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An elite’s response to democracy: how the Conservative Party adapted to extensions of the franchise; and coped with ensuing political repercussions 1867-1914.This thesis investigates how the Conservative party coped with the far-reaching effects of democratic reform between 1867 and 1914. It analyses the performance of successive party leaders through their exploitation of high politics; and how ideology influenced their policy, and decision making. It also examines how the party’s organization was periodically revised to manage changing political circumstances. The relationships between these three elements, high politics, ideology, and organization are then analysed to explain the Conservative party’s appeal for electoral support during the period of study. The respective contributions made by the three elements to the party’s electoral performance are considered in relation to each other. Using this approach the thesis explains how the Conservative party managed to improve upon its dismal electoral record between 1832 and 1874; how it achieved electoral dominance between 1886 and 1906; and why its electoral fortunes declined so dramatically thereafter. The conclusions reached are threefold. Firstly, the importance attached to high politics by the Peterhouse school of thought may, in some respects, be exaggerated, certainly regarding elections. High politics, by its very nature seeks to exert influence at a level far removed from the mass electorate. Political rhetoric has obvious uses during elections, not least in the field of extra-parliamentary speech-making. But in the absence of any reliable indicators of what the electorate actually felt or desired, the effectiveness of political rhetoric could not be gauged a priori. The results of political manoeuvring at the highest levels may have been apparent to voters, but was of little concern to them. At worst, they were ignorant of it, and at best, ambivalent to it. Secondly, party leaders, whether knowingly or unknowingly, exploited the flexibility of Conservative ideology in their quest for votes. However, the core concepts of that ideology remained inviolable, only contingent values were successfully subjected to re-appraisal and revision to attract the voters. When ideological core values were misunderstood or misinterpreted the party suffered accordingly. Thirdly, the value of the Conservative party’s organization has been underestimated. High politics and ideology may have combined to produce a Conservative message for the voters, but the appeal of that message was unknowable. On the other hand, the party’s organization, when empowered to do so, adroitly and effectively utilized all the tools available to them to manage and maximize all potential Conservative support. Organization may be viewed as a make-weight, but like all make-weights it possessed the power to tip the electoral scales one way or the other.
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Baudelaire, Degeneration Theory, and Literary Criticism in Fin de siècle SpainThis article seeks, through an analysis of the response of `psychologist critics' inspired by degeneration theory to the work of Charles Baudelaire in fin de siècle Spain, to determine the originality of the application of this theory to literary history and criticism of the Fin de siècle; to argue that this period of literary history cannot be studied meaningfully other than by reference to an international context; and to challenge the assumption that cultures considered at that time and subsequently to be peripheral were indeed cultural backwaters unreceptive to the literary developments of the day. (Ingenta)
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Bibliography of British Travel Writing, 1780 - 1840: The European Tour, 1814 - 1818 (excluding Britain and Ireland)The acquisition in 1997 by Cardiff University of the English language version of the Corvey Microfiche Edition (CME) presented a significant opportunity for research into English literature of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. 'Romantic Textualities: Literature and Print Culture, 1780–1840' is a twice-yearly journal that is committed to foregrounding innovative Romantic-studies research into bibliography, book history, intertextuality, and textual studies. INTRODUCTION TO THIS ARTICLE: "In 1826, Mary Shelley recalled the Summer of 1814 as ‘incarnate romance’, when ‘a new generation’ of youthful travellers with ‘time and money at command’, yet heedless of ‘dirty packets and wretched inns’, ‘poured, in one vast stream, across the Pas de Calais into France’. It is estimated that some 15,512 British tourists and residents were present in Paris alone during 1815, while, at home, accounts began appearing in print. By 1817, the Edinburgh Review commented: The restoration of peace has, as might have been foreseen, produced a vast number of Books of Travels."
