This research investigates the development of early medieval identities in the South West, and how various factors caused continuity and change in the insular material culture, the settlements, and ultimately in social identity. These cycles of change, brought about by influences both within and outside the region, appear to reoccur throughout the study period, and are evidenced through a regional (macro-scale) and micro-regional (site-specific) scale assessment of the evidence. An overriding sense of long-term continuity is perceived in the ability of these insular identities to retain former traditions and develop their material culture, despite the apparent political domination by far-reaching and overarching social groups in the Anglo-Saxon and Norrnan periods. These traditions include the ceramics, where an examination of developments in form and fabric have created a chronological framework that is more sympathetic to the archaeology of the region than the accepted broad periods of Early, Middle and Late Saxon, and which perhaps reflects a more accurate picture of social changes through time. Furthermore, the retention of both prehistoric and Late Roman practices, in particular the former, is seen throughout all aspects of the archaeological evidence and is examined here through the themes of settlement hierarchies, exchange mechanisms and identity, and their spatial differentiation, and with geographical determinism a deciding factor in the form and nature of communities. It is significant that prehistoric, Byzantine and Late Antique practices prevailed in the fifth to eighth centuries where Roman traditions did not, together with an introduction of Continental cultural indicators. and whilst insular traditions show similarities with those of other Atlantic regions. including Ireland. Scotland and Wales. The thesis also explores the development of Late Roman societies in an assessment of the impact of geographical determinism on identity, and the potential development of Atlantic and maritime identities within society as a whole.

This PhD thesis is based on a qualitative interview study of white South Africans who have migrated to the UK in the post-apartheid era, focusing on their sense of belonging and ‘racial’/ethnic boundary-processes in society. With the increasing South African emigration in the post-apartheid era, the UK has been South Africans’ primary destination. Nevertheless, this migrant group has received relatively little scholarly attention. It could seem as though South Africans have been considered less interesting for research purposes, as their typical status as white and relatively privileged migrants appears to have made them better perceived by the British state apparatus and public than many ‘non-white’ and other disadvantaged migrants (Crawford 2011). By investigating migrants’ sense of belonging, this thesis complements the traditional preoccupations with the formal rights and duties of citizenship (e.g. Marshall 1998 [1963]). Moreover, the analytical insights of ‘intersectionality’ can rectify the one-dimensional conceptualisations (e.g. Kymlicka 1995) which run the risk of labelling all members of an ethnic minority or migrant group as equally disadvantaged without considering how social categories like gender and class might position them differently in particular ‘social hierarchies’. ‘Intersectionality’ – as typically applied to reveal intersecting categorisations/oppressions affecting multiply disadvantaged groups such as black women – can therefore be employed also when demonstrating how members of relatively privileged groups may be situated differently according to ethnicity, class, gender, and so on. Noticeably, varying forms of inclusion and exclusion can be negotiated simultaneously depending on the social categories being underscored (Yuval-Davis 2011a). The psychosocial concerns affecting even relatively privileged migrant groups – as migrants in a new context – are evidenced by the ways in which white South Africans negotiate away boundaries of exclusion by drawing on the more privileged aspects of their group status in order to distinguish themselves from disadvantaged groups in British and South African society.

This dissertation explores British perceptions of and discourses on the ‘Ottomans’ in the mid-nineteenth century, which have been largely overlooked in the existing literature. It approaches the question through three case studies analysing the construction of the perceptions through a discourse-analytic framework. This thesis is divided into two main parts, with the first part providing essential background information for the three case studies which make up the second part. Chapter 1 (Introduction) sets out the research question and the methodology. Chapter 2 looks at the development of Anglo-Ottoman relations from the beginning until the nineteenth century, identifying important stages in these relations which in turn impacted upon British perceptions. These early British perceptions are traced in Chapter 3, indentifying a range of perceptions none of which achieve a dominant position in the British public discourse on the Ottoman Empire and the Ottomans. Part 2 constitutes the core of the dissertation. Chapter 4 focuses on Britain and the Ottoman Empire in the 1860s and 1870s, analysing the wider setting which forms the background to the case studies. Chapter 5 examines the Lebanon Crisis of 1860 tracing the formation of two discourses on the Ottomans in Britain: the sick-man discourse and the integrity discourse, which competed for dominance in the public debate. Chapter 6 examines the Cretan Crisis of 1866, which showed the continued use of these two discourses, with the sick-man discourse finding more support but not yet dominating the debate. This changes during the Bulgarian Atrocities Campaign of 1876, which is explored in Chapter 7. During this crisis, the sick-man discourse undergoes both a radicalisation and popularisation following the graphic coverage in the British press of the atrocities committed in the Balkans which is picked up by politicians who feel the need to respond to pressure from the streets. The Conclusion sums up the main findings of the dissertation and discusses how far the nineteenth-century constructions of the Ottomans as the ‘other’ in Britain remain relevant in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, when the Muslims take the place of the Ottomans as the ‘other’.

