reduced out-of-pocket expenditures. References Department of Health (2000) National Service Framework for Coronary Heart Disease (London: DoH). Department of Health (2004a) GMS Statement of Financial Entitlements (SFE) 2004/5 (London: DH). Department of Health (2004b) The NHS Improvement Plan: Putting People at the Heart of Public Services Cm 6268 (London: The Stationary Office). Department of Health (2005) The Coronary Heart Disease National Service Framework: Leading the Way-Progress Report 2005 (London: DH Publications). Foucault, M. (1977) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (London: Allen Lane). Garg R, Yusuf S, for the Collaborative Group on ACE Inhibitor Trials. Overview of randomized trials of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors on mortality and morbidity in patients with heart failure. JAMA 1995; 273: 1450-6 Ghali JK, Cooper R, Ford E. Trends in hospitalization rates for heart failure in the United States, 1973-1986. Evidence for increasing population prevalence. Arch Intern Med 1990; 150: 769-73 Jaeger, C., Renn, O., Rosa, E. and Webler, T. (2001) Risk, Uncertainty, and Rational Action (London: James James/Earthscan). Krumholz HM, Butler J, Miller J, et al. Prognostic importance of emotional support for elderly patients hospitalized with heart failure. Circulation 1998; 97: 958-64 Leitch, D. (1989) Who should have their cholesterol concentration measured? What experts in the United Kingdom suggest. British Medical Journal, 298(6688), 1615 1616. Lupton, D. (1995) The Imperative of Health: Public Health and the Regulated Body (London: Sage). Philbin EF, Andreou C, Rocco TA, et al. Patterns of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor use in congestive heart failure in two community hospitals. Am J Cardiol 1996; 77: 832-8 Redfern, J., MacKevitt, C. and

Prevent Internet Censorship, Save Freedom of Speech -- Argumentative Es

Every second, citizens of the world enter cyber space to relay information, keep in contact with family and friends, and to complete a multitude of various tasks. The World Wide Web is a major staple in ensuring that individuals of all nationalities can perform all the necessary tasks in their lives. However, the negative aspects of the internet have been recently brought into the public eye. Social Networks such as Facebook and Twitter along with other popularly accessed websites such as Reddit, 4Chan, and Pinterest have become the subject of critique after a whirl of internet controversy arose. Public scrutiny of many popularly viewed sites has resulted in the call for restrictions in order to prevent the harmful aspects of the internet. This controversial topic has created a rift in website surfers from around the world. Internet censorship is the control of access to information presented on the internet. Advocates of internet restrictions argue that popular sites are the source of obsessions which result in crumbling relationships, put minors in danger of cyber bullying and internet predators, and provide easy access to vulgar or dangerous information which corrupts our culture. As recommended by Dr. Pinhas Dannon, psychiatrist from Tel Aviv University’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine, the disorder (internet addiction) should be grouped with other extremely addictive disorders such as gambling, sex addiction, and kleptomania. (Nauert) Many Americans exposed to the internet find themselves enveloped in the entertaining world of the â€Å"Net.† As argued by those in support of internet restriction and censorship, the act of spending excessive amounts of time on the computer results in crumbling relationships and disinteg... ...o the 1st Amendment and everything this country stands for. This country has spent years and many court case hours defending the rights that our fore fathers fought to protect. Work Cited Anderson, Mark. "Internet Censorship: As Bad As You Thought It Was." - IEEE Spectrum. Nov. 2007. Web. 24 Apr. 2012. . Kan, Michael. "Time to De-Flash Your Site?" The U.S. Has Asked the Chinese Government Explain Its Policies Related to Blocking Company Websites. 20 Oct. 2011. Web. 18 Apr. 2012. . "Limit the Content That Children Can View on the Web." Limit the Content That Children Can View on the Web. Windows, 2012. Web. 23 Apr. 2012. .

Janies Search for Identity in Their Eyes Were Watching God :: Their Eyes Were Watching God Essays

Janie's Search for Identity in Their Eyes Were Watching God In the novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, there are many lessons on a person's search for identity. Janie's search for identity throughout this book is very visible. It has to do with her search for a name, and freedom for herself. As she goes through life her search takes many turns for the worse and a few for the better, but in the end she finds her true identity. Through her marriages with Logan, Joe, then Tea Cake she figures out what is for her and how she wants to live. So in the end, she is where she wants to be. In Janie's early life she lived with her grandmother, Nanny. Nanny and Janie were pretty well off and had the privilege to live in the yard of white folks. While Janie was growing up she played with the white children.­ While she was in this stage, she was faced with much criticism and was called many names, so many that everyone started calling her alphabet, "'cause so many people had done named me different names." Soon she started piecing together what she knew of her odd identity. Then one day she saw herself in a photograph and noticed that she looked different, that she had dark skin, and she said, "before Ah seen de picture Ah thought Ah wuz just like de rest." From this point, Janie fell into somewhat of a downward spiral, setting her off of the path toward finding her own identity in society. Finally when she was older Nanny saw her doing somethings under the pear tree that she thought were unacceptable. Nanny quickly arranged a marriage between Janie and a well-off local man, Logan Killicks. In this marriage Janie resisted. She felt as if she was losing her freedom was well as her identity, she wasn't Janie anymore she was now Mrs. Logan Killicks, and she was somewhat obligated to do what he wanted. Not long into this marriage, Janie has had enough, and when the chance to go away with a smooth, romantic man, she takes the chance. The man Janie left Logan for was named Joe Starks. Joe was a smart man who started his own town, Eatonville. In the beginning of her relationship with, Joe, she felt loved, something she never really felt while she had been with Logan. At first, when she ran away with Joe, she felt as if she was finding her new identity, but all there was for her to find was a great maze not always

Essay --

Freedom: the privilege for women to be just as capable as men. In 1848, the first women’s convention took place in New York, there was continues discussing about the rights that women had. For example, a popular topic was applying for a job. Most men thought that women weren’t capable of working in an office; they thought that women should stay home, look after the children, while cleaning the house. Little did men know how inconsiderate they were being, how successful women have been throughout time and how much of an impact they have made to the world. Women proved men that they can achieve anything in life if they work hard for it. A campaign for women was formed before the Civil War began; they tried forming an alliance to strike against women’s rights. In the 1919’s, women were given the advantage to vote amongst men; called the Nineteenth Amendment, their vote wouldn’t be refused. The Nineteenth Amendment was formed by Susan Anthony and accompanied with Elizabeth Stanton, established the amendment to the Senate which was passed by the congress July 4, 1919. Some women in the ...