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Clad in Iron: The American Civil War and the Challenge of British Naval PowerThis work addresses many persistent misconceptions of what the monitors were for, and why they failed in other roles associated with naval operations of the Civil War (such as the repulse at Charleston, April 7, 1863). Monitors were 'ironclads'- not fort-killers. Their ultimate success is to be measured not in terms of spearheading attacks on fortified Southern ports but in the quieter, much more profound, strategic deterrence of Lord Palmerston's ministry in London, and the British Royal Navy's potential intervention. During the American Civil War, one of the greatest fears of the Union government was that the United Kingdom might intervene on the side of the Confederacy. This book is a unique study that combines a lively and colourful narrative with a fresh interpretation of the American effort to avoid a naval war with Great Britain. The author chronicles the growth and development of the Union "Ironclads," beginning with U.S.S. Monitor, during the American Civil War.Unlike other similar histories, however, the author does not simply recount the battle actions of these metal monsters. Instead, he crafts a fast-paced narrative that focuses on the military men and government officials who drove the decision-making processes, and outlines the international ramifications of the revolution in naval affairs that took place in the 1860s. He demonstrates that Federal ironclads were not constructed solely in response to their Confederate counterparts, but, even more importantly, to counter the ocean-going iron ships of the Royal Navy. The author places the naval developments of the Civil War within the broader context of Anglo-American relations and the rapidly developing international rivalry between the United States and Britain. The wide reaching implications of the technological advances, and the unprecedented expansion of the U.S. Navy are usually depicted as a sidebar to the main events of the Civil War. This work, however, brings a new perspective to this important yet overlooked aspect of diplomacy during this time.
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Coalminers, Coalowners and Collaboration: The Miners' Permanent Relief Fund Movement in England, 1860-1895.British coal-mining history has long been influenced by the classic, conflictual view of industrial relations, according to which the history of the industry is best understood in terms of a courageous trade union leadership inspiring a united workforce in an unending struggle against self-interested and intransigent employers. Accordingly, it is the purpose of the paper to argue that the miners' permanent relief fund movement repays more serious attention than the conventional perspective allows. It will be shown that the movement attracted a large membership, and provided the mining community with a major source of compensation for industrial accidents. It will be suggested that the permanent relief funds owed their success not just to their administrative efficiency but to the collaborationist foundations upon which they were predicated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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Coalowners, Coalminers and Compulsion: Pit Clubs in England, 1860-80It is suggested that, insofar as coalowner stereotyping rests upon the denigration of pit clubs, it stands in need of substantial modification. It is true that many coalowners organised pit clubs for their own purposes, and that the assistance they provided was seriously and sometimes scandalously deficient. However, it is shown that many owners offered their pit clubs significant financial support, and that the clubs provided their members with benefits in a form, and on a scale, which both contributed towards the relief of coalfield suffering and compared well with the assistance provided by the other agencies to which coalminers and their dependants had access.
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Collected Satires III: Complete Longer SatiresBritish Satire, 1785–1840 is published in a 5 volume set. Despite the fact that Romantic period literary satire has received much critical attention, there has up to now been no scholarly collection devoted to this body of work. This set provides one, offering a representative collection of the verse satire published between the mid-1780s and the mid-1830s. It makes available a wealth of fascinating, rare and hitherto unedited material and provides the annotation necessary to a full appreciation of the complexities of the period's satire. The set also includes two important single-author volumes, the first scholarly editions of the satires of William Gifford and Thomas Moore, as well as lesser known and anonymous works.
