Both housewives and the black market have been absent in much of the scholarly research studying World War Two and the British home front. The traditional view of British society as a monolithic group which came together under the rules of rationing and austerity during and after the war years is an outdated narrative which needs reexamined. This study examines the role of the traditional housewife in relationship to the black market during and after World War Two, including the time of the Attlee government. Discontent with rationing policy and austerity helped to fuel the development of a large black market in Britain both during and after the Second World War. Housewives made up the largest adult population on the British home front and because of their subaltern position within society, their agency as consumers was underestimated, helping make them the perfect consumer in the black market. Their role in society kept them in the shadows, with minimal scrutiny. Minimal scrutiny is a key factor in the completion of a successful black market transaction, because a successful black market transaction leaves no official record. This study uses many primary and secondary sources, including newspaper articles to establish the existence of a large black market in Britain during and after the war and examine the participation of housewives in the black market.

Zugl.: @Diss.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia university, 1914. / Vita. Contains also t.-p., without thesis note. London, John Lane; New York, John Lane company; [etc., etc.] 1914. Issued also without thesis t.-p. Bibliography: p. 205-223. Also available in digital form on the Internet Archive Web site.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 1998. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis analyzes the British Mandate in Palestine 1920-1948. It examines the significance the British placed on their continued involvement in the Middle East following World War I, and the inherent contradictions that were a result of three separate agreements, each initiated to distribute lands previously ruled by the Ottomans. The British inability to reconcile the promises they made to both the Zionists and the Arabs, combined with their Mandate administration policies, shaped the Jewish/Arab conflict that has continued until the present day. The influence of the Zionist lobby on British leadership resulted in policies that favorably biased the Jewish population in Palestine. Additionally, Arabs disadvantaged themselves by refusing to participate politically with Jews, while Jewish leaders embraced opportunities to establish political institutions. Arab standing was further disadvantaged by British reaction to political violence dis played in response to British policies. The Jewish leadership capitalized on every opportunity to consolidate power, while the Arabs missed opportunities by remaining politically fragmented and unwilling to compromise. / US Navy (USN) author

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Cornish port of Falmouth was an important base within an ever-expanding British empire. From here, people, letters, goods and information travelled back and forth from Cornwall to the rest of the world. This thesis investigates the extent to which Falmouth was a significant part of Britain’s maritime empire during the period 1800-1850, looking specifically at four areas of interest. First, it argues that Falmouth’s Packet Service played a significant role in intelligence gathering during the Napoleonic Wars, victory in which led to major expansion of the British empire. Second, that the town developed Cornwall’s mining expertise to the extent that it could be exported to new colonies, or become instrumental in spreading the influence of informal empire. Third, that the import of plant specimens from the colonies had a direct effect on class-based hierarchies of power in and around the town. And finally, that contact between the British and foreigners in and from the port led to renegotiations of identity based on race that were inextricably tied into colonialism. The role of Cornwall in the dialogue between Britain and its colonies, and the importance of Falmouth as a port within the British empire, have previously been neglected in academic study, with attention given to larger metropolitan locations such as Liverpool and Southampton. This thesis continues work exploring imperialism within one specific locality, shifting in focus from the urban to the rural. In doing this, a diversity of written and archival sources are used to discuss how several elements of empire came together in one place. The work demonstrates that Falmouth was a site clearly affected by colonialism, and was to a certain extent influential within it due to its maritime significance.

This thesis explores reactions to the Quebec Act of 1774 in pamphlets and newspapers within Britain and the American colonies. The Quebec Act was signed by George III in June of 1774, the bill instituted French Civil Law, put in place a military governor and a executive council, all of whom served at the will of the Crown, and effectively established Roman Catholicism in Canada under the Crown’s control. The rhetoric analyzed for this thesis came from a number of contemporary pamphlets and newspaper commentaries on the Quebec Act specifically,or on colonial policy, which included the Quebec Act, more generally. The pamphlets were written by ministers, politicians, public figures and anonymous individuals. The concepts, ideals, and words used by these various commentators suggest underlying concerns and ideals which they all share and which their audience would understand and identify with. In using the rhetoric employed in these sources this study hopes to show that in their reactions to the incorporation of French Catholics, under their own laws and religious traditions, British contemporaries revealed their conception of what it meant to be British.There is a strong sense that British Protestantism was not so unified that it would serve as an effective foundation to build an identity. Therefore, rather than simply being formed as a reaction against the French and Catholic Other, this identity seems to be rooted in a positive sense of the nature of English liberty, which was then extended to the British people. The rhetoric in the American colonies is used to show how an identity centered on the ideal of liberty functions on the periphery. This thesis hopes to also address the fact that the Quebec Act has been overlooked by many who address the issue of British identity. Such an event, even if overshadowed in popular history by the other Coercive Acts, is a valuable episode in the creation and expression of a British Identity.