The Triumphant Reign of Henry the Viii-V02

â€Å"Alexandru Ioan Cuza† National College Specialization: Philology – Bilingual English Discipline: English The triumphant reign of Henry the VIII Coordinating Professors: Mariana Gaiu Sorina Soaica Student: Irina Stan 2011 Contents Introduction2 1. Social background of the age3 2. Henry VIII9 2. 1 Henry VIII’s character10 2. 2 Cardinal Wolsey11 2. 3 Henry VIII & Christianity12 a)Popular religious idealism12 b)Christian Humanism and the influence of Greek learning14 2. 4 Henrician Reformation16 a)Henry VIII’s first divorce16 )Supreme head of the Ecclesia Anglicana18 c)The dissolution of the religious houses20 2. 5 The matrimonial adventures of Henry VIII22 2. 6 An extension of English hegemony23 a)The Union of England and Wales23 b)Tudor Irish policy24 c)The need to control Scotland25 Conclusions28 Bibliography29 Introduction The age of the Tudors has left its impact on Anglo-American minds as a watershed in British history. Hallowed tradition, native pa triotism, and post imperial gloom have united to swell our appreciation of the period as a true golden age.Names alone evoke a phoenix-glow – Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, and Mary Stuart among the sovereigns of England and Scotland; Wolsey, William Cecil, and Leicester among the politicians; Marlowe, Shakespeare, Hilliard, and Byrd among the creative artists. The splendors of the Court of Henry VIII, the fortitude of Sir Thomas More, the making of the English Bible, Prayer Book, and Anglican Church, the development of Parliament, the defeat of the Armada, the Shakespearian moment, and the legacy of Tudor domestic architecture – there are the undoubted climaxes of a simplified orthodoxy in which genius, romance, and tragedy are superabundant.Reality is inevitably more complex, less glamorous, and more interesting than myth. The most potent forces within Tudor England were often social, economic, and demographic ones. Thus if the period became a golden age, it was primarily because the considerable growth in population that occurred between 1500 and the death of Elizabeth I did not so dangerously exceed the capacity of available resources, particularly food supplies, as to precipitate a Malthusian crisis. Famine and disease unquestionably disrupted and disturbed the Tudor economy, but they did not raze it to its foundations, as in the fourteenth century.More positively, the increased manpower and demand that sprang from rising population stimulated economic growth and the commercialization of agriculture, encouraged trade and urban renewal, inspired a housing revolution, enhanced the sophistication of English manners, especially in London, and (more arguably) bolstered new and exciting attitudes among Tudor Englishmen, notably individualistic ones derived from Reformation ideals and Calvinist theology. In order to present a clear picture of 16th century England, we considered depicting Henry VIII reign in a period of instability from the point of view of religion and state limits.The king’s egoism, self-righteousness, and unlimited capacity to brood over suspected wrongs, or petty slights, sprang from the fatal combination of a relatively able but distinctly second—rate mind and a pronounced inferiority complex that derived from Henry VII’s treatment of his second son. For the first of the Tudors had found his younger son unsatisfactory; on Arthur’s death, Henry had been given no functions beyond the title of Prince of Wales—a signal of unmistakable mistrust. As a result, Henry VIII had resolved to rule, even where, as in the case of the Church, it would have been enough merely to reign.He would put monarchic theory into practice; would give the words Rex Imperator a meaning never dreamt of even by the emperors of Rome, if he possibly could. Henry was eager, too, to conquer- to emulate the glorious victories of the Black Prince and Henry V, to quest after the Golden Fleece that was the French Cr own. Repeatedly the efforts of Henry’s more constructive councillors were bedevilled, and overthrown, by the king’s militaristic dreams, and by costly Continental ventures that wasted men, money, and equipment.Evaluation is always a matter of emphasis, but on the twin issues of monarchic theory and lust for conquest, there is everything to be said for the view that Henry VIII’s policy was consistent throughout his reign; that Henry was himself directing that policy; and that his ministers and officials were allowed – freedom of action only within accepted limits, and when the king was too busy to take a personal interest in state affairs. 1. Social background of the ageThe matter is debatable, but there is much to be said for the view that England was economically healthier, more expensive, and more optimistic under the Tudors than at any time since the Roman occupation of Britain. Certainly, the contrast with the fifteenth century was dramatic. In the hu ndred or so years before Henry VII became king of England in 1485, England had been under populated, underdeveloped, and inward-looking compared with other Western countries, notably France. Her recovery after the ravages of the Black Death had been slow – slower than in France, Germany, Switzerland, and some Italian cities.The process of economic recovery in pre-industrial societies was basically one of recovery of population, and figures will be useful. On the eve of the Black Death (1348), the population of England and Wales was between 4 and 5 millions; by 1377, successive plaques bad reduced it to 2. 5 millions. Yet the figure for England (without Wales) was still no higher than 2. 26 millions in 1525, and it is transparently clear that the striking feature of England demographic history between the Black Death and the reign of Henry VIII is the stagnancy of population which persisted until the 1520s.However, the growth of population rapidly accelerated after 1525: Betwe en 1525 and 1541 the population of England grew extremely fast, an impressive burst of expansion after long inertia. This rate of growth slackened off somewhat after 1541, but the Tudor population continued to increase steadily and inexorably, with a temporary reversal only in the late 1550s, to reach 4. 10 millions in 1601. In addition, the population of Wales grew from about 210,000 in 1500 to 380,000 by 1603.While England reaped the fruits of the recovery of population in the sixteenth century, however, serious problems of adjustment were encountered. The impact of a sudden crescendo in demand, and pressure on available resources of food and clothing, within a society that was still overwhelmingly agrarian, was to be as painful as it was, ultimately, beneficial. The morale of countless ordinary Englishman was to be wrecked irrevocably, and ruthlessly, by problems that were too massive to be ameliorated either by governments or by traditional, ecclesiastical philanthropy.Inflation , speculation in land, enclosures, unemployment, vagrancy, poverty, and urban squalor were the most pernicious evils of Tudor England, and these were the wider symptoms of population growth and agricultural commercialization. In the fifteenth century farm rents had been discounted, because tenants were so elusive; lords had abandoned direct exploitation of their demesnes, which were leased to tenants on favourable terms. Rents had been low, too, on peasants’ customary holdings; labour services had been commuted, and servile villeinage had virtually disappeared from the face of the English landscape by 1485.At the same time, money wages had risen to reflect the contraction of the wage-labour force after 1348, and food prices had fallen in reply to reduced market demand. But rising demand after 1500 burst the bubble of artificial prosperity born of stagnant population. Land hunger led to soaring rents. Tenants of farms and copyholders were evicted by business-minded landlords. Several adjacent farms would be conjoined, and amalgamated for profit, by outside investors at the expense of sitting tenants. Marginal land would be converted to pasture for more profitable sheep-rearing.Commons were enclosed, and waste land reclaimed, by landlords or squatters, with consequent extinction of common grazing rights. The literary opinion that the active Tudor land market nurtured a new entrepreneurial class of greedy capitalists grinding the faces of the poor is an exaggeration. Yet it is fair to say that not all landowners, claimants, and squatters were entirely scrupulous in their attitude; certainly a vigorous market arose among dealers in defective titles to land, with resulting harassment of many legitimate occupiers. The greatest distress sprang, nevertheless, from inflation and unemployment.High