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Correction in the Countryside: Convict Labour in Rural Germany 1871-1914Over the course of the Empire demand for labour in the countryside and penal reform together created the conditions for a greater deployment of prisoners, workhouse inmates and young offenders in agriculture. Farming on site, and especially leasing offenders, were the most cost-efficient ways of detaining men. Agricultural work was also regarded as key to their rehabilitation. It served to equip inmates upon release for the sector of the economy most in need of workers. ‘Outside work’ away from the institution was also seen as an intermediate stage in the prisoner's sentence before release. Two developments in the charitable sector complemented this correctional strategy: the emergence of a network of workers’ farming colonies which acted as half-way houses for ex-prisoners after release, and ex-offender employment programmes run by prisoner welfare societies, channelling ex-offenders towards agricultural employment. Despite these efforts to reintegrate offenders, re-offending rates remained high. Penal authorities either attributed this to the incorrigibility of some inmates, or pushed for longer sentences. In some cases penal and medical authorities were inclined to re-interpret the criminal behaviour of repeat offenders as behaviour symptomatic of mental illness, and some inmates were transferred to asylums. In the discourse surrounding the failure of reform the argument that the exclusionary and punitive nature of the prison and workhouse régime actually worked against rehabilitation held little sway, nor the argument that high re-offending rates could be attributed to the vagrancy and begging laws which criminalized systemic poverty and homelessness. Absent here was any understanding that the life offered following release, working as ancillary workers or hands on the estates, bore too striking a resemblance to work in agriculture during detention. This in itself was one major reason why many ex-offenders directed into agricultural employment after release refused to stay and work.
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Death on the Warwickshire Coalfield: an examination of the contribution of miners, coalowners and the state to the decline in mining fatalities in the British coal industry in the period of expansion 1840 to 1913Abstract This thesis examines the development of health and safety in the British coalmining industry in the period of rapid expansion 1840 to 1913 through a case study of the Warwickshire coalfield. It will assess the contribution of the miner, the coalowners and the State to improvements to mine safety. Although historians have been attracted to this period of coalfield expansion, they have tended to concentrate upon the complex economics necessary for success or the fractious record of industrial relations, with health and safety marginalised to the periphery. They have also mainly taken their exemplars from the important coal exporting activities of the North-East and South Wales, together with the larger coalfields of Scotland, Lancashire, Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire. By studying the Warwickshire fatalities and comparing that experience with the neighbouring counties of the East Midlands and national data, this thesis will reveal how local factors influenced safety in the mines. The individual miner had little influence upon mine safety in the period 1840 through to the mid 1870's when the sub-contracting butty system removed owners from the responsibilities of production. The establishment of a permanent Warwickshire Miners’ Association from the 1880’s, characterised by moderate leadership who sought to work closely with employers, gained for the Warwickshire miner superior earnings and conditions of employment, even when compared to neighbouring coalfields in the prosperous Midland Division. This undermines the national caricature of coalowners as brutal capitalists with little regard for their workers or communities where they gained their wealth. The results showed conclusively that it was not the mode of management but the size of the enterprise that was the dominating factor. Fatalities increased in the large deep mines that became more common at the turn of the century and were more susceptible to deaths from falls of coal and men crushed by wagons on the surface. The role of the State was somewhat patchy. Mine Inspectors could recommend that horses employed in oncost haulage should work in shafts rather than chains and that low tension batteries should be used to bring down coal, but owners were free to ignore this advice, with fatal consequences to the workforce. They were more successful in promoting the professionalization of mine management and at the turn of the century legislation was the dominant factor in the adoption of patent explosives to replace the use of gunpowder in Warwickshire mines. This thesis builds upon recent studies by McIvor and Mills which have sought to address this neglect of health and safety in the British coal mining industry. By approaching this through the study of a small coalfield that has largely been ignored by mining historians, it reveals how local factors influenced the contribution of the miner, the coalowner and the State to the problem of accidents and fatalities in the coal industry.
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Dictionary of Traded Goods and Commodities, 1550-1820A dictionary of nearly 4,000 terms found used in documents relating to trade and retail in early modern Britain. It represents part of a larger dataset produced by the Dictionary Project at the University of Wolverhampton. The team of Cox and Dannehl is responsible for the concept, development and delivery of the Dictionary Project, including identification and digitising of sources, recruitment of specialist contributors, writing the majority of the entries, the editing and refinement process, and the formulation and design of the delivery platform.
