East Carolina University

This article is part of a special issue of the Journal of Ancient History , “Social Biographies of the Ancient World.” It serves as response paper whose purpose is to identify a core question underlying the three case studies in this special issue: does Bourdieu’s field theory help us to understand how people made decisions in the ancient world, given that its predictive capabilities will necessarily be limited by the information we have? To explore this question, the idea of “using theory” as a method is engaged, comparing premodern applications of Bourdieu’s core concepts to the limits of the scientific “theory of evolution.” A brief assessment of the strengths of the case studies in this special issue is followed by an articulation of several resulting take-aways: (i) the value of the concepts of field, capital, and habitus in focusing on our data and its limits, rather than academic ideologies; (ii) the importance of articulating each scholarly assumption explicitly as we apply these concepts; (iii) the recognition that we can use Bourdieu to reveal new interpretive possibilities but not to fill in missing data; and (iv) the productive assumption that each text from the ancient world was the result of an actor(s) leveraging their capital in order to negotiate their perceived optimal position within a field. Together these points illustrate the utility of this issue’s systematic approach to the application of Bourdieu’s field theory in the study of the ancient world.

Background Combined impacts from anthropogenic pressures and climate change threaten coastal ecosystems and their capacity to protect communities from hazards. One approach towards improving coastal protection is to implement “nature-based solutions” (NBS), which are actions working with nature to benefit nature and humans. Despite recent increases in global implementation of NBS projects for coastal protection, substantial gaps exist in our understanding of NBS performance. To help fill this gap, we systematically mapped the global evidence base on the ecological, physical, economic, and social performance of NBS interventions related to coastal protection. We focused on active NBS interventions, such as restoring or creating habitat, adding structure, or modifying sediment in six shallow biogenic ecosystems: salt marsh, seagrass, kelp forest, mangrove, coral reef, and shellfish reef. Methods We identified potentially relevant articles on the performance of NBS for coastal protection using predefined and tested search strategies across two indexing platforms, one bibliographic database, two open discovery citation indexes, one web-based search engine, and a novel literature discovery tool. We also searched 45 organizational websites for literature and solicited literature from 66 subject matter experts. Potentially relevant articles were deduplicated and then screened by title and abstract with assistance from a machine learning algorithm. Following title and abstract screening, we conducted full text screening, extracted relevant metadata into a predefined codebook, and analyzed the evidence base to determine the distribution and abundance of evidence and answer our research questions on NBS performance. Results Our search captured > 37,000 articles, of which 252 met our eligibility criteria for relevance to NBS performance for coastal protection and were included in the systematic map. Evidence stemmed from 31 countries and increased from the 1980s through the 2020s. Active NBS interventions for coastal protection were most often implemented in salt marshes (45%), mangrove forests (26%), and shellfish reefs (20%), whereas there were fewer NBS studies in seagrass meadows (4%), coral reefs (4%), or kelp beds (< 1%). Performance evaluations of NBS were typically conducted using observational or experimental methods at local spatial scales and over short temporal scales (< 1 year to 5 years). Evidence clusters existed for several types of NBS interventions, including restoration and addition of structures (e.g., those consisting of artificial, hybrid, or natural materials), yet evidence gaps existed for NBS interventions like alteration of invasive species. Evaluations of NBS performance commonly focused on ecological (e.g., species and population, habitat, community) and physical (e.g., waves, sediment and morphology) outcomes, whereas pronounced evidence gaps existed for economic (e.g., living standards, capital) and social (e.g., basic infrastructure, health) outcomes. Conclusions This systematic map highlights evidence clusters and evidence gaps related to the performance of active NBS interventions for coastal protection in shallow, biogenic ecosystems. The synthesized evidence base will help guide future research and management of NBS for coastal protection so that active interventions can be designed, sited, constructed, monitored, and adaptively managed to maximize co-benefits. Promising avenues for future research and management initiatives include implementing broad-scale spatial and temporal monitoring of NBS in multidisciplinary teams to examine not only ecological and physical outcomes but also economic and social outcomes, as well as conducting further synthesis on evidence clusters that may reveal measures of effect for specific NBS interventions. Since NBS can deliver multiple benefits, measuring a diverse suite of response variables, especially those related to ecosystem function, as well as social and economic responses, may help justify and improve societal benefits of NBS. Such an approach can help ensure that NBS can be strategically harnessed and managed to meet coastal protection goals and provide co-benefits for nature and people.