agricultural prices gave farmers strong incentives to produce crops for sale in the dearest markets in nearby towns, rather than for the satisfaction of rural subsisten ce. Rising population, especially urban population, put intense strain on the markets themselves: demand for food often outstripped supply, notably in years of poor harvests due to epidemics or bad weather. In cash terms, agricultural prices began to rise faster than industrial prices from the beginning of the reign of Henry the VIII, a rise which accelerated as the sixteenth century progressed.Yet in real terms, the price rise was even more volatile than it appeared to be, since population growth ensured that labour was plentiful and cheap, and wages low. The size of the work-force in Tudor England increasingly exceeded available employment opportunities; average wages and living standards declined accordingly. Men (and women) were prepared to do a day’s work for little more than board wages; able-bodied persons, many of whom were peasants displaced by rising rents or the enclosure of commons, drifted in waves to the towns in quest of work.The best price index hitherto const ructed covers the period 1264-1954, and its base period is most usefully 1451-75 – the end of the fifteenth-century era of stable prices. From the index, we may read the fortunes of the wage-earning consumers of Tudor England, because the calculations are based on the fluctuating costs of composite units of the essential foodstuffs and manufactured goods, such as textiles, that made up an average family shopping basket in southern England at different times.Two indexes are, in fact, available: first the annual price index of the composite basket of consumables; secondly the index of the basket expressed as the equivalent of the annual wage rates of building craftsmen in southern England. No one supposes that building workers were typical of the English labour force in the sixteenth century, or at any other time. But the indexes serve as a rough guide to the appalling reality of the rising household expenses of the majority of Englishmen in the Tudor period. t is clear that in the century after Henry VIII’s accession, the average prices of essential consumables rose by some 488 per cent. The price index stood at the 100 or so level until 1513, when it rose to 120. A gradual rise to 169 had occurred by 1530, and a further crescendo to 231 was attained by 1547, the year of Henry VIII’s death. In 1555 the index reached 270; two years later, it hit a staggering peak of 409, though this was partly due to the delayed effects of the currency debasements practiced by Henry VIII and Edward VI.On the accession of Elizabeth I, in I5 58, the index had recovered to a median of 230. It climbed again thereafter, though more steadily: 300 in 1570, 342 in 1580, and 396 in 1590. But the later ISQOS witnessed exceptionally meagre harvests, together with regional epidemics and famine: the index read 515 in 1595, 685 in 1598, and only settled back to 459 in 1600. The index expressed as the equivalent of the building craftsman’s wages gives an equally sob er impression of the vicissitudes of Tudor domestic life.An abrupt decline in the purchasing power of wages occurred between 1510 and 1530, the commodity equivalent falling by some 40 per cent in twenty years. The index fell again in the 1550s, but recovered in the next decade to a position equivalent to two-thirds of its value in 1510. It then remained more or less stable until the 1590s, when it collapsed to 39 in 1595, and to a catastrophic nadir of 29 in 1597. On the queen’s death in 1603 it had recovered to a figure of 45—which meant that real wages had dropped by 57 per cent since 1500. These various data establish the most fundamental truth about the age of the Tudors.When the percentage change of English population in the sixteenth century is plotted against that of the index of purchasing power of a building craftsman’s wages over the same period, it is immediately plain that the two lines of development and commensure (see graph). Living standards decl ined as the population rose; recovery began as population growth abated and collapsed between 1556 and I560. Standards then steadily dropped again, until previous proportions were overthrown by the localized famines of 1585-8 and 1595-8—though the cumulative increase in the size of the wage-labour force since 1570 must also have had distorting effects.In other words, population trends, rather than government policies, capitalist entrepreneurs, European imports of American silver, the more rapid circulation of money, or even currency debasements, were the key factor in determining the fortunes of the British Isles in the sixteenth century. English government expenditure on warfare, heavy borrowing, and debasements unquestionably exacerbated inflation and unemployment. But the basic facts of Tudor life were linked to population growth. In view of this fundamental truth, the greatest triumph of Tudor England was its ability to feed itself.A major national subsistence crisis was avoided. Malthus, who wrote his historic Essay on the Principle of Population in 1798, listed positive and preventive checks as the traditional means by which population was kept in balance with available resources of food. Positive ones involved heavy mortality and abrupt reversal of population growth. Fertility in England indeed declined in the later 1550s, and again between 1566 and 1571. A higher proportion of the population than hitherto did not marry in the reign of Elizabeth I.Poor harvests resulted in localized starvation, and higher mortality, in 1481-3, 1519—21, 1527-8, 1544-5, 1549-51, 1555-8, 1585-8, and 1595-8. Yet devastating as these years of dearth were for the affected localities, especially for the towns of the 1590s, the positive check of mass mortality on a national scale was absent from Tudor England, with the possible exception of the crisis of 1555—8. On top of its other difficulties, Mary’s government after 1555 faced the most serious mor tality crisis since the fourteenth century: the population of England quickly dropped by about 200,000.Even so, it is not proved that this was a ‘national’ crisis in terms of its geographical range, and population growth was only temporarily interrupted. In fact, the chronology, intensity, and geographical extent of famine in the sixteenth century were such as to suggest that starvation crises in England were abating, rather than worsening, over time. Bubonic plagues were likewise confined to the insanitary towns after the middle 1 of the century, and took fewer victims in proportion to the expansion of population.The inescapable conclusion is that, despite the vicissitudes of the price index the harsh consequences for individuals of changed patterns of agriculture, and the proliferation of vagabondage, an optimistic view of the age of the Tudors has sufficiently firm foundations. The sixteenth century witnessed the birth of Britain’s pre—industrial politi cal economy—an evolving accommodation between population and resources, economics and politics, ambition and rationality. England abandoned the disaster-oriented framework of the Middle Ages for the new dawn of low-pressure equilibrium.Progress had its price, unalterably paid by the weak, invariably banked by the strong. Yet the tyranny of the price index was not ubiquitous. Wage rates for agricultural workers fell by less than for building workers, and some privileged groups of wage-earners such as the Mendip miners may have enjoyed a small rise in real income. Landowners, commercialized farmers, and property investors were the most obvious beneficiaries of a system that guaranteed fixed expenses and enhanced selling prices—it was in the Tudor period that the nobility, gentry, and mercantile classes alike came to appreciate fully the enduring qualities of land.But many wage-labouring families were not wholly dependent upon their wages for subsistence. Multiple occupat ions, domestic self-employment, and cottage industries flourished, especially in the countryside; town-dwellers grew vegetables, kept animals, and brewed beer, except in the confines of London. Wage-labourers employed by great households received meat and drink in addition to cash income, although this customary practice was on the wane by the 1590s.Finally, it is not clear that vagabondage or urban population outside London expanded at a rate faster than was commensurate with the prevailing rise of national population. It used to be argued that the English urban population climbed from 6. 2. per cent of the national total in 1 520 to 8. 