By engaging with Western Marxism and recent developments in social history, this thesis will explore the popular social and political responses to capitalist development and state formation in early modern England. We will analyse the role that country Tory oppositional politics played in local society, its relationship to national politics and to local economic change. This will be done through a series of case studies and episodes from Derbyshire, 1660-1760. Attention will be paid to the politics of the labouring poor, such as the tenants of Robert Hayward and the Rossell family, the Peak lead miners, opponents of the Derwent navigation and plebeian Tories in Derby. Yet the primary focus of the thesis will be on the ‘middling sort of people’ like the local gentry families, tradesmen, parish officials, shopkeepers and smallholders. Rather than studying bourgeois, polite society and London coffee house culture, we will prioritise the social relations of the middling sort of people in one county community. Special attention will be paid to their political responses to socio-economic change, and their opposition to the Whig oligarchy after 1722. Opposition to Robert Walpole and wider economic change acted as a catalyst for variegated social alignments to be formed. They were often cross-class in nature and constitutionalist in scope. These alignments will be explored throughout the thesis, using concepts from Antonio Gramsci as well as the class analysis of E. P. Thompson.

This thesis examines the extent to which the Use of Sarum service books provided an evolutionary basis for the form and content of the 1549 edition of the Book of Common Prayer (BCP). This study focuses on the contributions of the Sarum books to the 1549 BCP from a book history viewpoint, addressing where necessary the religious and political issues, in order to better comprehend the ways in which such changes would have impacted Tudor people. First offering an analysis of the genres studied as the BCP’s antecedents, this thesis further surveys how governmental attitudes affected religious doctrine and practice in the service books of the English realm, during the vacillations of the 1530s and 1540s. It further contends that the transition from manuscript production to print production and the growth of the printing industry in England hardly altered how religious material was produced, despite the religious preferences of the producers. The five subsequent chapters argue that the legacy of the Sarum books in the Book of Common Prayer varies according to the selected themes. The first theme is that of marking time; we prove that although the calendars of service books were radically pruned, the methods for tracking time remained the same. The second theme looks at the use of vernacular and Biblical material, arguing that the use of English and of specific Biblical passages from Sarum services in the BCP were not radical differences. The third theme explores the rich devotional tradition of praying to the Virgin Mary and to the saints, attesting that while there is diminution, it was not strictly due to reformist ideals. The fourth theme examines the occasional offices of the Church, asserting that the considerable overlap outweighed the differences between the Sarum and BCP traditions. The final theme examines changes and continuities in the ways of preparing for death, contending that the impact of seemingly radical changes was lessened by the retention of optional practices. This thesis provides the book history evidence that the 1549 Book of Common Prayer clearly derived from its Sarum predecessors, in ways that go beyond the simple paradigm of melding reformist and traditional interpretations.

This thesis analyses the emergence, development and subsequent decline of the LDS Church in Staffordshire between 1839 and 1870 as an original contribution to nineteenth–century British regional and religious history. I begin by examining the origins of the US Mormon Mission to Britain and a social historical study of the Staffordshire religious and industrial landscape. In order to recover the hidden voices of Staffordshire Mormon converts, I have constructed a unique Staffordshire Mormon Database for the purposes of this thesis containing over 1,900 records. This is drawn upon throughout, providing the primary quantitative evidence for this fascinating yet neglected new religious movement. From the data I explore the demographic composition of Staffordshire Mormonism using a more precise definition of class than has been the case previously, whilst also considering gender and age variables of Mormon converts. Subsequent chapters explore the qualitative dimensions of the conversion experience as a dynamic rather than event–based process, the demands of Church membership and commitment, the formal and informal institutional structure of the LDS Church and the hazards of emigration to the US in order to illuminate a number of key questions around which the thesis has been structured: Who were the Staffordshire Mormons? What was it about the Mormon message that appealed to the impoverished men and women of the newly industrialised Midlands? What was the nature of religious authority in the Mormon faith and in what ways did the formal Church administration adapt and respond to shifting urban contexts? Mormonism declined as rapidly as it had grown; this thesis investigates this little–known working–class religious movement and the lives of those Mormon men and women of Staffordshire who, against much personal, social and physical opposition, strived for what they regarded as a better future for themselves and their families.