In the pre-Trump era, Bill Clinton was known as the greatest gift that political humorists had ever received. The chapter on Bill “I did not have sex with that woman” Clinton begins by discussing the fact that late night comics found plenty of material with which to roast him. He was lampooned for overeating, bending the truth, draft dodging, marijuana smoking, the Whitewater scandal, and more. However, the dominant and lasting caricature of Clinton was based on his history of having—or allegedly having—sexual relations with women other than his wife. The caricature, in other words, focuses on Clinton as an inveterate womanizer. Clinton’s presidency is a classic example of how political caricatures in the modern era are exaggerations, based in, but stretching the truth.

In this chapter, attention turns to George W. “don’t mess with Texas” Bush. Perhaps the most lasting humorous characterization of Bush was that of a genial, but not terribly intelligent fraternity boy. Put more simply, Bush was portrayed as being fairly dumb. The classic representation of this was Will Ferrell’s impersonation of candidate, then President Bush, on Saturday Night Live. The representation of Bush as the dumb frat boy may have been a bit unfair, but it matters less in Bush’s case, inasmuch as he will likely be remembered primarily for having led the US into a war with Iraq.

Caricatures of Dick “Darth Vader” Cheney, George W, Bush’s vice president, are the subject of this chapter. Cheney was a secretive but competent Washington operative. However many resented his policy ideas and tendency to keep things close to the vest, many also believed that he was the power behind the throne of George W. Bush. These were some of the reasons why caricatures of Cheney focused on the idea that he was an evil force. The portrait of Cheney that emerged was that of the Darth Vader of Washington politics, a portrait that was clearly an exaggeration, but one which he self-deprecatingly embraced after leaving office.

This chapter focuses on the humorous portrait of President “wimpy” George H. W. Bush. He was depicted as someone with a peculiar style of speaking, particularly his tendency to speak in clipped sentences. This was classically caricatured by Dana Carvey in a number of Saturday Night Live sketch impersonations. While not terribly critical, Carvey’s impersonations proved so popular that Bush (who was quite good natured about the ribbing) was forced to stop using his signature “thousand points of light” phrase. However, the lasting impression of Bush created by humorists was that he was something of a wimp, a man of little real substance.

In this chapter, caricatures of President Joe ““try being 110” years old” Biden are examined. For years, Biden, as both a US senator and vice president, was lampooned for his Quayle-esque reputation as a “gaffe machine.” However, after he assumed the presidency jokes about his verbal misstatements began to morph into jokes about his age. In particular, his many gaffes have been used to infer that he is less than fully competent because of his age. The negative humorous caricature of Biden is that of a well-meaning old man, both forgetful and prone to misspeaking.

This chapter focuses on how George H. W. Bush’s Vice President Dan Quayle was depicted by comics. An Internet search of Dan Quayle quotes (real or otherwise) returns literally hundreds of sites, filled with what some refer to as “Quaylisms,” nonsensical sayings or statements. Quayle also famously misspelled the word “potato” in an elementary school spelling bee while in office. He was probably the first modern politician who was defined, at least in part, by late night talk show hosts. Quayle was portrayed by humorists as an intellectual lightweight, or more simply, a dunce.

The caricature of Sarah Palin as folksy but none too bright is explored in this chapter. This caricature was advanced most famously by Saturday Night Live cast member Tina Fey, whose depiction of Palin was both masterful and wildly popular. The six skits which featured Fey’s Palin aired that fall proved so popular that it seemed perfectly natural to have Palin herself on the program the Saturday before Election Day. In the end, Palin’s attempt at engaging in self-deprecating humor did little to help her or running mate John McCain at the polls.

In this chapter, attention turns to Al “stiff guy and serial exaggerator” Gore, Bill Clinton’s vice president. Gore had been known for some time as a somewhat unexciting personality. Gore himself occasionally joked about his lack of dynamism. However it was during the presidential campaign of 2000 that his “stiff guy” caricature emerged and took hold. This was in part the result of an iconic Saturday Night Live sketch parody of one the campaign 2000 presidential debates. Gore is also remembered by many as a serial exaggerator who stretched the truth almost to its breaking point.

The final case study in the book, in this chapter, focuses on Hillary “you’re likeable enough” Clinton, who has been in the public eye since she became First Lady in 1993. However while she had been the target of late night comics’ jokes for some time, it was not until her 2008 run for the Democratic nomination that a caricature of her truly solidified. Amy Poehler’s portrayal of candidate Clinton on Saturday Night Live masterfully brought together several existing perceived traits and characteristics as an overly ambitious, humorless, and generally difficult to like individual.