4 per cent by the end of the century. However, London’s spectacular growth alone explains this apparent over-population: the leading provincial towns, Norwich, Bristol, Coventry, and York, grew slightly or remained stable in absolute terms—and must thus have been inhabited by a reduced share of population in proportional terms. . Henry VIII Henry VII’s death in 1509 was greeted with feasting, dancing, universal rejoicing—for no one who survived until 1547 could have thought, with hindsight, that it was the accession of Henry VIII that inspired the nation’s confidence. Henry VIII succeeded, at barely eighteen years of age, because his elder brother, Arthur, had died in 1502. Under pressure from his councillors, essentially his father’s executors, Henry began his ‘triumphant’ reign by marrying his late brother’s widow, Catherine of Aragon—a union that was to have momentous, not to say revolutionary, consequences.He continued by executing Empson and Dudley, who were now thrown to the wolves in ritual expiation of their former employer’s financial prudence. Needless to say, these executions were a calculated ploy to enable the new regime to profit from the stability won by Henry VII without incurring any of its attendant stigmas—no one complained th at Henry VIII’s government omitted to cancel the last batch of outstanding bonds until well into the 1520s.Yet Henry VIII had started as he meant to go on; something of the king’s natural cruelty, and inherent assumption that clean breaks with the past could solve deep—rooted problems, was already evident. 2. 1 Henry VIII’s character Henry VIII’s character was certainly fascinating, threatening, and intensely morbid, as Holbein’s great portrait illustrates to perfection.The king’s egoism, self-righteousness, and unlimited capacity to brood over suspected wrongs, or petty slights, sprang from the fatal combination of a relatively able but distinctly second—rate mind and a pronounced inferiority complex that derived from Henry VII’s treatment of his second son. For the first of the Tudors had found his younger son unsatisfactory; on Arthur’s death, Henry had been given no functions beyond the title of Prince of Wale s—a signal of unmistakable mistrust. As a result, Henry VIII had resolved to rule, even where, as in the case of the Church, it would have been enough merely to reign.He would put monarchic theory into practice; would give the words Rex Imperator a meaning never dreamt of even by the emperors of Rome, if he possibly could. Henry was eager, too, to conquer- to emulate the glorious victories of the Black Prince and Henry V, to quest after the Golden Fleece that was the French Crown. Repeatedly the efforts of Henry’s more constructive councillors were bedevilled, and overthrown, by the king’s militaristic dreams, and by costly Continental ventures that wasted men, money, and equipment.Evaluation is always a matter of emphasis, but on the twin issues of monarchic theory and lust for conquest, there is everything to be said for the view that Henry VIII’s policy was consistent throughout his reign; that Henry was himself directing that policy; and that his mini sters and officials were allowed – freedom of action only within accepted limits, and when the king was too busy to take a personal interest in state affairs. 2. 2 Cardinal Wolsey Cardinal Wolsey was Henry VIII’s first minister, and the fourteen years of that proud but efficient ascendancy (15 15-29) saw the king in a comparatively —restrained mood.Henry, unlike his father, found writing ‘both tedious and painful’; he preferred hunting, dancing, dallying, and playing the lute. In his more civilized moments, Henry studied theology and astronomy; he would wake up Sir Thomas More in the middle of the night in order that they might gaze at the ‘stars from the roof of a royal palace. He wrote songs, and the words of one form an epitome of Henry’s youthful sentiments. Pastime with good company I love and shall until I die. Grudge who lust, but none deny; So God be pleased, thus live will I; For my pastance,Hunt, sing and dance; My heart is se t All goodly sport For my comfort: Who shall me let? Yet Henry himself set the tempo; his pastimes were only pursued while he was satisfied with Wolsey. Appointed Lord Chancellor and Chief Councillor on Christmas eve 1515, Wolsey used the Council and Star Chamber as instruments of ministerial power in much the way that Henry VII had used them as vehicles of royal power—though Wolsey happily pursued uniform and equitable ideals of justice in Star Chamber in place of Henry VII’s selective justice linked to fiscal advantage.But Wolsey’s greatest asset was the unique position he obtained with regard to the English Church. Between them, Henry and Wolsey bludgeoned the pope into granting Wolsey the rank of legate a latere for life, which meant that he became the superior ecclesiastical authority in England, and could convoke legatine synods.Using these powers, Wolsey contrived to subject the entire English Church and clergy to a massive dose of Tudor government and ta xation, and it looks as if an uneasy modus vivendi prevailed behind the scenes in which Henry agreed that the English Church was, for the moment, best controlled by a churchman who was a royal servant, and the clergy accepted that it was better to be obedient to an ecclesiastical rather than a secular tyrant—for it is unquestionably true that Wolsey protected the Church from the worst excesses of lay opinion while in office. . 3 Henry VIII & Christianity The trouble was that, with stability restored, and the Tudor dynasty apparently secure, England had started to become vulnerable to a mounting release of forces, many of which were old ones suppressed beneath the surface for years, and others which sprang from the new European mood of reform and self—criticism. Anti – was the most volcanic of the smoldering emotions that pervaded the English laity; an ancient ‘disease’, it had been endemic in British society since Constantine’s conversion to Christianity.By the sixteenth century, English anti-clericalism centered on three major areas of lay resentment: first, opposition to such ecclesiastical abuses as clerical fiscalism, absenteeism, pluralism, maladministration, and concubinage; secondly, the excessive numbers of clergy, as it appeared to the laity—monks, friars, and secular priests seemed to outnumber the laity, and form a caste of unproductive consumers, which was untrue but reflected lay xenophobia; and thirdly, opposition to the jurisdiction of the bishops and Church courts, especially in cases of heresy.It was pointed out by prominent writers, notably the grave and learned Christopher St. German (1460-1541), that the Church’s procedure in cases of suspected heresy permitted secret accusations, hearsay evidence, and denied accused persons the benefit of purgation by oath helpers or trial by jury, which was a Roman procedure contrary to the principles of native English common law—a clerical plo t to deprive Englishmen of their natural, legal rights. Such ideas were manifestly explosive; for they incited intellectual affray between clergy and common lawyers. a) Popular religious idealismPopular religious idealism was another major problem faced by the English ecclesiastical authorities. Late medieval religion was sacramental, institutional and ritualistic; for ordinary people it seemed excessively dominated by ‘objective` Church ritual and obligation, as opposed to ‘subjective’ religious experience based on Bible reading at home. The educated classes, who were the nobility clergy, and rich merchants, knew that traditional Catholic piety and meditation did not lack for subjectivity and individual introspection, but few non-literate persons had the mental discipline needed to meditate with any degree of fulfillment.For ordinary people, personal religion had to be founded on texts of Scripture and Bible stories (preferably illustrated ones), but vernacular B ibles were illegal in England—the Church authorities believed that the availability of an English Bible, even an authorized version, would ferment heresy by permitting Englishmen to form their own opinions. Sir Thomas More, who was Wolsey’s successor as Lord Chancellor, was the premier lay opponent of the commissioning of an English Bible, and ally of the bishops.He declared, in his notorious proclamation of 22 June 1530, that ‘it is not necessary the said Scripture to be in the English tongue and in the hands of the common people, but that the distribution of the said Scripture, and the permitting or denying thereof, dependant only upon the discretion of the superiors, as they shall think it convenient’. More pursued a policy of strict censorship: no books in English printed outside the realm on any subject whatsoever were to be