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Forming a new concept of home: how consumption of textiles contributed to homemaking between 1760 and 1850THIS BOOK: Textiles form the largest group of designed objects available for study, whether as objects in their own rights, as constituents parts of fashion, furniture and interiors, or as industry - the latter embracing production, trade and working environments and experiences. This anthology demonstrates the range of textile studies through eighteen essays that consider the process of designing and making, the makers and manufacturers, the product itself, or how it is sold, used and perceived. Tackling subjects from prehistory to the 1990s, each has been ed to be of particular interest to students and professionals in design, cultural history, fashion and textiles, but also will be of use to anyone who is interested in the study of objects. Set within the context of interdisciplinary techniques in the study of designed objects, the contributors have been drawn from diverse professional backgrounds in both the United Kingdom and the United States. Their experience encompasses the history of textiles and dress, design and economics, museology, social history, psychoanalytical therapy, artchitecture, sociology and textile practice. Divided into four sections, this volume both demonstrates and explores cross-disciplinary research, while enriching and making acccessible the myriad of ways in which textiles - and objects in general - can be interpreted. The editors are the freelance historian, Mary Schoeser, and Dr Christine Boydell, Senior Lecturer in the Department of History of Art and Material Culture, De Montfort University. Published widely, they previously collaborated on the exhibition and publication The Architect of Floors: modernism, art and Marion Dorn designs (1996). (Middlesex University Press)
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Ideals, Reality and Meaning: Homemaking in England in the First Half of the Nineteenth CenturyAdvice books in the first half of the nineteenth century offered homemakers instructions for creating the ideal home. The problem for the design historian is to ascertain with what results the homemaker mediated these instructions. This article suggests using lists of house contents, which survive in a variety of forms, and adopting a qualitative approach to their analysis. Evidence for a number of middle-class homes is used to explore the variations. The symbolic value of individual objects and their role within the material culture of the home is examined - in particular, the use of textiles to articulate the practical and symbolic functions of living rooms. Although all the examples followed the general tendencies of the period as described in advice books, they also showed distinct differences according to social status,age. sex and occupation. A qualitative approach to the evedence permits exploration of the differences between homes and the possible social and cultural meaning that they conveyed. (Oxford University Press)
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Migrant Labour in the German Countryside: Agency and Protest, 1890-1923This article concerns social relations in the estate villages of northern Germany between 1890 and 1923. It focuses primarily on the strategies adopted by seasonal labourers from Russian Poland in their relations with estate managements. Using police and union reports, and the letters and accounts of the migrants themselves, it argues that seasonal workers cannot simply be viewed as exploited, passive victims of this phase of agricultural modernization. This is evident, above all, in the practice of job-switching, which, although criminalized, was a widespread phenomenon both before 1914 and during the war, when the Poles were kept back as forced labour. Escaping estates to which they had been contracted, many workers outsmarted the system of registration by carrying multiple sets of identity papers. But such `contract breaking' was also greatly facilitated by the endemic shortage of labour in the countryside; there were always some owners prepared to hire illegal fugitives. Examining the post-war years, the article also argues for a more nuanced understanding of relations between foreign and local workers. While most contemporary and historical accounts concentrate on social distance and mutual hostility between Germans and Poles, evidence from a number of different villages in the Mecklenburgs indicate that amicable relations and mutual cooperation were not uncommon.