Scotland's response to the end of the British Empire was different from reactions in the rest of the UK. This thesis examines the specific ways in which Scottish civil society and politics engaged with British decolonisation during the 1950s and early 1960s. The thesis draws heavily on the understudied archival records of Scottish civil society and pan-UK political groups to demonstrate that a conspicuous critique of decolonisation emerged north of the border. It shows (in Chapters I and II) that the most powerful and distinctive strand of anticolonialism in Scotland coalesced Scottish civil society organisations, primarily the Church of Scotland (CoS). Transnational connections, especially in Central Africa, shaped an anticolonialism largely driven by an Edinburgh based middle-class establishment which found its primary focus on opposing the imposition of the Central African Federation on Nyasaland and the Rhodesias. As Chapter III shows, this anticolonialism also found expression in the previously understudied Scottish Council for African Questions, a pressure group formed in opposition to the Central African Federation, with close ties to the CoS (along with university academics and other notables). Political parties and trade unions also campaigned on anticolonial causes and their responses are charted in Chapters IV to VII. With the exception of Scottish nationalist organisations, such groups operated more in a pan-British context and had many connections to equivalent organisations in England. Pan-UK political and other organisations tended not to be vehicles of Scottish distinctiveness, but could at times be prominent local vehicles of anticolonialism. However, by the end of the decade, Scottish politics was taking its lead from Scottish civil society in opposition to the Central African Federation. By reconstructing critiques of empire in Scotland, the thesis sheds further light on Scotland's complex relationship with the British Empire, demonstrating how Scotland's transnational connections and civil society generated a distinctive response to the end of empire.

This thesis examines the political role played by the private members' clubs of the St. James's district of London, between the first two Reform Acts. The thesis looks at the institutional history of such establishments and their evolution insofar as it affected their political work. It then analyses the statistical trends in club membership among Members of Parliament, the overwhelming majority of whom belonged to political clubs. The crucial role of clubs in whipping is detailed, including analysis of key divisions. The distinctive political use of space by clubs is then set out, including an overview of the range of meetings and facilities offered to parliamentarians. Finally, the thesis seeks to address the broader impact of clubs on national electoral politics in this period.

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This thesis explores the deaths, funerals and other associated rituals given at the deaths of British monarchs and royals in the late Stuart period (1660-1714) with a focus on those occurring between the death of King Charles II in 1685 and the death of Queen Anne in 1714. This topic has lacked in-depth archival study and the existing historiography has often focused on larger cultural forces. This thesis presents a series of case studies structured around one or two deaths in particular, examining the ritual response as planned by the Royal Household and Privy Councillors within the wider and immediate political context which shaped their decisions. The first chapter reconstructs the process of a royal death at this time by drawing off a large amount of primary material and examples from across the period being studied. Subsequent chapters explore the political motivations and reasons behind the ‘private’ funeral for Charles II in 1685, the opposite decision for a larger heraldic or ‘public’ funeral for Mary II in 1695 and the decision to hold neither a funeral nor a ritual response beyond the familial obligation of mourning for James II in 1701. Another chapter explores the act of court mourning and how its relationship to gendered ideas about monarchy and grief underpinned the political responses to Queen Anne’s two years of mourning after her husband’s death in 1708. The final chapter explores two deaths and their relationship to the Glorious Revolution’s pursuit for a secure and defined Protestant Succession which ultimately overshadowed the rituals performed at their deaths. Together these demonstrate how politics, ritual and culture were interlinked and how immediate circumstances made rituals malleable and thus changes to them occurred, if somewhat inconsistently, over time.

This thesis is designed to be a study if the Liberal Party between 1880 and 1900, undertaken in order to ascertain the reasons for its decline in those year. My attempt is to show that the seeds of the Party's later decay can be found in this period, and that the study of these twenty years is, in fact, essential to an understanding of the crucial changes in the structure of British politics which have subsequently taken place. There were, I feel, several reasons for the Liberal decline. One is to he found in the revolt of many of the middle classes against orthodox liberal utilitarian ideals. Thus, whereas advance bourgeois thinks between 1820 and 1870 had mostly been laissez-faire Radicals of the Manchester School variety, those who followed were socialist, or at least collectivist, in their ideas. A second reason was the revolt of many of the working classes against the misery which was their lot and the gradual adherence to socialism. These two major changes have been taken as background; the major emphasis of this thesis, however, is on the Liberal Party itself. I have studied its leaders, their concepts, their quarrels, and the political events of the twenty years; I have tried to show how Gladstonian Liberalism reacted to the new forces in the late Victorian period and how its failure to do so adequately was in part inherent in its very nature. The Liberal Party was a phenomenon unique to an age which believed in "free enterprise" and a laissez-faire state; once these beliefs were threatened, so too was the party which practised them. Other factors making for Liberal decline included the Home Rule issue, the new Imperialism , and the defection Joseph Chamberlain. None of these, however, was as important as the first; Liberalism, by its very nature, contributed to its own destruction. I have tried to show how this process took place.