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries some 300 Lutheran lay people claimed to have met angels who admonished them to act as preachers of repentance. Such prophets can be found in all occupations, in all age groups, in all types of settlements and among both sexes from the entire Lutheran area (Scandinavia, parts of Germany and parts of the Baltic states). The main medieval antecedent to the Lutheran prophets was the apparition of saints in conjunction with the establishment of pilgrimage sites. Prospective prophets could get to know about other prophets through various channels: cheap print, sermons and oral communication about current events. Prophets copied many traits of their performances from the way pastors delivered their sermons. The main difference was the way in which prophets used their body (e.g. fasting or ecstasy) to authenticate their calling. The established pattern of lay prophets allowed ordinary people to speak out, claiming that their message had come from God's angel. Their utterances allow modern scholars to look into lay people's beliefs, practices and concerns as well as their perceptions of local politics. Many Lutheran lay prophets can be seen as living saints, i. e. extraordinarily gifted religious specialists. The prophets also testify to the importance of saintly living to lay people. Students of Lutheranism generally associate godliness with the pietism of the late seventeenth century and some of its precursors, but the large number of prophets rather suggests that calls for reform already started in the sixteenth century and had a much wider appeal to lay people than hitherto assumed.

This dissertation describes the formation of support for monetary integration among European countries in the period between 1968 and 1973, claiming that there was a clear connection between the demise of the Bretton Woods monetary system and the rise of support for a European solution to the subsequent monetary turmoil. During the late 1960s, the US administration's attitude of financing the economy through budgetary deficit put the dollar's credibility into question until, in the summer of 1971, fears of a worldwide "bank run" convinced US President Nixon to revoke the gold backing of the currency, hence marking the transition from the Bretton Woods "gold exchange standard" to a pure "dollar standard". However, monetary stability was too important to the European Economic Community, which in 1972 decided to narrow the Bretton Woods exchange rate margins among its members, creating a de facto "snake" within the "tunnel" of Bretton Woods. Historians of the international monetary system described the former part of this story, while historians of European integration focused on the latter. Little has been said on the links between the two processes, and on how they contributed to change the views of the different actors in the policy-making arena over time. Tn order to undertake this exercise, two countries have been chosen, Italy and the United Kingdom, as they provide interesting viewpoints: the former being politically underdeveloped but very enthusiastic about the European project, while the latter enjoyed stronger institutions but has historically kept a certain distance from Europe. Policy-makers, a category composed of politicians, civil servants and central bankers, emerge as the core actors; in both cases, international cooperation had to deal with domestic issues, and in both cases fervent supporters and opponents of Europe were present at all levels, creating a seemingly unpredictable interaction. However, a certain pattern could be observed, whereby supporters of a worldwide fixed exchange rates system were fewer and fewer compared to supporters of the European link. The pivotal time of such shift has been identified in the few months spanning from Nixon's decision to close the gold window in August 1971 until the implementation of the European "monetary snake" in April 1972. Domestic events such as the devaluation of the British pound in 1967 or the "hot autumn" of 1969 in Italy had a less powerful effect. This conclusion also shows that, in both case studies, the monetary choice in favour of Europe was taken on the basis of the demise of Bretton Woods, and hence, of economic interest rather than on the basis of ideology.

Roedd twf y prifysgolion yn un o ddatblygiadau pwysicaf yr oesoedd canol a gafodd effaith ddwys ar yr eglwys a’r gymdeithas ehangach. Bwriad yr astudiaeth hon yw ystyried y datblygiad hwn yn y cyd-destun Cymreig trwy drafod presenoldeb y Cymry yng nghanolfannau dysg Lloegr a’r cyfandir a gweld effaith eu cyfnod o astudio ar eu gyrfaoedd. Trwy wneud hyn fe ddyfnheir ein dealltwriaeth o effaith y prifysgolion ar Gymru a’r modd yr oedd y Cymry yn rhan o’r gymdeithas ehangach Ewropeaidd. Yn gyntaf astudir y Cymry ym mhrifysgolion Rhydychen a Chaergrawnt; yn y sefydliadau hyn, a Rhydychen yn fwy penodol, yr astudiodd y rhan fwyaf o fyfyrwyr Cymreig yr oesoedd canol ac felly gellir cael golwg cyffredinol ar y gymuned academaidd Gymreig. Yna edrychir ar y presenoldeb Cymreig ym mhrifysgol Paris a chanolfannau dysg eraill y cyfandir gan ystyried y ffactorau a arweiniodd at eu presenoldeb yno ac astudiaethau’r Cymry yn y cyd-destun rhyngwladol. Yn dilyn eu cyfnod yn y prifysgolion, arweiniwyd y Cymry ar nifer o lwybrau gyrfa gwahanol ac fe ffocysir ar y rhain ym mhenodau olaf y traethawd. Edrychir ar eu gyrfaoedd mewn dau faes gwahanol, sef yn gyntaf hierarchaeth eglwysig ac yna gwasanaeth cyfreithiol a gweinyddol, er mwyn deall cyfraniad eu haddysg at eu llwyddiant diweddarach. Trwy’r astudiaeth gwelir arwyddocâd y prifysgolion hyn i Gymru’r oesoedd canol.

