alexpgp | Am embarrassment of riches...

The very first page of the first long-term article I started this afternoon threw an interesting expression at me, which I italicize here: "европейская наука Нового и Новейшего времени." The first two words are easy enough—"European science." The words in italics form a modifier that describes the kind of European history.

Starting, as I usually do, with online research, I luck out and find there is a "кафедра истории Нового и новейшего времени" that is part of the History Faculty at the St. Petersburg State University. It even has a link to an English version of its Web page, where it proclaims itself to—drum roll!—be the "chair of modern and current history."

Fair enough.

My phrase might then be "modern and current European science," which just doesn't strike me as the right translation. What is the difference between "modern history" and "current history" anyway? Are these recognized terms of art? I don't think so.

An entry at dic.academic.ru for философия Нового и Новейшего времени—"the philosophy of" this same modifier phrase—doesn't provide a whole lot of help, but it describes this time frame as "a period in the development of philosphical thought (17th–19th centuries)...&mbsp;." This covers the ages of Reason, Enlightenment, and Ideology (depending on who you trust for your definitions of such historial periods, whether you are speaking of science (!) or philosophy, and what part of Europe you are talking about).

Nevertheless, I am leaning toward "the Enlightenment." But let's roll the dice once more...

I run across a book that has been translated from English into Russian. Its title is "Европа нового и новейшего времени. С 1789 года и до наших дней." The authors, turn out to be Asa Briggs and Patricia Clavin, and the original English title is "Modern Europe: 1789 to the Present."

So "Modern," standing by itself, is back in the running, as a strong contender. So, too, is a modifier taken from the subtitle, of the form "since the French Revolution" (said event having occurred in 1789 and considered by many to be a historical watershed).

So my challenge is now not to find a translation, but to choose one from several alternatives.

This phrase appears to be a single occurrence—at least in this file—so it's almost certain I've spent too much time on it, but the search has underscored, for me, something that is easy to overlook in this racket: Different cultures do not always break down reality into the same chunks.

I'm going to sleep on this, but not for long. IAH is at the other end of "town," and Natalie arrives pretty early.

Cheers...