imported; he forbade the printing of Scriptural or religious books inEngland, too, unless approved in advance by a bishop. It wa s a case of one law for the rich and educated, who could read the Scriptures in Latin texts and commentaries, and another for the poor, who depended on oral instruction from semi-literate artisans and travelling preachers. But More and the bishops were swimming against the tide. The invention of printing had revolutionized the transmission of new ideas across Western Europe, including Protestant ideas. Heretical books and Bibles poured from the presses of English exiles abroad, notably that of William Tyndale at Antwerp.The demand for vernacular Scriptures was persistent, insistent, and widespread; even Henry VIII was enlightened enough to wish to assent to it, and publication an English Bible in Miles Coverdale’s translation was first achieved in 1536, a year after More’s death. b) Christian Humanism and the influence of Greek learning Of the forces springing from the new European mood of reform and self-criticism, Christian Humanism and the influence of Greek learnin g came first.The humanists, of whom the greatest was Erasmus of Rotterdam (1467-1536), rejected scholasticism and elaborate ritualism in favor of wit and simple biblical piety, or philosophia Christi, which was founded on primary textual scholarship, and in particular study of the Greek New Testament. Erasmus read voraciously, wrote prodigiously, and travelled extensively; he made three visits to England, and it was in Cambridge in 1511-14 that he worked upon the Greek text of his own edition of the New Testament, and revised his Latin version that improved significantly on the standard Vulgate text.But the renaissance of Greek learning owed as much to a native Englishman, John Colet, the gloomy dean of St. Paul’s and founder of its school. Colet, who was also young Thomas More’s spiritual director, had been to Italy, where he had encountered the Neo-Platonist philosophy of Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola. He had mastered Greek grammar and literature, which he then helped to foster at Oxford and at his school, and the fruits of his philosophical and literary knowledge were applied to Bible study—especially to the works of St. Paul. The result was a method of Scriptural exegesis that broke new ground.Colet emphasized the unity of divine truth, a literal approach to texts, concern for historical context, and belief in a personal and redemptive Christ. These were exciting ideas, and they inspired both Erasmus and the younger generation of English humanists. The clarion call of humanist reform was sounded in 1503, when Erasmus published A Handbook of a Christian Knight, a compendium, or guide, for spiritual life. (Parvulorum Institutio, 1512-13) This book encapsulated the humanism, evangelism, and laicism that its author had imbibed from Colet, and made Europe uncomfortably aware that the existing priorities of the Church would not do.Erasmus added reforming impetus to traditional lay piety, and his pungent criticisms of the scholasti c theologians, of empty ritual, ecclesiastical abuses, and even the mores of the Papacy, were as stimulating as they were embarrassing. For Erasmus, whose classic satire was Praise of Folly (1514), highlighted his reforming posture by means of his immortal wit, combining the serious, the humorous, and the artistic in peerless texture, and delighting everyone except the senior Church authorities.Wit is an essential literary commodity, and Erasmus drew on his as from a bottomless purse—which was just as well, for it was his sole pecuniary endowment. His effervescent humor flowed quite naturally. Works of piety, that might otherwise have been mere pebbles thrown into the European pond, thus generated ripples that increasingly had the force of tidal waves. The best English exponent of humanist satire in the wake of Praise of Folly was Thomas More, whose Utopia, first published at Louvain in 1516, described imaginary and idealized society of pagans living on a remote island in acc ordance with principles of natural virtue.By implicitly comparing the benign social customs and enlightened religious attitudes of the ignorant Utopians with the inferior standards, in practice, of (allegedly) Christian Europeans, More produced a strident indictment of the latter, based purely on deafening silence—a splendid, if perplexing, achievement of the sort More perennially favored. But to the distress of Erasmus, More abandoned reform for repression and extermination of heresy during his thousand days as Lord Chancellor, and has gone down to history , save in the writings of his a apologists as persecutor rather than a prophet.However, his terrible end in 1535 as a victim of Henry VIII’s vengeance, and his willingness to suffer torment for the truth he had discovered in the (then controversial) dogma of papal primacy, perpetually guarantee that his steadfastness was not a delusion; when the axe fell, Utopia’s author earned his place among the few who hav e enlarged the hori2ons of the human spirit. In fairness to More, the Brave New World of Utopia had been crudely shattered by Luther’s debut upon the European stage in1517. For the Christian Humanists, to their sorrow, had unintentionally, but irreversibly, prepared the way for the spread of Protestantism.In England, the impact of Lutheranism far exceeded the relatively small number of converts, and the rise of the â€Å"new learning†, as it was called, became the most potent of the- forces released in the 1520s and 1530s. Luther’s ideas and numerous books rapidly penetrated the universities, especially Cambridge, the City of London, the Inns of Court, and even reached Henry VIII s Household through the intervention of Anne Boleyn and her circle. At Cambridge, the young scholars influenced included Thomas Cranmer and Matthew Parker, both of whom later became Archbishops of Canterbury.Wolsey naturally made resolute efforts as legate to stamp out the spread of Pro testantism, but without obvious success. His critics blamed his reluctance to burn men for heresy as the cause of his failure—for Wolsey would burn books and imprison men, but shared the humane horror of Erasmus at the thought of himself committing bodies to the flames. However the true reason for Luther’s appeal was that he had given coherent doctrinal expression to the religious subjectivity of individuals, and to their distrust of Rome and papal monarchy.In addition his view of the ministry mirrored the instincts of the anticlerical laity, and his answer to concubinage was the global solution of clerical marriage. 2. 4 Henrician Reformation a) Henry VIII’s first divorce Into this religious maelstrom dropped Henry VIII's first divorce. Although Catherine of Aragon had borne five children, only the Princess Mary (b. 1516) had survived, and the king demanded the security of a male heir to protect the fortunes of the Tudor dynasty.It was clear by 1527 that Cather ine was past the age of childbearing; meanwhile Henry coveted Anne Boleyn, who would not comply without the assurance of marriage. Yet royal annulments were not infrequent, and all might have been resolved without drama, or even unremarked, had not Henry VIII himself been a proficient, if mendacious, theologian. The chief obstacle was that Henry, who feared international humiliation, insisted that his divorce should be granted by a competent authority in England-this way he could de rive his wife of her legal rights, and bully his Episcopal judges.But his marriage had been founded on Pope Julius II’s dispensation, necessarily obtained by Henry VIII to enable the young Henry VIII to marry his brother’s widow in the first place, and hence the matter pertained to Rome. In order to have his case decided without reference to Rome, in face of the Papacy’s unwillingness to concede the matter, Henry had to prove against the reigning pope, Clement VII that his predecesso r’s dispensation was invalid — then the marriage would automatically terminate, on the grounds that it had never legally existed.Henry would be a bachelor again. However, this strategy took the king away from matrimonial law into the quite remote and hypersensitive realm of papal power. If Julius II’s dispensation was invalid, it must be because the successors of St. Peter had no power to devise such instruments, and the popes were thus no better than other human legislators who had exceeded their authority. Henry was a good enough theologian and canon lawyer to know that there was a minority opinion in Western Christendom to precisely this effect.He was enough of an egotist, too, to fall captive to his own powers of persuasion—soon he believed that papal