Following Britain’s entry into the First World War, the foreign spy became a particularly poignant image in popular culture as well as broader political discourse. Although espionage had featured regularly across British society during the preceding decade, with the outbreak of war the depiction of the spy took on a new significance. This thesis analyses British fears of German espionage between August 1914 and December 1915, in order to assess how popular spy phobias shaped wartime experiences. This recrudescence of spy fever, as these fears are commonly known, was facilitated by national policies and encouraged by local authorities. Pre-war strategic planning had determined that agents of the Kaiser were likely to target vulnerable infrastructure essential to Britain’s mobilisation. With this in mind, authorities responded to the declaration of war by conducting an erratic search for potential spies within their respective communities. These ostensibly official measures combined with scaremongering in the press to establish the danger of foreign espionage. Early rhetoric defined the appropriate response; popular suspicion and enhanced vigilance became essential to the national war effort. Defence panics had been an intermittent feature of Victorian and Edwardian discourse, and spy scares reflected a continuation of this tradition. Fears of espionage were far more prolific as collective anxieties rather than individual qualms. While some elements of society were caught up in this spy fever, others appeared unaffected by such concerns. As this thesis will show, emotional responses to spies appeared most pervasive in staunchly conservative communities that believed liberalism was ill-equipped to deal with national security and imperial defence. As a result, liberal ideals created a conflicting set of emotions that opposed radicalism and the feelings that it promoted. Spy fever was thus not a ubiquitous panic, nor was it particularly irrational, despite the fallacy of the espionage threat. Although anti-alienism has often been identified as the cause of such trepidation, spy phobias were multifaceted, and individuals who developed such fears did so for a variety of reasons.

Matthew Boulton (1728-1809) is well known as an eighteenth-century industrialist, the founder of Soho Manufactory and the steam-engine business of Boulton and Watt. Less well known are his scientific and technical abilities in the field of metallurgy and coining, and his role in setting up the Soho Mint. The intention of this thesis is to focus on the coining activities of Matthew Boulton from 1787 until 1809, and to examine the key role he played in the modernisation of money. It is the result of an Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded collaboration with Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, where, after examination of their extensive collection of coins, medals, tokens and dies produced at the Soho Mint, .research was used to produce a catalogue. A close visual study of the artefacts has been combined with evidence from contemporary archival material, and information from secondary sources, to provide a synthesis of the processes involved in making coins, and Matthew Boulton’s working practices in the eighteenth century. The thesis describes processes involved in making the 600 million coins, medals and tokens made at Soho Mint during Boulton’s lifetime. Chapter one briefly discusses his eighteenth-century background and the reasons for setting up the Soho Mint. In chapter two Boulton’s involvement in the copper and iron industries are discussed, including the importance of his contributions to both industries. He needed large amounts of copper and specialized iron products such as steel to make his coins at Soho Mint. In chapter three the technical aspects of minting are discussed, including Boulton and his team’s contribution to developing new techniques. The final chapter details how materials and products were transported, commissioned, and designed. The second half of the thesis is a sample catalogue of items produced at the Soho Mint prior to Boulton’s death in 1809. Fuller catalogues of Soho Mint products have been produced for several institutions as a result of this research, for use by museum curators, historians and professional and amateur numismatists. Only a selection of this aspect of the research is included, because of the word limitations for PhD theses.

Roman writers acknowledged the peculiar biological and psychological characteristics of children. This thesis examines the hypothesis that they regarded them as members of distinct epidemiological and therapeutic groups. Its chief sources of information are medical texts from the Early Empire, supplemented by archaeological evidence. It attempts to determine the extent to which the above traits informed theories concerning the prevalence, pathogenesis and prognosis of childhood ailments. Celsus stated that children should not be treated in the same way as adults. This thesis investigates whether other medical authorities shared this view, and whether Roman practitioners abided by this principle. It explores the ways in which they treated sick children and whether they employed different approaches according to the age or gender of individuals. This research breaks new ground in that it makes direct comparisons between treatments for children and adults, and children of varying age, and between children of either gender. It acknowledges the diversity of medicine in the Roman world and places equal emphasis on ‘scientific’ and supernatural practices. Another innovation is the use of case studies; these provide an opportunity to compare and discuss choices of therapeutic modalities for nine groups of diseases and in patients in different age categories.

