The aim of this thesis is to examine the political history of the tenants movement on Merseyside during an active period, in order to understand the complex multiple characteristics of working class struggles centred on local housing issues. Through the included data, much of it formerly outside the domain of public records, a picture emerges of a multiplicity of possibilities and tensions, growing primarily from the twin bases of housing struggles in grassroots labour activism and distinctive local conditions. While comparable studies of rent strikes have identified different types of tenants action groups, permanent and single issue, and contrasting political values, specifically community against class orientations, the contention drawn from the data here is that community values may enhance a class perspective as readily as they may inhibit and that furthermore the germ of radicalisation or inhibition may be found in grassroots community and labour lead actions equally. In order to understand a form of struggle that is neglected academically, compared to industrial labour histories, the methodology of this research admitted to critical examination the non-mainstream radical and community sources that are themselves a part of the identity of housing struggles as well as data taken from face to face interviews with tenant activists. The historical details gathered explain the relative militancy of Merseyside's tenants during the period in terms of both their local traditions of housing protest and community activism and their local conditions. SpeCifically it suggests a relationship of the class militant areas that resisted the national 'Fair Rents' scheme to the housing pollcles locally that had triggered a number of strikes during the earlier period. It suggests also that the grassroots origin of many organised actions was a problematiC factor throughout the period. SpeCificallythis was because protests that sought connection to related struggles had only the labour movement as their vehicle introducing into a spontaneous form of protest conventional organisational values. At the same time, autonomous action necessitated connection to radical non-conformists, often outsiders to the local dynamic. In drawing out the details of these struggles, this research provides a picture through which the difficulties of organising political resistance from a condition that is socially and politically marginal may be understood.

The motto for Stepney was a magnis ad maiora (from great things to greater) and this thesis attempts to assess how far the area achieved such improvements, and against what odds, during the first half of the 20th Century. The First World War is the starting point of this thesis as it was to have long-term implications for Stepney. Arthur Foley Winnington-Ingram, Bishop of London, in his Easter sermon of 1918 first used the slogan 'They Shall Not Pass'. For Stepney, this was to become a significant slogan during the Battle of Cable Street, eighteen years later, in 1936. Another event in the First World War, which was to have an affect on the country's preparations for the Second World War, was the death of 18 schoolchildren when Upper North Street School was directly struck during a zeppelin raid. This event was one of the main reasons, according to Philip Ziegler, for the later evacuation of schoolchildren from cities across the country. The overall theme for this thesis is the politics of the labour movement during the first half of the 201h Century. What makes Stepney distinctive during this period is its political diversity with the rise of the Labour, Communist and Fascist parties. The politics of the labour movement are addressed through relevant local issues such as housing and ethnicity. Stepney also had a diverse community. During the First and Second World War tensions were heightened within the area due to the internment of military aged 'alien' males. However in the inter-war years there was the significance of the integration of the Jewish community, in particular, into the politics of the labour movement. For Stepney, housing was also an ever-present issue. Poor quality housing characterised Stepney. Throughout the period covered by this thesis, housing was a persistent issue on the borough council. Both the First and Second World War saw a halt to building work, and the subsequent post-war periods saw election campaigns promising that the housing issue would be effectively addressed. A test of the promises in the 1945 election campaign was the Live Architectural Exhibition for the Festival of Britain, which saw the Lansbury estate presented as a pioneering example of modern architecture. This thesis aims to address two further issues which have generally been overlooked by other historians. The first is the tendency of historians to try and encompass the entire East End, which is often undefined, or vague, in their work. This thesis is focused on a s9ecific study of the Stepney area. Secondly historians have often concentrated on the late 19 Century up to the outbreak of the First World War. This research begins with the First World War and climaxes with the Festival of Britain thus aiming to add to our collective knowledge.

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The dissertation is divided into six chapters, there is also an introduction, a conclusion, and an appendix which consists of short biographical notes on the personalities mentioned in the narrative. The Introduction outlines the main themes of the study, it includes a discussion of the sources used, and lists acknowledgements. Chapter I examines the character of the decision-making process. III the early part of the First World War, wak aims were decided in very much the same way as had been foreign policy before the war. Authority was concentrated in the hands of a small group of men surrounding the Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey. At the same timof the executive eras able to use the overwhelming popular enthusiasm for the war to assert its independence from external influences. Chapter II concerns Prussian militarism. Grey and his colleagues believed that the military advisers of the German Government had deliberately precipitated the war$ and that they were the iie Cato rulers of Germany. The Foreign Secretary refused to consider making any peace which left the *Prussian military caste" in control of German policy and free to repeat its aggression. Chapter III is about British war aims with regard to Western Europe. Britain went to war to -. tP-ot her strategic interest in the independence of the North-West of Europe and to safeguard the naval position in Home WatersThe peace settlement was to ensure that in yearn to come Western Europe would be free from the danger of further German attack. Germany was to evacuate and compensate Belgium; Alsace-Lorraine was to be restored to France; German naval power was to be greatly weakened. Chapter IT explains British war aims with regard to Lustrie-41ungary. British interests are seen to lie in securing the safety of the i! est of Europe. Policy towards Central and Eastern Europe was entirely pragmatic: the future of the Habsburg Empire vas used as a pawn to secure more immediate interests. Chapter V is centred on the question of Constantinople and the Straits. Britain and Rassia had few common interestsf Grey tried to buy Russian co-operation and minimise Anglo-Ruaaien differences with the offer of territorial expansion at the expense of Turkey. Chapter VI explores British policy tovsxds the German colonies. Britain-neither wanted nor needed territorial aggrandisement, but there were strong arguments - mainly strategic - for retaining German colonies-after the war. Moreover, Frances Japan, New Zealand, Australia and the Union of South Africa laid claims to large parts of Germanyfs overseas Empire. These claims Britain could not refuse. b)here Britain had a reasonably tree band, in German East Africa, policy tended to fluctuate according to the fortunes of war. The main conclusion of this dissertation is that Britain fought for securityt above all to prevent Germany from dominating Western Trope. However, the enormity of British interests the diversity of her friendships* and the dislocating effects of war itself caused her to widen her objectives as the war went on.