This study examines the social, cultural and political significance and utility of the livery collar during the fifteenth century, in particular 1450 to 1500, the period associated with the Wars of the Roses in England. References to the item abound in government records, in contemporary chronicles and gentry correspondence, in illuminated manuscripts and, not least, on church monuments. From the fifteenth century the collar was regarded as a potent symbol of royal power and dignity, the artefact associating the recipient with the king. The thesis argues that the collar was a significant aspect of late-medieval visual and material culture, and played a significant function in the construction and articulation of political and other group identities during the period. The thesis seeks to draw out the nuances involved in this process. It explores the not infrequently juxtaposed motives which lay behind the king distributing livery collars, and the motives behind recipients choosing to depict them on their church monuments, and proposes that its interpretation as a symbol of political or dynastic conviction should be re-appraised. After addressing the principal functions and meanings bestowed on the collar, the thesis moves on to examine the item in its various political contexts. It then places the collar within the sphere of medieval identity construction. In the final two chapters collars on church monuments are used as a starting point for conducting prosopographical studies of groups of linked individuals, in order to explore political and other types of shared identities at both a national and local level. It is argued that livery collars were used on church monuments as a manifestation, and indeed perpetuation, of the collective identity of the deceased and their kin. The inclusion of collars on church monuments could be used, as it were, differently, depending on local social, geographical and tenurial contexts. The author's original contribution to research centres on his findings regarding the nature of political affiliation and political life in the fifteenth century. In addition, the thesis offers a fresh methodology with which to analyse local history and networks. The collar is used as a vehicle through which to analyse and appraise wider themes of late-medieval politics and culture, and to explore the nature and understanding of royal power in the fifteenth century. Original conclusions are developed regarding the nature and extent of political thinking and conviction during the period - indeed the very meaning of politics to contemporaries at the centre and on the periphery of the polity - and its visual manifestation.

This thesis deals with the struggles of two groups of skilled workers in late 19th century Britain, engineers and compositors, to defend their position in the division of labour in the face of pressures towards technical and organisational change. Its principal concern is to trace and explain the divergent long-run experiences of these two occupational groups, focusing particularly on the period 1890-1914. The thesis opens with a critical review of the dominant theoretical approaches to the division of labour. Their tendency to deduce the evolution of the division of labour from a unilinear model of capitalist development, it is argued, renders them incapable of providing an adequate account of such central phenomena as the ongoing complexity of the distribution of skills in the labour force and the impact of industrial conflict on the division of labour itself. Elements of an alternative approach offering a more satisfactory relationship between theory and empirical cases are sketched out; their practical fecundity is explored in the body of the thesis. The body of the thesis is divided into three parts. Part I focuses on the relations between skilled workers and employers in engineering and printing before major waves of mechanisation in the 1890s, highlighting those structural features which conditioned both the forms and outcomes of conflicts over technical change in each case. Accordingly, the characteristics of market structure, the division of labour, and trade union and employer organisation are analysed for both industries. The principal conclusion of this section is that craft regulation had been eroded to a considerable extent in both industries by employers' attempts to cheapen and intensify skilled labour within the framework of the existing division of labour. Part II presents a primarily narrative account of the conflicts sparked off by a major wave of technical and organisational change in the two industries during the 1890s, together with the extent of their resolution up to 1914. The early success of compositors in capturing control of mechanical typesetting is contrasted with the employers' victory over similar issues in the 1897-8 engineering lockout. These variations in craftsmen's ability to capture new technology placed the two trades on divergent paths in relation to their future position in the division of labour. The remainder of this section examines engineering employers' failure fully to transform the division of labour before 1914, together with the progressive consolidation of craft regulation by the typographical unions. Part III explores the long-term outcomes for the position of skilled workers in the division of labour, taking account of developments in the inter-war years, which it is argued confirm the divergent fates of the two groups. The concluding chapter attempts to identify the central structural forces conditioning the differences in the outcomes in the two cases, and to balance their importance against that of the strategic choices of the historical actors. The thesis as a whole highlights the role of conflict between skilled workers and employers in determining the consequences of technical and organisational change for the position of craftsmen in the division of labour within the limits set by market forces and technology. The outcomes of industrial conflict are in turn traced back to Variations in the balance of forces between skilled workers and employers, emphasising the impact of market structure and the preexisting division of labour for the bargaining power and solidarity of each group. At the same time, it is argued that structural factors conditioned but did not determine the actual pattern of alliances formed by workers and employers, which depended in large measure on an essentially political process influenced by specific historical conjunctures, past experiences of conflict and cooperation, and the strategic choices of each group of actors.