This thesis is concerned with the way multi-national issues are dealt with by media. I illustrate this by the example of the media treatment of Mideast relations, concentrating on three newspapers: The Washington Post and The New York Times from the US, and Al Ahram from Egypt. The events central to the study lay within the Camp David Period of September 1977 to March 1979, with the signing of the Camp David Accords in September, 1978, and the Treaty in March, 1979 ("Camp David"). Because of the media coverage this is an ideal series of events to study methods of filtering information within newspapers. Since Camp David created as much interest in the Mideast as in the West, a comparison of different reports is fruitful. Within Chapter 5I utilise a content analytical method to discover what biases may have been present in the reporting of Camp David, widening this to deal with issues of journalism and the North/ South divide, and show that media is less an investigative tool and more an anchor for established views. A tentative conclusion is an identification of the lack of what are considered journalists' most valued qualities: objectivity and professionalism. I identify a misunderstanding in the lay-person's view of the media profession: as The Washington Post and The New York Times show, although articles may have attempted a balanced format, these media may not have been investigative internationally (though they were domestically). We have to be wary when extrapolating from only three newspapers to the wider world (though I studied other newspapers and media) but since these titles were chosen for their standing and influence, some wider conclusions may be drawn. The thesis indicates no single viewpoint of developed media; no "conspiracy" somehow politically to defraud or act directly for domestic interests. I seek a perspective on developed media in a simultaneous analysis of the Egyptian media and its milieu. What I contend is of interest is that forces acted on Al Ahram, The Washington Post and The New York Times which, though different in kind, were more similar in effect than heretofore argued. Western journalism I assess as operating within a narrower set of models than is frequently believed.

This thesis maps the end of the millenium in terms of the geostrategic flux of the post Cold War world system. Using the concept of turbulence developed in the physics of fluids, and Gilles Deleuze & Felix Guattari's liquid microphysics of the war machine, a materialist analysis of violence is developed which cuts through the binary oppostions of order/chaos, law/violence, war/peace to construct a cartography of speeds and slowness, collective compositions and power. Sector 1 defines postmodernity in terms of cybernetic culture, delineating the distinction between Deleuze & Guattari's concept of cartography and steering the problem out of the remit of a juridico/politico/moral discourse telwards physics. Sector 2 develops a fluid physics of turbulence and connects it to a materialist analysis of social systems by mapping turbulent and laminar flow onto Deleuze & Guattari's war machine and apparatus of capture. A fluid dynamics of insurgency is then outlined with reference to the geo-strategic undercurrent constituted by Chinese martial theory. Sector 3 reconfigures social evolution in relation to the non-linear social physics developed in Sector 2, unmasking the racism and Imperialism of linear narratives of progress. Instead of progression from one historical phase to another, the planet is seen to be composed of a virtual co-existence of modes stretched out on a continuum of war. This continuum connects the martial modes of despotic states, disciplinary states and packs. These modes differ in their degree of compositional laminarization. Sector 4 deploys the cartography on the emergence of a planetary cybernetic culture and its relation to a global machinery of war. Postmodern control is designated as turbulence simulation or programmed catastrophe- a runaway process of accident or emergency quantizing typified by implosive turbulence in the core of the world system and its overexposure. Sector 5 pushes the cartography towards an antifascist fluid mechanics otherwise denoted as an ethics of speed or a tao of turbulence.

In this thesis I argue that Foucault's dispersive historiography is a deepening rather than a purifying of historical existence. This emphasis upon dispersion as a critical principle is contrasted with, and delimited by the possibility of the narrative comprehension of historical existence exemplified by the hermeneutics of Paul Ricoeur. Insofar as the responsibility to act is an important field where tfphis deepening takes place it cannot be subordinated to the responsibility to otherness which aims at dismantling the action orientated frameworks of traditional ethics and politics. Ricoeur's promotion of narrative refiguration as a response to the aporias of time is thus, a timely rejoinder to dispersive genealogy. I argue further that Foucault's historiography exhibits the productive tension of history as both difference and meaning and that the ethical thrust of such writing is to address the concerns of the present in a way that metamorphosizes rather than challenges the narrative function. Insofar as it connects with the struggles of disenfranchised and marginalized groups, and discourses, it also echoes a powerful element In traditional emancipatory historiography which attempts to fully embrace the slaughtered possibilities of the past The emancipatory potential of dispersive historiography is examined further by comparison with the aims and values of traditional critical theory. Two positions are delineated: (1) Complementarity, in which genealogy produces valuable insights into hitherto unacknowledged power structures; (2) Delimitation, in which Foucault's work is seen to be an important limitation on the epistemological and ontological interventions of critical theory. This JOIns the philosophical hermeneutical critique of critical theory In its delimitation of the finite horizon of all emancipatory discourse. Finally I argue that Foucault's work is itself limited by its refusal to countenance the utopian dimension of social reproduction in which the social imaginary is to be considered not as a delusory projection of desire, but as a driving force behind the projection of freedom. Dispersive freedom sees the formation of political, cultural, and social identities as always constraints upon the real practice of freedom. It is this marginalisation of liberation as a process with ends that I seek to dispute. I conclude that Foucault's dispersive principles are belied by the important contribution his work has made to the necessarily ceaseless task of the refiguration of the concepts of history, freedom, power and truth.

