To date, there has been little attempt to address the archaeological evidence of the New Poor Law (NPL). The continuing use and frequent adaptation of workhouse buildings over nearly 200 years attests to the complexity of the institution's history. This research addresses a significant gap in the study of workhouses by offering an interdisciplinary approach, challenging national typologies that provide synthesis at the expense of subtle but important differences between workhouses. This thesis suggests that West Yorkshire NPL Unions' attitudes towards pauperism and resultant architectural choices were largely influenced by regional contexts. It combines an archaeological study of workhouse architecture (focusing on location, plan, and style) with documentary evidence, using the workhouse as a lens through which to examine changing attitudes toward poverty and varying experiences of the workhouse by inmates, staff, and administrators over the course of the NPL. West Yorkshire workhouse inmates were classified on the basis of age, gender, and able-bodiedness. Segregation, surveillance, and specialisation were variably implemented to promote care and/or control. As a result, workhouse inmates had dramatically different experiences of the NPL depending on their classifications, locations, and the years in which they were admitted. In its use of the built form to understand human experience, this thesis reflects the contemporary emphasis in post-medieval buildings archaeology on interdisciplinarity and the related shift in scholarship from description to interpretation. Ultimately, its multifaceted approach to the workhouse reveals how workhouse architecture reflected and sometimes contradicted contemporaneous attitudes toward poverty, structuring - but not defining - a pauper's identity.

This thesis is concerned with the borough of Huddersfield, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, during and after the First World War. It examines the creation of war memorials at all levels, from the borough-wide official scheme, through those relating to smaller geographical areas within it, and down to individual voluntary associations. The source material underpinning the study is not primarily derived from the surviving memorials themselves, but on the contemporary evidence of minutes, newspaper reports, and orders of service. Chronologically, the story is taken from August 1914 to October 1929, when the Imperial War Graves Commission erected a Cross of Sacrifice in the town's main cemetery. However, as it emerged that an integral part of the story of the borough memorial scheme was the continuing legacy of the creation of the Boer War memorial, in 1905, a chapter is also devoted to that link. The study demonstrates how post-war activity grew out of the wartime creation of rolls of honour, which were used during the war as dynamic working documents for supporting absent servicemen, as well as for remembering the increasing numbers of war dead. That dual concern for the living and the dead continued into the postwar phase of remembrance. The rolls also played an important role in defining the boundaries of "our servicemen" and "our dead" for each community. Comment is made on the use of public and private space for memorials, and on the shifting position of the parish church and churchyard within perceptions of public space. Memorial inscriptions, and the content of dedication ceremomes, predominantly expressed the grief of the communities involved, with the more simplistic expressions of patriotism playing a much more subordinate role. Words and music conveyed spiritual comfort, through both traditional means and a new emphasis on a continuing fellowship with those beyond the grave.

Upwards of 750,000 British ex-servicemen returned home permanently disabled from the First World War. Dealing with the enormity of war time disability put great strain on medical and financial resources and forced the British government to reassess, and radically alter its responsibilities towards disability in Britain. The crisis of war highlighted existing inadequacies in care for the disabled. The war prompted not only changes in social policy, but in societal attitudes towards impairment as a whole. This thesis will assess provisions for disabled ex-servicemen between the years 1899 and 1930. It will examine attitudes towards disability and argue that a social understanding of disability can be found earlier in British society than has been hitherto suggested. The state, charity and medicine recognized that disability was not just a medical condition, but a social issue. Far from being exclusionary and discriminatory, policies aimed at disabled ex-servicemen were sensitive to the economic and social barriers which persons with impairment faced. These barriers included: discrimination; inaccessible public buildings and transport; poor employment options; unrealistic expectations placed on disabled persons to `overcome' their impairments; and poverty. Whilst not denying the very real hardships that some men faced, or indeed the failure of some policies, the thesis will posit that those who cared for disabled ex-servicemen, and disabled men themselves, held a more enlightened awareness towards disability than has been previously contended. Moreover, the state and charity discharged their responsibilities towards disabled men effectively. It is argued that disability issues during the years 1899 to 1930 are critically important for not only furthering an understanding of the war and its aftermath, but for the larger study of disability history. A closer understanding of impairment during these years prompts a reassessment of current disability theory.

This thesis has a dual focus: the British Cabinet committee system and British colonial policy. Its primary interest is the functioning of the Cabinet committee system and in order to investigate this colonial policy will be analysed. This policy area has been chosen both for its intrinsic interest and because it provides an ideal vehicle for a full analysis of the workings of the committee system and the impact it had on policy development. Chapter One provides a critique of studies of British government and an outline of the main debates in the literature on colonial policy. It then outlines the nature, aims, hypotheses and aims of this study and the topics that will be studied. The second chapter provides an account of the development and workings of the Cabinet committee system. A brief account of the period up to the end of the Second World War is followed by a more detailed account of the elaboration and consolidation of the system under Attlee and then by an account of how the system fared under the Conservatives. Chapter Three examines the interrelationship between colonial policy and external policy. It first examines the various policy studies of the period and then examines three case studies: the Southern Cameroons, Malaysia and Aden. It concludes that sometimes colonial policy was entirely determined by strategic considerations, that the many external policy studies had little influence on the development of policy and that the committee system functioned erratically, had a conservative influence on policy-making and was poor at getting to grips with the big issues such as decline. The fourth chapter deals with colonial constitutional development. An analysis of the various long-term timetables for constitutional development precedes a brief account of the committee structure for this subject. Two geographical areas are then analysed, the Caribbean and Africa. This chapter concludes that the timetables for independence were of little value, highlights the difficulty Britain had in relinquishing control of the smaller colonies, and concludes that there was no coordinated policy for Africa and that there was no planned process of decolonization. The penultimate chapter deals with all aspects of policy for Malta, including its attempt to become part of the United Kingdom, and serves as a recapitulation of the various themes of this study and highlights the extent to which various policy areas were inextricably intertwined. It demonstrates the problems of constitutional advance in a strategically valuable colony and argues that the committee system did little to provide policy alternatives. This study concludes that the Cabinet committee system was anything but a neutral piece of government machinery. It had a significant impact on policy, but that was because of its many failings, not least its failure to coordinate policy. What was designed to give cohesion and control frequently produced confusion and incoherence. Overall a flawed policy process produced a flawed outcome.

