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The major issue confronting the newly elected British Labour Government in the field of international affairs after the Second World War was that of the European peace settlement. At the centre of this issue was the German problem. [...]

The student of English technical education, reviewing the history of its development over the past hundred years, is tempted to conjecture how English education, particularly techincal education, would have developed if the Prince Consort had lived to exert the same unobtrusive influence during the later as he did during the earlier Victorian period. [...]

The two centuries from 1818 to 2004 cover profound social and economic changes in what was, for much of the period, the most powerful country in the world. Britain led the way in moving capital and labour out of agriculture and into newer industries, such as coal-mining, textiles and transportation. The changes were accompanied by deep institutional changes, especially in the franchise. The rate of change is remarkable: within seventy years Britain was almost completely democratic, in contrast to the 'rotten boroughs' and virtual feudalism of the pre- 1832 unreformed Parliaments. The changes are mirrored in the role given to agriculture within society, and in particular the amount and type of economic rent transferred from the consumer and the taxpayer to the farmer. This thesis uses two centuries of data and 'survival analysis' statistical techniques to show that Olson's celebrated theory of collective action can be substantiated in a dynamic context. I show that as the share of farmers in the workforce diminishes, and their relative wealth shrinks, the probability of the Cabinet increasing protection grows. The reverse is also the case, showing that the Cabinet responds positively to pressures from a group whose utility was diminishing.

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The thesis is a political history and a history of ideas. It is an account of social feminism in the early twentieth century as it sought to extend the ideal of equality to the family and social citizenshp to women in their family roles. Although first-wave feminism has been seen as predominantlv concerned with equality in public life. I argue that women's position in the farmly especially as mothers raised questions for the women's movement whch were addressed in a number of ways. At a time when state solutions to social problems seemed increasingly convincing this contributed to a shift in the relationshp between families and the state and suggests that organised women's advocacy may have played a greater part in creatlng a political consensus for state welfare provision than has been recognised. Ths forms the context for social-liberal feminism after 1918, exemplified by the Edinburgh Women Citizens' Association. The papers of the EWCA add a new dimension to knowledge of the women's movement in the inter-war period. They show an ambitious autonomous women's organisabon active at a time when feminism is believed to have been in almost terminal decline. They gave a strong sense of what citizenshp meant to newly enfranchsed women and the purposes to whch thev wished to put their new rights: their view of a distinctive women's citizenship drew on both a Victorian tradition of women's activism and on ideas wbch had been developed in pre-war socialist feminism. As a claim to influence in previously wholly male fora it was embedded within the discursive strengths and limitatlons of women's traditional arenas of power/knowledge, family and morality. My approach to these issues is through an analysis of primary texts including The Economic Foundations of the Women's Movement (1914) by Mabel Atkinson and Women: An Inquiry (1925) by Willa Muir, and secondary sources, mainly from recent feminist scholarship. My discussion of the interwar women's movement in Scotland is based on the papers of the EWCA (1918-1939). The thesis reflects on approaches to political theory and to history and argues that categorisations of the political and of feminism create problems of analysis. Ths calls for a theoretical framework whch situates political ideas and strategy within the disourses of gender of the time rather than in a privileged position outside and counter to it: I draw on aspects of cultural theory to develop this argument. A problematic relationshp between familv interests and women's equality runs through, and is made visible through women's movement history. This opposition is formed by the dichotomous positioning of private and public and of difference and equality and hence of the categories family and state. Atkinson's articulation of the demand bv women for love (sexual relationships and children) and work (economic and personal independence) names a refusal to resolve tlus opposition through a separation between those women who marry and have children and those who have public careers. Attempts to renegotiate the gender settlement as it affects private and family life have proved to be a great deal more difficult to carry through than is creatng a greater role for women in the public sphere, hard though that also may be. The repeated identfication of feminism with equality as access to public life is a consequence of the relative success of arguments from equality, but questions about how a 'male standard' creates difficulties for women in public life continue to be relevant. Redrawing the conceptual boundaries whch form ths tension calls for not a reassertion of difference or equality- but a parallel assertion of both: that equality is brought to the family and that at the same time the differences associated with family and caring roles are insistently brought into public life. In conclusion I comment on how the opposition between family responsibilities and gender equality has become one of the 'self-evidences' of our age and that it poses one of the most central questions for philosophy and politics: how to reconcile social and indvidual interests.

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This study investigates a range of ways in which the late medieval monastery of Iona interacted with the region of Argyll and the Isles: as the owner of churches and lands; as the centre of major saints’ cults; and as the focus of a school of sculpture. A major part of the research is a detailed examination of the local context of each of these links with Iona. The research project focuses on the monastery of Iona in the period c1203-c1575. These dates have been chosen specifically because they encompass virtually the entire period of occupation by the Benedictine monks, and because they apply to the most comprehensive surviving documents that relate to Iona and its landholdings. At the time of the introduction of the Benedictines to Iona, papal protection was sought, and a papal bull of December 1203 records Iona’s holdings at this period. Many of these holdings remained in Iona’s possession until the Reformation, soon after which time a rental was drawn up listing the abbot’s temporal and spiritual wealth, along with that of the bishop of the Isles, who was by this time also commendator of Iona abbey. These documents serve comprehensively to illustrate the fortunes of the monastery over the later Middle Ages. Iona’s acquisitions of lands and churches, and what subsequently became of these possessions, took place in the wider context of the changing political scene. For this reason, the political and social links between Iona, the Lordship of the Isles and other powerful local kindreds, such as the Mackinnons, MacLeans and Campbells, are explored. Iona’s relations with other religious houses in Argyll is also considered, particularly in relation to the potential transfer of lands between monastic houses. The monastery’s fortunes varied over the course of its existence, depending largely on who held the position of abbot, and on the relationships with powerful local magnates, as well as with other ecclesiastical bodies. It held estates and churches over a wide area, and although it gained many possessions, some were also lost to other houses, and to secular powers. There are many other churches and lands within Iona’s sphere of influence, but the nature of the evidence precludes drawing any firm conclusions about how many, if any, of them, were founded or owned by the monastery. Regarding Iona’s role as a centre of the cults of saints Columba and Adamnán, the local preponderance of churches dedicated to these and other saints important to Iona is considered in an effort to try to establish how widespread they are, and the longevity of these dedications. Looking also at Iona’s lands and the dedications of their churches, an attempt is made to discern any patterns; for example, to whom are the churches on Iona’s lands dedicated, and when? If churches on lands gifted to Iona had an existing dedication, is this likely to have been changed? Iona’s wider ecclesiastical associations are also discussed: the monastery held an ambivalent relationship with the papacy, and was considered to be under Rome’s protection, but often failed to pay its dues to the Curia, pleading poverty and the expense of having to travel such a long distance ‘from the ends of the habitable earth’. Due to the fragmentary nature of the existing documentary record, an interdisciplinary approach has been taken, involving the integration of evidence from historical sources, archaeology and place-names. One of the main fruits of the research has been the production of a gazetteer of Iona’s lands and churches held throughout the later Middle Ages. It is hoped that this may prove a useful tool in further research. Janet MacDonald Departments of Celtic and History University of Glasgow