This thesis argues that the role played by the concept of remembrance (Eingedenken) in Walter Benjamin's 'theory of the knowledge of history' and in his engagement with Enlightenment universal history, is a crucial one. The implications of Benjamin's contention that history's 'original vocation' is 'remembrance' have hitherto gone largely unnoticed. The following thesis explores the meaning of the concept of remembrance and assesses the significance of this proposed link between history and memory, looking at both the mnemonic aspect of history and the historical facets of memory. It argues that by mobilising the simultaneously destructive and constructive capacities of remembrance, Benjamin sought to develop a critical historiography which would enable a radical encounter with a previously suppressed past. In so doing he takes up a stance (explicit and implicit) towards existing philosophical conceptions of history, in particular the idea of universal history found in German Idealism. Benjamin reveals an intention to retain the epistemological aspirations of universal history whilst ridding that approach of its apologetic moment. He criticises existing conceptions of history on the basis that each assumes homogeneous time to be the framework in which historical events occur. Insight into the distinctive temporality of remembrance proves to be the touchstone for this critique, and provides a paradigm for a very different conception of time. The thesis goes on to determine what is valid and what is problematic both in this concept of remembrance and in the theory of historical knowledge which it informs, by subjecting both to the most cogent criticisms which can be levelled at them. What emerges is not only the importance of this concept for an understanding of Benjamin's philosophy but the pertinence of this concept for any philosophical account of memory.

This thesis traces the social networks of company directors involved in multinational commerce during the seventeenth century. It places commerce and directors at the centre of key economic, political and social developments during the seventeenth century, answering three interrelated questions: how did relationships between different corporate spheres change during the seventeenth century? How did the director develop as a socioeconomic agent during the seventeenth century? How did directors influence the formation of the English political economy? The first chapter defines the company director and places them in the wider historiographical traditions, while also outlining the methodological approaches used throughout the thesis. Chapter two examines how debates concerning the Virginia Company affected the wider community of company directors in the first decades of the seventeenth century, demonstrating how disparities in visions for trade created friction, which in turn affected the formation of governance in other companies. The third chapter analyses how the networks of different groups of directors developed during the civil wars and Interregnum period. The tension between the varied parties drove fertile debates on company formats, which stretched existing notions of corporate governance. Following on from this, chapter four traces how directors purged and counter-purged one another in during the Restoration. New networks were shaped by private trade overseas, by new extra-company institutions and by increased competition between companies. The growing differences between the Levant Company and the East India Company inspires renewed debates over directors' role. The fifth chapter investigates how directors became familiar in England during the late seventeenth century. The joint stock boom of the 1690s gave a new presence to commercial corporate governance in England, while the links between the director community and the English state were further cemented by foundation of the Bank of England. The final chapter examines the foundation of the New East India Company in 1698, as well as the subsequent merger of the old and new companies. The new company fractured and expanded of the director community. However, the merger between the two companies ignored contemporary political ideologies, and forged the directors' networks into a corporate superstructure. The dissertation challenges the assumption that conflicts between insiders and outsiders in the commercial community accelerated the formation of the English political economy by tracing networks across a community of diverse individuals. It offers a new understanding of the relationship between commerce, politics and society in seventeenth century England, and demonstrates the importance of company directors as socioeconomic agents, emphasising the social nature of the early modern trading corporation.