This chapter does several things. It first introduces the subject matter of the book, namely humorous political caricatures in the modern era. These caricatures are the product of what we refer to as mainstream political humor. The chapter also reviews the general scholarship on political humor, paying special attention to the research on how exposure to political humor affects attitudes, knowledge, and participation. The chapter then concludes with a summary of each chapter.

Comic depictions of Barack “political megastar” Obama are the focus of this chapter. Obama’s presidency presented something of a challenge to political humorists. He seemed to have few comic handles, or behaviors, characteristics, and so on, to lampoon. Besides being portrayed as perhaps overly intellectual and somewhat distant, probably the most common Obama-related theme crafted by political humorists during the 2008 campaign was that his popularity rivaled that of a rock star. This characterization was hardly negative. This said, a few classic comedic bits about his presidency emerged during his time in office, not least of which were Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele’s Obama’s “Anger Translator” skits.

The final chapter of the book draws on lessons learned from the case studies in the book. These include the way in which political leaders in the modern era are targeted by humorists, the roots of these political caricatures, and any patterns evident with respect to their truth content. The chapter also explores whether or not these caricatures actually matter, whether they have any effect on the real world of politics.

Portrayals of Donald “an embarrassment of comedic riches” Trump are either the easiest or the hardest to summarize of all of the figures included in this book. This is because in one sense Trump is almost a caricature of himself. More, the long list of traits, characteristics, and controversial statements Trump made during his candidacy and as president make it virtually impossible to isolate a single one from which to craft a negative humorous caricature. To make matters worse, in many cases Trump “jokes” were true. Because of this, the approach in this chapter is to take a broad approach, covering a longer list of traits, characteristics, and statements Trump made on the campaign trail as well as in office that fed into the various (seriously) humorous representations of him.

Non‐pharmaceutical interventions are needed to target the growing intergenerational cycle of obesity. We aimed to determine whether in utero exposure to different exercise doses during pregnancy directly reduces infant cellular and whole‐body adiposity. Pregnant women completed ~24 weeks of supervised exercise training; for standardization of exercise analysis (frequency, intensity, time, and volume‐FIT‐V), metrics were assessed from 16 to 36 weeks. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) collected from the umbilical cord at delivery underwent 21 days of adipogenic differentiation, then Oil Red O staining for lipid content. Infant body composition was measured at 1 month of age. ANCOVA and Pearson correlations determined the influence of prenatal exercise on infant adiposity. Exercise decreased infant MSC lipid content (p = 0.01) and body fat percentage (p = 0.009) irrespective of dose. Total exercise volume throughout pregnancy was negatively correlated with infant body fat % (R² = 0.31, p = 0.02) due to lower subscapular skinfolds (R² = 0.30, p = 0.02), while weekly exercise duration influenced adipogenic MSC lipid accumulation (R² = −0.23, p = 0.03) and BF% (R² = −0.15, p = 0.01). In utero exposure to exercise reduced cellular and whole‐body infant adiposity in a dose‐dependent manner.

Background Patients with decompensated cirrhosis have a higher risk of hospitalization, ICU admission, and death from COVID‐19. The impact of demographics on these outcomes remains uncertain. Methods The SECURE‐Liver and COVID‐Hep databases were utilized to evaluate disparities in COVID‐19 outcomes. Patients were stratified by North American and European cohorts. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression was performed. Results A total of 718 cirrhosis patients with COVID‐19 were evaluated. In the North American cohort, Black patients had more comorbidities (CI: 1.86 vs. 1.83, p < 0.01), higher rates of hospitalization (77% vs. 85%, p < 0.01), ICU admission (27% vs. 40%, p = 0.05), and death (18% vs. 28%, p = 0.07). Hispanic patients had the lowest adverse outcome rates. In the European cohort, White patients had more comorbidities (CI; 1.63 vs. 1.31, p = 0.02), but non‐White patients had higher hospitalization rates (82% vs. 67%, p = 0.01), ICU admissions (15% vs. 18%, p = 0.04), and lower mortality rates (28% vs. 34%, p = 0.01). Conclusion Black patients in North America had higher hospitalization, ICU admission, and death rates. In the European subgroup, White patients had higher death rates than non‐White patients. These disparities became statistically insignificant after adjusting for confounders, suggesting that non‐liver‐related comorbidities might increase the risk of adverse outcomes.