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National and International Trade and the Midlands EconomyThis book: In recent years, traditional interpretations of the processes of industrialisation in Britain have been superceded by a more subtle, macro-economic, gradualist understanding of industrialisation. In particular, commentators have now come to consider the importance of geography and the notion that historical change occurs in space as well as time. Concentrating on the Midlands, this book, drawing on a wealth of original research by an eminent collection of scholars, seeks to develop a fresh understanding of the complex range of urban industrial activity taking place in England during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Focusing on the concomitant urbanisation, it explains how regional urban systems both shaped and responded to processes of industrialisation and how urban systems influenced growth and raised the potential for development in particular locales. (Manchester University Press)
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Shelley's Eye: Travel Writing and Aesthetic VisionPercy Bysshe Shelley joined the deluge of sightseers that poured onto the Continent after Napoleon's defeat in 1814, and over the next eight years Shelley followed major travelling trends, visiting Switzerland in 1816 and Italy from 1818. Shelley's Eye is the first study to address Shelley's participation in the travel culture of Post-Napoleonic Europe, and the first to consider Shelley as an important travel writer in his own right. This book is informed by original research on a wide range of period travel writings, including Mary Shelley and Shelley's neglected collaboration, History of a Six Weeks' Tour (1817), in which 'Mont Blanc' first appeared. Fully responsive to the culture of travel, Shelley's travel prose and poetry form fascinating conversations with major Romantic travellers like Byron, Wollstonecraft, and Wordsworth, as well as lesser-known but widely read travel writers of the day, including Morris Birkbeck, Charlotte Eaton, and John Chetwode Eustace. In this provocative study, Benjamin Colbert demonstrates how the Grand Tour remains a vital cultural metaphor for Shelley and his contemporaries, under pressure from mass travel and popular culture. Shelley's travel prose and 'visionary' poetry explore motives of perception underlying travel discourse and posit an authentic 'aesthetic vision' that reconfigures social, historical, and political meanings of 'sights' from the perspective of an ideal tourist-observer. Shelley's Eye offers a new perspective on Shelley's intellectual history. It is also a timely and important contribution to recent interdisciplinary scholarship that aims to re-evaluate Romantic idealism in the context of physical, experiential, or material cultural practices. (Ashgate Publishing)
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Social Relations in the Estate Villages of Mecklenburg c.1880-1924Research on late nineteenth and early twentieth century German society has concentrated overwhelmingly on life in the cities. By contrast, and despite the fact that almost one third of Germans were still working in agriculture as late as 1914, Germany's rural society remains relatively unexplored. Although historians have begun to correct this imbalance, very few full-length studies of social relations east of the Elba in this period have been published. This book concentrates on social relations in the 1,500 estate villages (Gutsdörfer) of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz. 'Social relations' include the chains of command and obedience, the relative legal positions of owner and workers, contractual-relations, economic relations; the mutual economic dependency of estate owners and workforce, as well as the value systems of owners and labourers which informed these relationships. With its focus on both rural elites and workers, this study differs from much other work on rural Germany. For while a number of historians have examined the rural elites, few have chosen to investigate the lower strata of rural society. This book makes use of overlooked autobiographical accounts, statements given by workers at labour exchanges and before military authorities, as well as confiscated letters, jokes and anecdotes to provide greater insight into the perspective of rural workers. (Ashgate Publishing)
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Stories from Home: English Domestic Interiors, 1750-1850Most homes in the past were not elite, wealthy interiors complete with high fashion furnishings, designed by well-known architects and designers, as many domestic histories often seem to have assumed. As this book makes clear, there were in fact an enormous variety of house interiors in England during the period 1750–1850, reflecting the location, status and gender of particular householders, as well as their changing attitudes, tastes and aspirations. By focusing on non-metropolitan homes, which represented the majority of households in England, this study highlights the need for historians to look beyond prevailing attitudes that often reduce interiors to generic descriptions based on high fashions of the decorative arts. Instead it shows how numerous social and cultural influences affected the manner in which homes were furnished and decorated. Issues such as the availability of goods, gender, regional taste, income, the second-hand market, changing notions of privacy and household hierarchies and print culture, could all have a significant impact on domestic furnishing. The study ends with a discussion of how domestic interiors of historic properties have been presented and displayed in modern times, highlighting how competing notions of the past can cloud as well as illuminate the issue. Combining cultural history and qualitative analysis of evidence, this book presents a new way of looking at 'ordinary' and 'provincial' homes that enriches our understanding of English domestic life of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. (Ashgate Publishing)