primacy was unquestionably a sham, a ploy of human invention to deprive kings and emperors of their legitimate inheritances. Henry looked back to the golden days of the British imperial past, to the time of the Emperor Constantine and of King Lucius I. In fact, Lucius I had never existed- he was a myth, a figment of pre-Conquest imagination.But Henry’s British ‘sources’ showed that this Lucius was a great ruler, the first Christian king of Britain, who had endowed the British Church with all its liberties and possessions, and then written to Pope Eleutherius asking him to transmit the Roman laws. However, the pope’s reply explained that Lucius did not need any Roman law, because he already had the lex Britunniue (whatever that was) under which he ruled both regnum and sacerdotium: For you be God’s vicar in your kingdom, as the psalmist says, ‘Give the king thy judgments, O God, and thy righteousness to the king’s son’ (Ps. xxii: 1) . . . A king hath his name of ruling, and not of having a realm. You shall be a king, while you rule well; but if you do otherwise, the name of a king shall not remain with you . . . God grant you so to rule the realm of Britain, that you may reign with him forever, whose vicar you be in the realm. Vicarius Dei-vicar of Christ. Henry’s divorce had led him, incredibly, to believe in his royal supremacy over the English Church. b) Supreme head of the Ecclesia Anglicana With the advent of the divorce crisis, Henry took personal charge of his policy and government.He ousted Wolsey, who was hopelessly compromised in the new scheme of things, since his legatine power came directly from Rome. He named Sir Thomas More to the chancellorship, but this move backfired owing to More’s scrupulous reluctance to involve himself in Henry’s proceedings. He summoned Parliament, which for the first time in English history worked with the king as an omnicompetent legislative assembly, if hesitatingly so. Henry and Parliament finally threw off England’s allegiance to Rome in an unsurpassed burst of revolutionary statute-making: the Act of Annates (1532. , the Act of Appeal s (1533), the Act of Supremacy (1534), the First Act of Succession (1534) the Treasons Act (1534), and the Act against the Pope’s Authority (1536). The Act of Appeals proclaimed Henry VIII’s new imperial status-all English jurisdiction, both secular and religious, now sprang from the king-and abolished the pope’s right to decide English ecclesiastical cases. The Act of Supremacy declared that the king of England was supreme head of the Ecclesia Anglicana, or Church of England—not the pope. The Act of Succession was the first of a series of Tudor instruments used to settle the order of succession to the hrone, a measure which even Thomas More agreed was in itself unremarkable, save that this statute was prefaced by a preamble denouncing papal jurisdiction as a ‘usurpation’ of Henry’s imperial power. More, together with Bishop Fisher of Rochester, and the London Carthusians, the most rigorous and honorable custodians of papal primacy and the legitimacy of the Aragonese marriage, were tried for ‘denying’ Henry’s supremacy under the terms of the Treasons Act. These terms inter alia made it high treason maliciously to de rive either king or queen of ‘the dignity, title, or name of their royal estates’—that is to deny Henry’s royal supremacy.The victims of the act, who were in reality martyrs to Henry’s vindictive egoism, were cruelly executed in the summer of 1535. A year later the Reformation legislation was completed by the Act against the Pope’s Authority, which removed the last vestiges of papal power in England, including the pope’s ‘pastoral’ right as a teacher to decide disputed points of Scripture. Henry VIII now controlled the English Church as its supreme head in both temporal and doctrinal matters; his ecclesiastical status was that of a lay metropolitan archbishop who denied the validity of external, papal authority within his territories.He was not a riest, and had no sacerdotal or sacramental functions—the king had tried briefly to claim these but had been rebuffed by an outraged episcopate. Yet Henry was not a Protestant, either. Until his death in 1547, Henry VIII believed in Catholicism without the pope—a curious but typically Henrician application of logic to the facts of so—called British ‘history’ as exemplified by King Lucius I. As a lay archbishop, Henry could make ecclesiastical laws and define doctrines almost as he pleased—provided he did not overthrow the articles of faith.In fact, this gave him a wider latitude than might be thought, because the bishops could not agree what the articles of faith were, beyond the fundamentals of God’s existence, Christ’s divinity, the Trinity, and some of the sacraments. The Greek scholarship of the Christian Humanists had weakened the structure of traditional, medieval Christian doctrine by questioning texts and rejecting scholasticism: a mood of uncertainty prevailed. Before 1529, then, Henry had ruled his clergy through Wolsey; after 1534 he did so personally, and through his new chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, whom Henry soon appointed his (lay) vicegerent in spirituals.A former aide of Wolsey, Cromwell had risen to executive power as a client of the Boleyn interest, and had taken command of the machinery of government, especially the management of Parliament, in January 1532. By combining the offices of Lord Privy Seal and vicegerent, Cromwell succeeded Wolsey as the architect of Tudor policy under Henry, until his own fall in july 1540—but with one striking difference. As vicegerent he was entirely subordinate to Henry; Wolsey, as legate, had been subordinate only as an Englishman.Yet the accomplishment of Henry’s dream to give the words Rex Imperator literal meaning raises a key historical question. Exactly why did the English bishops and abbots, the aristocr acy of the spirit who held a weight of votes in the House of Lords, permit the Henrician Reformation to occur? The answer is partly that Henry coerced his clerical opponents into submission by threats and punitive taxation; but some bishops actually supported the king, albeit sadly, and a vital truth lies behind this capitulation.Those clerics who were politically alert saw that it was preferable to be controlled by the Tudor monarchs personally, with whom they could bargain and haggle, than to be offered as a sacrifice instead to the anticlerical laity in the House of Commons, which was the true alternative to compliance. For as early as 1532, it was on the cards that the Tudor supremacy would be a parliamentary supremacy, not a purely royal one, and only the despotic king’s dislike of representative assemblies ensured that Parliament’s contribution was cut back to the mechanical, though still revolutionary, task of enacting the requisite legislation.It was plain to a ll but the most ultramontane papalists on the Episcopal bench that a parliamentary supremacy would have exposed the clergy directly to the pent—up emotional fury and hatred of the anticlerical laity and common lawyers. The laity, furthermore, were fortified for the attack by the humanists’ debunking of ritualism and superstition. In short, royal supremacy was the better of two evils: the clergy would not have to counter the approaching anticlerical backlash without the necessary filter of royal mediation. c) The dissolution of the religious housesHenry VIII’s supremacy did save the bishops from the worst excesses of lay anticlericalism, and the king’s doctrinal conservatism prevented an explosion of Protestantism during his reign. However, nothing could save the monasteries. Apart from anticlericalism, three quite invincible forces merged after 1535 to dictate the dissolution of the religious houses. First, the monastic communities almost parent instituti ons outside England and Wales—this was juridically unacceptable after the Acts of Appeals and Supremacy. Secondly, Henry VIII was bankrupt. He needed to annex the monastic estates in order to restore the Crown’s finances.Thirdly, Henry had to buy the allegiance of the political nation away from Rome and in support of his Reformation by massive injections of new patronage—he must appease the lay nobility and gentry with a share of the spoils. Thus Thomas Cromwell’s first task as vicegerent was to conduct an ecclesiastical census under Henry’s commission, the first major tax record since Domesday Book, to evaluate the condition and wealth of the English Church. Cromwell’s questionnaire was a model of precision. Was divine service observed? Who were the benefactors? What lands did the houses possess? What rents? and so on. The survey was completed in six months, and Cromwell’s genius for administration was shown by the fact that Valor Ec clesiasticus, as it is known, served both as a record of the value of the monastic assets, and as a report on individual clerical incomes for taxation purposes. The lesser monasteries were dissolved in 1536; the greater houses followed two years later. The process was interrupted by a formidable northern rebellion, the Pilgrimage of Grace, which was brutally crushed by use of martial law, exemplary public hangings, and a wholesale breaking of Henry’s promises to the ‘pilgrims’.But the work of plunder was quickly completed. A total of 56o monastic institutions had been suppressed by November 1539, and lands valued at ? 