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This thesis uses Liverpool to study the British urban crisis from 1968 to 1986, showing how the city became the locus of concern, in particular within central government policy-making, surrounding the processes of urban decline. The British urban crisis is understood, firstly through anxiety surrounding the social effects of urban decline with particular respect to residents of the ‘inner city’. The experience of urban decline was shown through central government-sponsored social surveys, as well as through cultural representations. This thesis shows how the processes of urban decline – population decline, de-industrialisation and economic decline, urban decay and dereliction, and urban deprivation – were all linked and mutually reinforcing. Secondly, the urban crisis arose through the inability of central and local government, and voluntary organisations, to ameliorate or reverse the effects of these changes. The British urban crisis was therefore as much a crisis of government policy as it was one of lived experience. As this thesis demonstrates, the urban crisis was the result of long-term processes of urban decline. But there were particular moments during which Liverpool’s crisis called into question the governability of urban Britain; these included the ‘riots’ in Toxteth in July 1981, and the dispute between Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government and the city council, dominated by supporters of the Trotskyist group Militant Tendency between 1983 and 1986. This thesis therefore contributes to the historiographies of decline and declinism, social and economic change, and politics in late twentieth-century Britain.

The Indian Army underwent a process of reform and modernisation from 1861 onwards. The aim was to create a desirable working environment for the Indian troops, who were necessary for the defence of the subcontinent. This included providing Indian regiments with a professional officer corps, consisting of British men of sufficient quality. By creating a prosopography and combining this with thematic chapters, this thesis aims to chart this process of reform up to 1914. The First World War placed demands on the Indian Army which meant that progress was interrupted owing to an influx of new officers. This created numerous challenges which had to be overcome during the conflict. The effects of the First World War, the world’s first ‘total war’, on the Indian Army will be assessed. As will the performance of Indian Army units in numerous battles and campaigns between 1861 and 1921, analysing the role of the British officer on active service. Away from the battlefield, the officers of the Indian Army were a diverse group with many different backgrounds. The thesis aims to analyse these backgrounds and look for trends within the officers’ origins. Familial ties to India or the military would have helped officers assimilate to the subcontinent. Finally, the social lives enjoyed by officers will be evaluated; sport, marriage, and family all impacted on an officer’s career. Overall, this thesis aims to provide a thorough depiction of the Indian Army officer corps in the period under consideration.

Making use of both published treatises and archival documents, this dissertation explains the reasons for the birth of a new concept of miracle in early modern canonisation trials held in Papal Rome. From the twelfth century, Catholic tradition had long defined a miracle as an event exceeding the whole of the order of nature, which meant both the visible and corporeal as well as the invisible and spiritual order. However, during the seventeenth century, Aristotelian physics was replaced by a new way of investigating nature, focused on mathematics as a method of inquiry, on mechanical explanations and on a new idea of matter based on corpuscular philosophy and atomism. This led to a new idea of nature. In the canonisation process, alleged miracles were assessed by a committee, who engaged medical experts with the role of evaluating any possibility that the events had natural causes. Between the end of seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, Roman physicians largely employed mechanical physics to investigate nature. This caused a short circuit: the new idea of nature implicit in the medical experts’ investigations did not coincide with the idea of nature from which the medieval definition of miracle had developed. As a result of his direct involvement in canonisation processes, Prospero Lambertini, Promoter of the Faith and future Pope Benedict XIV, became aware of this and adapted the definition of miracle to the new idea of nature. In addition, there was a perceived need to counteract atheists and deists who denied the existence of miracles. The modification of the concept of miracle reveals a deeper and radical change in the early modern world picture, in which the new boundaries of the natural led to the end of any dialectical relationship between the natural and the supernatural, condemning the latter to a blurred presence.

The 1897 Diamond Jubilee was a truly global celebration, breaking out across the wide expanses of the British Empire in a near simultaneous fashion. Yet these local events were not identical across the world. Using the local coverage of the celebrations that took place in Hong Kong and Cape Town, two of the empire’s most rapidly growing and significant port cities, this thesis uses the comparative method of analysis to uncover the nuances, similarities and discrepancies within them. This approach allows light to shine away from the focus of the festivities – Queen Victoria – and to be brought to bear more directly onto the locations and celebrants themselves. This thesis considers the socio-political and economic background to the events and examines whether these issues had any bearing on how the celebrations were performed and received. It also seeks to examine the subject of empire loyalty within these two cities, and the extent to which genuine levels of affection held towards the queen could be found. Whilst it is apparent that the celebrations were largely well-attended, and general levels of public engagement with the event appeared to be high, the arguments of this thesis take issue with the facile verdict, voiced by colonial institutions at the time, that active participation and attendance at the event was proof enough of its popularity. Instead, this work considers the different motivations that may have lay behind attendance at the festivities and also considers the various representations of Britishness that were also projected during the celebrations. In the final chapter, the Diamond Jubilee is considered in relation to the histories and identities of the two cities in which these celebrations took place.

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One of the central problems facing academic local historians is the extent of the spatial and social space occupied by communities in the past. This is crucial to the definition of the 'local' component in local history. This thesis works towards using the space occupied by communities to define 'local' by measuring the effect of 6 spatial and social boundaries on 19 contiguous but socially and topographically diverse rural communities in S.E. Surrey, Sussex and Kent. Patterns of inter-action are mapped in relation to the administrative boundaries of the parish and county; the natural boundary of the pays; and the social boundaries formed by kinship; social structure; and religion. Finally these boundaries are dissolved to form social areas. The sources used contain elements that describe movement - the chief of these are marriage registers and census data, with a qualitative dimension added by diaries and family papers. Nominal and linguistic material is also used, as well as artifacts, whilst the whole is set within the socio-economic context of the area. The social areas defined by inter-action show a remarkable resemblance to those shown by dialect, material culture, surname distribution and kinship networks. The main characteristics of these areas are that they extend over at least 4 communities which share an intense level of activity. These communities nest within a symbiotic framework of looser activity that goes beyond the study area to include market towns and an important urban centre. Three keywords emerge in the study. The first of these is community - many parishes consisted of several communities reacting in different ways so that this is a more relevant description of groups of people on the ground than parish. The second is symbioses - each community was an integral part of the whole. The last is process, as the patterns of inter-action were not stable but responded to internal and external stimuli. In the final essence, the 'local' component in local history is defined as up to 4 communities set within a loose regional framework. A viable research area for local historians should consist of at least 4 communities as single community studies are unique rather than local. This work contributes both to the study of continuity and change within communities, as well as to the historiography and practice of local history.

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