In the immediate post-war years, the war is curiously, although not totally, absent in British film, which seem to be occupied with “getting on” with life and offering distraction from the realities of post-war life. It is the time of the celebrated Ealing comedies, such as Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) and The Ladykillers (1955), Dickens adaptations, and the Archers’ most ambitious projects. Critics tend to ignore these films that suppress the presence of the war when drawing connections to the post-war situation. However, the impact of the war is very much present in these films through the types of characters portrayed and common themes of displacement and isolation. In looking at representation of middle-class women and men in British film of the post-war period, I examine the screen personae of Celia Johnson and Deborah Kerr, and Michael Redgrave and Alec Guinness. I look at how, through their various film incarnations, these four actors create screen personae of solid, dependable middle-class men and women, with their accompanying ideals of duty, community responsibility and obligation. I contextualize these identities in hardships of post-war life, using Angus Calder’s The People’s War. Focussing on Carol Reed’s The Third Man (1949) and Jules Dassin’s Night and the City (1951), I re-examine British film noir, suggesting these films reveal British vulnerability and anxieties about their own displacement by America during the so-called “American Occupation” of Britain. In these films, maladjusted, childlike American protagonists disrupt and upset the social stability of the ancient cities – London and Vienna – where they find themselves. The structural damage of these cities creates liminal space that allows outsiders like Holly Martins, Harry Lime, and Harry Fabian the room to operate and to disturb. The final chapter speculates on the possible reason for re-casting and adapting the iconic British narrative of Charles Dickens: Great Expectations (1946), Nicholas Nickleby (1947), Oliver Twist (1948) and Scrooge (1951). Drawing connections between the post-war study The Neglected Child and His Family and D.W. Winnicott’s theories on childhood development, I suggest that these narratives consider the problem of neglected children in post-war Britain through the safety of historical and literary distancing. / May 2007

This thesis explores reactions to the Quebec Act of 1774 in pamphlets and newspapers within Britain and the American colonies. The Quebec Act was signed by George III in June of 1774, the bill instituted French Civil Law, put in place a military governor and a executive council, all of whom served at the will of the Crown, and effectively established Roman Catholicism in Canada under the Crown’s control. The rhetoric analyzed for this thesis came from a number of contemporary pamphlets and newspaper commentaries on the Quebec Act specifically,or on colonial policy, which included the Quebec Act, more generally. The pamphlets were written by ministers, politicians, public figures and anonymous individuals. The concepts, ideals, and words used by these various commentators suggest underlying concerns and ideals which they all share and which their audience would understand and identify with. In using the rhetoric employed in these sources this study hopes to show that in their reactions to the incorporation of French Catholics, under their own laws and religious traditions, British contemporaries revealed their conception of what it meant to be British.There is a strong sense that British Protestantism was not so unified that it would serve as an effective foundation to build an identity. Therefore, rather than simply being formed as a reaction against the French and Catholic Other, this identity seems to be rooted in a positive sense of the nature of English liberty, which was then extended to the British people. The rhetoric in the American colonies is used to show how an identity centered on the ideal of liberty functions on the periphery. This thesis hopes to also address the fact that the Quebec Act has been overlooked by many who address the issue of British identity. Such an event, even if overshadowed in popular history by the other Coercive Acts, is a valuable episode in the creation and expression of a British Identity.

This thesis examines largely British and American approaches to Shakespeare on film from the silent era to 1996, while also referring to Japanese and European productions. By analysing key films where Shakespeare is used in an altered or unacknowledged way, Shakespeare's cultural position in cinema can be identified and assessed. The British cinematic approach tends to rely upon nostalgia and taps into a longstanding theatrical tradition of Shakespearean performance while, in the US, Shakespeare is usually subordinated to cinema by being redefined through cinematic genre. There is much overlap between these culturally defined approaches to Shakespeare on film. Above all, Shakespeare is employed as a key intertextual device within each film, providing narrative structure and a frame of reference which highlights or brings into question a sense of cultural identity. In addition to cultural ramifications, the evolution of Shakespeare on film is charted to demonstrate how the treatment of the playwright and his work changed to suit the development of film as an artform capable of sustaining its own dramatic lexicon. Ten case study films from the mid to late twentieth century are analysed from a cultural standpoint and to map the interplay between Shakespearean and cinema. Broadly speaking, Shakespeare may be manipulated in two main ways, so that plots or themes from the plays may be evident in an altered way in a film, or scenes or dialogue may be included in an otherwise contemporary cinematic setting. It is at the nexus of this interplay that the two elements coalesce, realigning Shakespeare from a cinematic perspective on one hand, while providing filmmakers with highly adaptable source material for their own productions on the other. By focusing on films which position Shakespeare outside of conventional or mainstream cinematic adaptation, this thesis advances prevailing critical interest, locating the playwright as a figure open to numerous and innovative cultural and cinematic reinterpretations. The thesis makes a significant contribution to Shakespeare on film studies as it serves to develop an understanding of the shifting relationship between Shakespeare and cinema in Britain and America during the twentieth century.