132,000 per annum immediately accrued to the Court of Augmentations of the King’s Revenue, the new department of state set up by Cromwell to cope with the transfer of resources. Henry’s coffers next received ? I5,000 or so from the sale of gold and silver plate, lead, and other precious items; finally, the monasteries had possessed the right of presentation to about two-fifths of the parochial benefices in England and Wales, and these rights were also added to the Crown’s patronage.The long-term effects of the dissolution have often been debated by historians, and may conveniently be divided into those which were planned, and those not. Within the former category, Henry VIII eliminated the last fortresses of potential resistance to his royal supremacy. He founded six new dioceses upon the remains of former monastic buildings and endowments—Peterborough, Gloucester, Oxford, Chester, Bristol, and Westminster, the last-named being abandoned in 1550. The king then reorganized the ex-monastic cathedrals as Cathedrals of the New Foundation, with revised staffs and statutes.Above all, though, the Crown’s regular income was seemingly doubled-but for how long? The bitter irony of the dissolution was that Henry VIII’s colossal military expenditure in the 1540s, together with the laity’s d emand for a share of the booty, politically irresistible as that was, would so drastically erode the financial gains as to cancel out the benefits of the entire process. Sales of the confiscated lands began even before the suppression of the greater houses was completed, and by 1547 almost two thirds of the former monastic property had been alienated.Further grants by Edward VI and Queen Mary brought this figure to over three—quarters by 1558. The remaining lands were sold by Elizabeth I and the early Stuarts. It is true that the lands were not given away: out of 1,593 grants in Henry VIII’s reign, only 69 were gifts or partly so; the bulk of grants (95. 6 per cent) represented lands sold at prices based on fresh valuations. But the proceeds of sales were not invested – quite the opposite under Henry VIII. In any case, land was the best investment.The impact of sales upon the non-parliamentary income of the Crown was thus obvious, and there is everything to be s aid for the view that it was Henry VIII’s constant dissipation of the monarchy’s resources that made it difficult for his successors to govern England. Of the unplanned effects of the dissolution, the wholesale destruction of fine Gothic buildings, melting down of medieval metalwork and jewellery, and sacking of libraries were the most extensive acts of licensed vandalism perpetrated in the whole of British history.The clergy naturally suffered an immediate decline in morale. The number of candidates for ordination dropped sharply; there was little real conviction that Henry VIII’s Reformation had anything to do with spiritual life, or with God. The disappearance of the abbots from the House of Lords meant that the ecclesiastical vote had withered away to a minority, leaving the laity ascendant in both Houses. With the sale of ex-monastic lands usually went the rights of parochial presentation attached to them, so that local laity btained a considerable monopoly of ecclesiastical patronage, setting the pattern for the next three centuries. The nobility and gentry, especially moderate—sized gentry’ families, were the ultimate beneficiaries of the Crown’s land sales. The distribution of national wealth shifted between 1535 and 1558 overwhelmingly in favor of Crown and laity, as against the Church, and appreciably in favor of the nobility and gentry, as against the Crown. Very few new or substantially enlarged private estates were built up solely out of ex—monastic lands by 1558.But if Norfolk is a typical county, the changing pattern of wealth distribution at Elizabeth’s accession was that 4. 8 per cent of the county’s manors were possessed by the Crown, 6. 5 per cent were Episcopal or other ecclesiastical manors, II. 4 per cent were owned by East Anglican territorial magnates, and 75. 4 per cent had been acquired by the gentry. In 1535, 2. 7 per cent of manors had been held by the Crown, 17. 2 per c ent had been owned by the monasteries, 9. 4 per cent were in the hands of magnates, and 64 per cent belonged to gentry’ families.Without Henry VIII’s preparatory break with Rome, there could not have been Protestant reform in Edward VI’s reign——thus evaluation can become a question of religious opinion, rather than historical judgment. However, it is hard not to regard Henry as a despoiler; he was scarcely a creator. Thomas Cromwell did his utmost, often behind the king’s back, to endow his contemporaries with Erasmian, and enlightened idealism: the Elizabethan via media owed much to the eirenic side of Cromwell’s complex character.But Cromwell’s reward was the block—ira principis mors est. He was cast aside by his suspicious employer, and fell victim to the hatred of his enemies. And without Wolsey or Cromwell to restrain him, Henry could do still more harm. He resolved to embark on French and Scottish wars, triggering a slow-burning fuse that was extinguished only by the execution of Mary Stuart in February 1587. Yet if Henry turned to war and foreign policy in the final years of his reign, it was because he felt secure at last.Cromwell had provided the enforcement machinery necessary to protect the supreme head from spontaneous internal opposition; Jane Seymour had brought forth the male heir to the Tudor throne; Henry was excited about his marriage to Catherine Howard, and was happily cured of theology. 2. 5 The matrimonial adventures of Henry VIII The matrimonial adventures of Henry are too familiar to recount again in detail, but an outline may conveniently be given. Anne Boleyn was already pregnant when the king married her, and the future Elizabeth I was born on 7 September 1533.Henry was bitterly disappointed that she was not the expected son, blaming Anne and God—in that order. Anne had turned out to be a precocious flirt, who meddled fatally in politics: she was ousted and execute d in a coup of May 1536. Henry immediately chose the homely Jane Seymour, whose triumph in producing the baby Prince Edward was Pyrrhic, for she died of Tudor surgery twelve days later. Her successor was Anne of Cleves, whom Henry married in January 1540 to win European allies. But this gentle creature, which Henry rudely called ‘the Flemish mare’, did not suit; divorce was thus easy, as the union was never consummated.Catherine Howard came next. A high-spirited mind, she had been a maid of honour to Anne of Cleves—entirely inappropriately—and became Henry’s fifth queen in July 1540 as the key to the coup that destroyed Cromwell. She was executed in February 1542 for adultery. Finally, Henry took the amiable Catherine Parr to wife in July 1543. Twice widowed, Catherine was a cultivated Erasmian, under whose benign influence the royal children lived under one roof, and were spared the more malign components of Henry’s paternal indulgence. 2. 