This thesis aims to illuminate the economic and social world of the Glasgow-West India merchants, planters and the temporary economic migrants who travelled across the Atlantic during the period, 1776-1846. The city of Glasgow and her satellite ports was the premier Scottish transatlantic hub with connections across the British Atlantic world. This thesis has focused on the period after the American War of Independence ended the city of Glasgow’s tobacco monopoly. Thus, the rise to prominence of the city’s West India elite is assessed as well as the social, political, financial and commercial networks that underpinned their rise. This thesis offers new insights on religious affiliations of the merchants of Glasgow and traces the exportation of Presbyterianism to Jamaica in 1814. This thesis has implications for other aspects of the incipient Scottish-Atlantic historiography. In particular it contributes to T.M. Devine’s recent view that Caribbean slavery made Scotia great. However, this thesis is deliberately placed into a British-Atlantic context. Although this research demonstrates how a distinctly Caledonian operation promoted the flow of capital to Scotland, the ‘Glasgow West India interest’ themselves were part of a wider international network which in turn dictates the scope of this thesis and the historiography with which it engages. Specifically, this body of research traces direct investments of capital by West India merchants into Scottish industry and land, thus providing qualified support for Eric Williams’ main thesis in Capitalism and Slavery. However, this work goes significantly beyond the work of Williams to trace the connections between commerce and banking institutions in Scotland and the plantations of the West Indies. This thesis has examined in some detail the political activities of the Glasgow West India Association from inception in 1807 up to 1834. The Association’s sophisticated operations at a national and regional level supported the exploitative activities of the Glasgow-West India elite. Indeed, this research demonstrates that the members of the Association collected the bulk of the compensation awarded to individuals resident in Glasgow on the emancipation of slavery in 1834. This thesis has adopted a transatlantic approach that connects Scotland and the West Indies. In particular, these connections are illuminated through the prism of the careers of the young Scotsmen who sojourned to Jamaica and Grenada in particular. This thesis suggests there were increasing levels of emigration to the West Indies in this period and the skilled and educated young men sought economic opportunities not available at home. By examining wealth repatriation in life and post-mortem property transmission strategies, this thesis offers a revision on the view that such young men struggled to repatriate colonial profits. This has implications for the work of Alan Karras and others. The transatlantic approach is developed in case study examinations of Glasgow-West India merchant houses. This connects Scottish banks, commerce and industry with the British Parliament and the planters of the West Indies. The world of Scottish planters, merchants and sojourners is now becoming increasingly well known. The life, wealth and legacy of the Glasgow West India elite traced here provide innovative insights into their living conditions and material culture. It is further argued that a West India career could propel even those of modest means into the British super-wealthy. Finally, this thesis recognises the contribution of enslaved peoples to the economic development of Scotland which will hopefully stimulate further research in a Scottish-Atlantic context.

This thesis explores relationships between music produced around 1800 for domestic consumption and the fictional genre of romance – a genre of fantastic atmospheres, settings and characters, quest plots with dramatic events, and a sense of antiquity and desire that represents remoteness and addresses the cultural periphery. What this fiction says about music offers a new view of romanticism in British print culture, making this thesis serve as counterhistory to studies of nineteenth-century European operatic and orchestral canons and their links with later fiction. I survey the use of music in romance novels by Ann Radcliffe, Matthew Lewis, Sir Walter Scott and James Hogg in the period 1790-1830, interrogating the ways that music served to create mood and atmosphere, enlivened social scenes and contributed to plot developments. I explore the connections between musical scenes in romance fiction and the domestic song literature – short accompanied songs, both sacred and secular, by composers such as Thomas Attwood, John Wall Callcott, Matthew Cooke, John Baptist Cramer, John Barnett, François Hippolyte Barthélemon, Charles Dibdin, William Hawes, Thomas Moore, John Parry, William Reeve, Reginald Spofforth, and Sir John Stevenson. My intersectional reading revolves around a series of imaginative figures – including the minstrel, fairies, ghosts, witches, and other supernatural figures, and Christians engaged both in virtue and vice – the identities of which remained generally consistent as influence passed between the art forms. While authors quoted song lyrics and included musical descriptions and characters, their novels recorded and modelled the performance of songs by the middle and upper classes, influencing the work of composers and the actions of contemporary performers who read romance fiction. My thesis shows how the intersection of romances with vocal music recorded a society on the cusp of modernisation, with a printing industry emerging to serve people’s growing appetites for entertainment amidst their changing views of religion and the occult. No mere diversion, fiction was integral to musical culture and together both art forms reveal key intellectual currents that circulated in the early nineteenth-century British home.