The late 1920s saw a major cultural clash between the standards of the avantgarde of the postwar generation, and the earlier morality of a largely elderly political, administrative and judicial elite. This has traditionally been portrayed as a fight between an out-of-touch minority trying to defend the discredited values of an older world against the new, improved culture of a different age. Particular criticism has been reserved for William Joynson-Hicks, Home Secretary for the period 1924-1929, a Puritanical Diehard Unionist who was accused of trying to impose his own morality on everyone else by police action. This thesis explores various aspects of the policing of morals - censorship of theatre, literature and film, and the efforts to enforce regulations on out-of-hours drinking and the taking of drugs, to discern whether there was a consistent pattern of censorship, and crucially, how far Joynson-Hicks himself was involved. It also examines two major police scandals that occurred in 1928 in cases linked with these enforcement campaigns, and assesses how far pressure from the top was to blame for their occurrence. The evidence assembled calls into question some long-held assumptions - namely that Joynson-Hicks was a puritanical zealot who personally fought almost alone to enforce his standards through the law, and more importantly, how far the belief he was without popular support in his stance, or made Britain uniquely an island of reaction in a world giving way to the new culture, is accurate. It underlines the role the Civil Service played in all of these matters, and suggests Joynson-Hicks could be more pragmatic in his enforcement of the law than is popularly supposed. It ends with an attempt to explain why he earned his previous fearsome reputation, and asks whether the time is ripe for a reassessment of his career.

This thesis concerns Scottish Jewish participation and non-participation with the military, primarily during the Great War, and the connection to Jewish integration and interaction with Scottish society. Within British Jewish historiography, Scottish Jews receive little attention in relation to military activity, and what has been written about Scottish Jewry predominantly focuses on participation and patriotism. This thesis re-examines Scottish Jewish participation in the military, and it explores both legal and illegal non-participation in order to provide a balanced evaluation of Scottish Jewry. This investigation of both participation and non-participation furthermore reveals a divide within Scottish Jewry between the establishment and immigrant sectors that presented a challenge for Jewish integration. Through examining attitudes toward militarism during the Great War, this thesis uncovers persistent anti-Jewish sentiment heightened by a tense wartime atmosphere to levels previously unknown in Scotland. Evidence of this tension between Scots and Jews, previously overlooked, is found primarily in the Scottish press which provided frustrated Scots with a place to complain, but also offered the Jewish community an opportunity to respond to criticism and declare their loyalties. The press is therefore valuable to this thesis in observing wartime interactions and relations between Scots and Jews. Additionally, the press along with various military records are used in this thesis as outside-in sources in order to gain a broader understanding of the Jewish position within Scottish society where previous historiography has relied heavily upon specifically Jewish sources. With a deeper understanding of attitudes toward militarism before, during, and after the Great War, this thesis will be able to place the wartime experiences of Scottish Jews and their efforts toward integration in a broader context of British Jewish history.

No description available.

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries fatigue was a common workplace complaint. As chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority Lord John Boyd-Carpenter put it in 1974, though, it occupied an ‘uncertain zone’. Vague and contestable throughout the century, and linked inextricably to working practices, fatigue proved fertile ground for debate. With a specific focus on civil aviation and aircrew, this thesis traces the shifting explanations of and responses to flying fatigue from the start of the First World War to the formal institution of Crew Resource Management (CRM) training in the mid-1990s. Beginning with a discussion of fatigue as it was constituted and examined in industrial and military settings in the first half of the twentieth century, this thesis then turns to post-war civil aviation. The models of fatigue developed by Flying Personnel Research Committee (FPRC) researchers during wartime framed post-war understandings of fatigue. . It argues that, though in many ways fatigue was increasingly divorced from science in the post-war period, an essential model of fatigue persisted. This was, in a sense, a dual discourse. While framedConceptualised as performance decrement in some instances, in other contexts fatigue was considered in terms of sleep and wakefulness. Regardless of definition, the apparent dangers of aircrew fatigue were agreed upon. Linked to air accidents throughout the century, the fatigue of aircrew was thought to have implications for flight safety. This thesis examines how these various discourses of fatigue informed – and were informed by – military policies, regulatory frameworks, and airline-union negotiations. Drawing on a rich base of oral history interviews with flight deck and cabin crew, it looks, also, at the ways in which fatigue was experienced and given new meaning in quotidian contexts. Examining flying fatigue in relation to broader post-war concerns about productivity, public safety, and the health and welfare of workers, this thesis offers new perspectives on the complex interplay between science, industry, and society in middle and late twentieth-century Britain.