6 An extension of English hegemonyHenry VIII’s plans for war which were conceived after his marriage to Catherine Howard, and which hardened when he learned of her infidelity, resurrected youthful dreams of French conquests. Wolsey had monitored the king’s futile early campaigns of 1 511-16, and brilliantly transformed Henry’s military failures into the diplomatic prize of the treaty of London (1518). At the Field of Cloth of Gold in 1520, Henry had feted Francis I of France in a Renaissance extravaganza that was hailed as the eighth wonder of the world, for Francis was the king whom Henry loved to hate.More wasteful campaigns in 1522 and 1523 were curtailed by England’s financial exhaustion—then Henry’s policy fell into labyrinthine confusion. England was at war with France; then in alliance with France. In the end, Henry was perhaps grateful for the European peace which prevailed from 1529 to 1536, and even more relieved by the resumed riva lry that kept Habsburg and Valois mutually engaged until the reverberations of the Pilgrimage of Grace had died away. By 1541 Henry was moving towards a renewed amity with Spain against France, but he was prudent enough to hesitate.Tudor security required that before England went to war with France, no doors should be open to the enemy within Britain itself. This meant an extension of English hegemony within the British Isles—Wales, Ireland, and Scotland. Accordingly Henry undertook, or continued, the wider task of English colonization that was ultimately completed by the Act of Union with Scotland (1707). a) The Union of England and Wales The Union of England and Wales had been presaged by Cromwell’s reforming ambition and was legally accomplished by Parliament in 1536 and 1543.The marcher lordships were shired, English laws and county administration were extended to Wales, and the shires and county boroughs were required to send twenty-four MPs to Parliament at Westm inster. In addition, a refurbished Council of Wales, and new Courts of Great Sessions, were set up to administer the region’s defenses and judicial system. Wales was made subject to the full operation of royal writs, and to English principles of land tenure. The Act of 1543 dictated that Welsh customs of tenure and inheritance were to be phased out and that English rules were to succeed them.Welsh customs persisted in remote areas until the seventeenth century and beyond, but English customs soon predominated. English language became the fashionable tongue, and Welsh native arts went into decline. Englishmen have regarded the Union as the dawn of a civilizing process that ended with the abolition of the Council of Wales in 1689 and of the Great Sessions in 1830. Welshmen, by contrast, view Henry VIII’s Acts as a crude annexation, which technically they were—for they were not in the nature of a treaty between negotiating parties as was the case with Scotland in 1 707.In fact, Welsh civilization was already advanced in the sixteenth century, and flourished despite the Acts. Sir John Prise, ia relation of Thomas Cromwell, defended Welsh history against the skepticism of Polydore Vergil; Humphrey Llwyd of Denbigh supported him with geographical learning—and there were others. John Owen of Plas Du, Llanarmon, and New College, Oxford, enjoyed a higher literary reputation abroad during his lifetime than did William Shakespeare, his contemporary. He wrote 1,500 Latin epigrams in the style of Martial.Welsh grammars were compiled to perpetuate the native tongue—by Sion Dafydd Rhys (1592. ), who wrote in Latin in order to reach the widest European audience, and by john Davies of Mallwyd (1621), who publicly justified the utility of Welsh studies. b) Tudor Irish policy Tudor Irish policy had begun with Henry VII’s decision that all laws made in England were automatically to apply to Ireland, and that the Irish Parliament could only legislate with the king of England’s prior consent.English territorial influence, in reality, did not extend much beyond the Pale—the area around Dublin—and the Irish chiefs held the balance of power. Henry VIII ruled mainly through the chiefs before the Reformation, but was obliged to protect England in the 1530s from a possible papal counter—attack launched from Ireland. Lord Leonard Grey was named deputy of Ireland by Cromwell, but his coercive actions proved counter-productive. He was replaced by Sir Anthony St. Leger, who made a fresh start. St.Leger reshaped the Irish policy of the Tudors, and his basic philosophy persisted until 1783. Instead of consolidation and coercion, he proposed friend-ship and conciliation, but the essence of the plan was to create a subordinate national superstructure for Ireland by translating Henry VIII’s lordship into kingship. The kings of England were dominus Hiberniae, not rex. But St. Leger persuaded Henry to assume the Crown—that would overthrow papal claims to feudal overlordship, and subordinate the chiefs to royal authority. Henry assented, and was proclaimed king in June 1541.His understanding was probably that kingship would enhance his security within the British Isles. Moreover, if the idea was to form a framework for peaceful, constitutional relations between the Crown and the Irish nation, that was laudable and altruistic. Yet it was also visionary and impractical. The Irish revenues were insufficient to maintain royal status—a separate Council, Star Chamber, Chancery, and Parliament in Dublin, operating independently of, but subject to controls from, the English Parliament and Privy Council.Above all, kingship committed England to a possible full-scale conquest of Ireland in the future, should the chiefs rebel, or should the Irish Reformation, begun by Cromwell, fail. As it turned out, ‘conciliation’ by benevolent kingship was probably worse than ex ternal ‘consolidation’ and ‘coercion’, since Tudor attitudes to conquest in Ireland were based on experiences in the New World, something the disillusioned Edmund Spenser, who lived in Ireland, pointed out in Elizabeth’s reign. The harsh vicissitudes of Irish history, especially in the seventeenth century, were hardly attributable to Henry VIII and St.Leger. However, the new policy of the Tudors perpetuated the disadvantages both of subordination and of autonomy. In the wake of Irish pressure and the revolt of the American Colonies, the British Parliament abandoned its controls over Ireland in 1783. The Act of Union of 1801 reversed this change in favour of direct rule from Westminster, after which Irish history owed nothing to the Tudors. c) The need to control Scotland Yet the linchpin of Tudor security was the need to control Scotland.James IV (1488-1513) had renewed the Auld Alliance with France in 1492 and further provoked Henry VII by offering support for Perkin Warbeck. But the first of the Tudors declined to be distracted by Scottish sabre-rattling, and forged a treaty of Perpetual Peace with Scotland in 1501, followed a year later by the marriage of his daughter, Margaret, to King James. However, James tried to break the treaty shortly after Henry VIII’s accession; Henry was on campaign in France, but sent the earl of Surrey northwards, and Surrey decimated the Scots at Flodden on 9 September 1513.The elite of Scotland—the king, three bishops, eleven earls, fifteen lords, and some 10,000 men—were slain in an attack that was the delayed acme of medieval aggression begun by Edward I and III. The new Scottish king, James V, was an infant, and the English interest was symbolized for the next twenty years or so by the person of his mother, Henry VIII’s own sister. But Scottish panic after Flodden had, if anything, confirmed the nation’s ties with France, epitomized by the regency of john d uke of Albany, who represented the French cause but nevertheless kept Scotland at peace with England for the moment.The French threat became overt when the mature James V visited France in 1536, and married in quick succession Madeleine, daughter of Francis I, and on her death Mary of Guise. In 1541 James agreed to meet Henry VIII at York, but committed the supreme offence of failing to turn up. By this time, Scotland was indeed a danger to Henry VIII, as its government was dominated by the French faction led by Cardinal Beaton, who symbolized both the Auld Alliance and the threat of papal counter-attack. In October 1542 the duke of Norfolk invaded Scotland, at first achieving little.It was the Scottish counterstroke that proved to be a worse disaster even than Flodden. On 25 November 1542, 3,000 English triumphed over 10,000 Scots at Solway Moss—and the news of the disgrace killed James V within a month. Scotland was left hostage to the fortune of Mary Stuart, a baby born on ly six days before James’s death. For England, it seemed to be the answer to a prayer. Henry VIII and Protector Somerset, who governed England during the early years of Edward VI’s minority, none the less turned advantage into danger.Twin policies were espoused by which war with France was balanced by intervention in Scotland designed to secure England’s back door. In 1543 Henry used the prisoners taken at Solway Moss as the nucleus of an English party in Scotland; he engineered Beaton’s overthrow, and forced on the Scots the treaty of Greenwich, which projected union of the Crowns in form of marriage between Prince Edward and Mary Stuart. At the end of the same year, Henry allied with Spain against France, planning a combined invasion for the following spring.But the invasion, predictably, was not concerted. Henry was deluded by his capture of Boulogne; the emperor made a separate peace with France at Crepi, leaving England’s flank exposed. At ast ronomical cost the war continued