This thesis examines the internal politics of the Labour party during the Second World War. There are two primary elements to the study: on the one hand, an analysis of the techniques of party management, and, on the other, examination of the personal conflicts and rivalries which dominated Labour's war. The thesis considers the way in which the party's leadership group performed a delicate balancing act to prepare the ground for entry into office in an eventual coalition during the 'phoney' war of September 1939 to May 1940, continually strengthening their bargaining position while working to keep the Labour party itself subordinate to their authority and establish the primacy of their own decision making. The key figure in this was the party leader, Clement Attlee. The thesis then analyses how, once Labour entered the Churchill Coalition, its leaders again worked to preserve their strategy of membership of the government by expanding their own power and influence during five years of internal upheavals. But their course was an unpopular one, and provoked much disaffection within the party's ranks. All the while, Labour's internal politics were shaped by a series of personal conflicts and rivalries, animated by competing ambitions and enmities. The most significant was the long-running struggle for the leadership itself, between Attlee and the heir apparent, Herbert Morrison. The thesis focuses upon a wide range of individual actors, but Attlee is central: examining the way in which Attlee controlled his party, established his authority, and sought to expand his influence within government, while simultaneously struggling against his great rival Morrison, the thesis is essentially a study in the leadership of this most impenetrable, yet skilled, of politicians. Considering the language and rhetoric which the party's senior figures used to steer their course and retain the backing of their followers, as well as devoting close attention to the manoeuvre, intrigue, and pursuit of personal vendettas which impacted upon Labour politics between 1939 and 1945, the thesis argues that power-political interpretations of the period are more useful than explanations which look to ideological conflict. It also questions how far sociological change, in particular national 'emergency' and wartime radicalisation, really altered the attitudes of the British political elite.

The thesis begins with a discussion of present views on the nature of the contrast between North and South in England. It proceeds to test those views against the experience of four English towns - Burnley, Halifax, Ipswich and-Luton - between 1918 and 1939. Chapter Two examines the causes and extent of economic growth in the four towns, and devotes special attention to employment and factory construction. A discussion of industrial change in the four towns as individual entities comprises a major section of this chapter. Chapter Three discusses incomes. An attempt is made to establish the proportion of the population in each of the towns living in poverty. Account is taken of the impact of rent and union activities on incomes. Chapters Four, Five and Six analyse social conditions in the four towns. Chapter Four looks at changes in population, the role played by migration, compares the health of the towns, and concludes with a discussion of the development of the public health services. Chapter Five takes for its subject the provision of housing and the demolition of slums, and incorporates a note on town planning. In Chapter Six, the educational services are compared and special attention is given to the impact the depression had on their development. Chapter Seven reviews the financing of local government and compares the contributions made by the rates and by Central Government grants. Year-to-year management of local authority finance is surveyed, and the varying roles played by the Chairmen of the Finance Committees are considered. Chapter Eight examines local government, and isolates for special consideration movements in party support; the contrasting fortunes of the parties, and especially the rise of Labour and the decline of the Liberals; changes in the social composition of councils; the role of clubs, societies and religious organisations; and the contribution these factors made to the quality of local government, and to the interest the public showed in municipal elections. Chapter Nine looks into the relationship between councils and the business organisations they controlled, with special reference to the transport systems, which underwent a crisis in this period. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the relations between chairmen and local government officials. Chapter Ten presents the main findings of the thesis, and sums up the factors responsible for these conclusions.

No description available.

No description available.

This thesis is the first systematic treatment of the role of scientists in the highest levels of decision and policy making in the British government. Its focus is on the crucial defence sector during the period from the end of the Second World War and up to the 1960s. It shows the strong influence of a number of career government scientists in the formulation of Britain's post-war defence policy and their crucial role in the making of two particular decisions, focusing on nuclear delivery systems. The thesis offers a number of correctives to the standard image which is prevalent in the bulk of the literature and offers a set of arguments that extend and re-enforce recent trends in the historiography, both of 20th century Britain and the history of science. It argues that the key scientists in relation to government were not external to the system, expert academics who enter government to offer their, usually critical, point of view (as in the case of the famous Sir Solly Zuckerman), but career scientific civil servants, nursed in the workings of Whitehall and the machinations of government and with broad experience in running large R&D projects. It analyses in detail the careers of the two most important among them, namely Sir Frederick Brundrett and Sir William Cook, placing them in the wider context of government science. It also argues, contrary to the view that post-war defence policy was driven mainly by inter-service rivalries, that the Defence Research Policy Committee of the Ministry of Defence became an important new element in the bureaucratic game in the 1950s. On the one hand, it shows that its chairman and Chief Scientific Adviser to the Minister, Sir Frederick Brundrett, was much more influential than has been recognised in the 1957 Defence White Paper and its focus on R&D, nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. On the other hand, Sir William Cook, the 'father of the British H-bomb', was able to exert significant and at times decisive influence in the decisions to acquire the Polaris nuclear delivery system from the United States and to jump start its indigenous improvement programme, the Chevaline.

No description available.