State funded civil legal aid was one of the major reforms of the Attlee Government but it is one that has been generally ignored by historians. Some writing by lawyers and legal academics on the subject concentrates rather narrowly on a critique of delivery models and resourcing, claiming to identify a linear development historically from a charitable through to a "judicare" or private practice model which, it is claimed, is exemplified by the civil Legal Aid and Advice Act 1949. Others, influenced by sociological and political theories, see legal aid primarily as one of the law's mechanisms for securing popular acceptance of the prevailing political and economic order. Many of these studies tend to draw on past experiences to criticise present day reform strategies rather than to assess legal aid in the context of the more general intellectual history of modern social policy. In this thesis, by contrast, legal aid is reviewed in the light of ongoing debates among historians about the founding principles of the welfare state and in particular such issues as the nature of contemporary concepts of citizenship and rights, primarily the rights of recipients of state benefits. Many factors account for the specific form taken by the 1949 Act. The law's historic aversion to private maintenance and champerty coloured the terms of the Scheme. Partly because of the emergency demands of post- war conditions, particularly the upsurge in applications for divorce, the long-standing preference for voluntarism was overcome. The state began financing representation for certain litigants, but without fully examining the constitutional implications of its new function. The relationships between the state and the legal establishment were subject to pragmatic adjustment rather than serious overhaul. Potential recipients of civil legal aid, inevitably a diffuse constituency, were accorded little input. Neither the responsibilities northe expectations of citizenship were fully defined. Pressures from the Bar, Judiciary and the Church meant that there was no comprehensive reform of the civil justice system. Scant attention was given to long-term financial consequences, though the Legal Aid Scheme's scope was shaped by the government's short-term financial problems. Previous studies have relied heavily on the legal professions' own contemporary accounts of the introduction oflegal aid. This thesis has drawn on papers of the Lord Chancellor's Office as well as those of departments responsible for national insurance and public assistance, the latter largely unexplored in a legal aid context.They reveal that the Attlee Government's approach to the role of legal aid was more complex and historically conditioned than has hitherto been appreciated. This study of the discussions and debates on legal aid policy in the period of the first Attlee Government suggests that there was an attempt to buttress the legislation with an ideological content. However this was a partial and limited one due in large measure to the complicated interplay of interests that had to be satisfied

This thesis concerns the relationship between English gendered identities and the specificities of region and location. In the years following 1815, the county of Kent was imbued with a powerful 'sense of place'. The county was defined by its militarily strategic position, emphasised by the propaganda, experience and memory of the Napoleonic wars, and its predominantly agricultural economy. Despite the cessation of the wars and economic instability, Kent was perceived as the 'Vanguard of Liberty' and the 'Garden of England'. This 'sense of place' informed the articulation of gender and nationhood. Representations of the 'Men of Kent', a regionally specific assertion of masculine identity, were characterised by behaviour, speech and appearance associated with physical prowess, bearing arms for one's country, and the virtues of 'sturdy Yeomen', those who owned and tilled their own land. 'Men of Kent' were articulated across a series of diverse political campaigns surrounding 'Reform', Agricultural 'Protection', the 'Swing' riots and, on a particularly influential scale, Catholic Emancipation. Other forms of belonging in Kent were not so specifically 'Kentish'. 'Romantic' visions of agrarian-based society, in which hierarchies and inequalities were 'naturalised' - often conceived as 'Old England' - were expressed by political campaigners in Kent and in provincial Southern England more generally. These included 'protectionist' organizations and landlords, and the writings of William Cobbett. The identity of the 'Men of Kent' was expressed primarily through the institutions of the 'county community' such as county meetings and the press. During this period, participation in, and imaginings of, the dominant Kentish 'public sphere' evolved from being relatively narrow - only the aristocratic elite were able to speak for the 'county' - to broader, but still hierarchical conceptions, inflected along the lines of gender, class and race. The Irish, notably the Catholic Association and itinerant labourers, were particularly definitional 'Others' to the 'Men of Kent'. The militaristic and agrarian masculinities of the 'Men of Kent', and related conceptions of society, were also often contested, notably during the labourers' 'Swing' riots and through individual subjectivities.

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The office of coroner has attracted little attention from academic historians. This thesis presents the first comprehensive study of the role across England and Wales between 1726 and 1888. It engages with, and throws new light on, some of the major themes that run through eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British history: popular politics, the rise of democracy, the growth of the state and the development of separate professional spheres. Petty rivalries were confronted, as the developing professions of law and medicine jostled to claim this office as their birthright, but the coroners were also minor players on a much larger stage. They had to bear some of the pain of the many conflicts that emerged as society tried to define the level and nature of services to be funded from taxation, and to strike a balance between local and central control, and between lay and professional involvement. This thesis explains how local structures of power and authority affected many aspects of the role, including the selection of the coroner, the types of death investigated and the nature and frequency of medical testimony admitted. It explains how a medieval system was adapted to suit changing needs, how the inquest could be used to challenge the actions of those who had a duty of care to the community and how financial impositions could restrict its utility. The thesis provides the first detailed geographic assessment of the role of county magistrates in defining when an inquest should be held, and identifies the startling possibility that some county magistrates may deliberately have sought to establish a system that would ensure that certain murders would never be discovered.