This thesis analyses the central role of agricultural labour in the construction of personhood, landscape and work in an Andean ayllu. It is an ethnographic study based on fieldwork in a small subsistence farming village in the highlands of Bolivia. In employing a practice‐led approach and emphasising everyday labour, ambiguity and the realities of history and political power play, rather than the ayllu’s ‘core characteristics’ of complementarity and communality, the thesis moves away from the structuralist approaches which have dominated this field of study. In this setting, agricultural activity, llank’ay, (to transform the land), fills and shapes the days and seasons throughout the year. Llank’ay goes beyond economistic definitions of ‘work’ to include leisure, politics and everyday practice: it is bound up with myths of cosmogony, notions of value, the power of the land and a basic belief in what it is to be a human. The thesis examines the importance of llank’ay through several prisms: the tasks of the agricultural year and how these are crucial to the development of personhood; the mediating role of llank’ay in claims to land and inter‐village relationships of reciprocity; the effects of Protestant conversion and the role of llank’ay in sustaining an animate landscape; the intersection of llank’ay with other forms of work; migration and the outcomes of discontinuing llank’ay. I conclude that in this ayllu the practice of agricultural activity transforms people and land, creates belonging and communality and shapes the local concept of what labour is. It in turn creates the structures and limits within which people and land can be transformed.

The history of contact between Plaid Cymru and Welsh expatriate communities has been a neglected narrative. This thesis goes part of the way to remedying that situation by focusing on the interaction that occurred between Welsh-Americans and Plaid Cymru from 1925 to 1945. The party of 1925-1945 was not the same political entity as it is in 2015 and hence this study seeks to explore and understand Plaid’s essence during the specified time period. The ‘Welshness’ of Welsh-America is also explored, in order to better understand the ‘Welsh identity’ that was in existence at the time. The engagement between Plaid Cymru and Welsh-America occurred at an individual level, through personal correspondence, and also at an institutional level, through the Welsh-American press. That press, both English and Welsh medium, took a great interest in the party and played a part in Plaid’s fund-raising strategy. By interpreting these levels of engagement we arrive at a fuller understanding of how Plaid Cymru and Welsh-America interacted during the years from 1925 to 1945.

This thesis demonstrates the existence and significance of Jacobitism in the British Atlantic World, c. 1688-1727. Throughout the period under investigation, colonists were increasingly integrated into Britain’s partisan politics, religious controversies, and vibrant public sphere. This integrative process encouraged colonists to actively participate in British controversies. Moreover, this integration was complex and multi-faceted and included elements of a Tory political culture in addition to their Whig counterparts. During this period, colonists increasingly identified themselves and others according to British political and religious terminology. This was both caused and encouraged by imperial appointments, clerical appointments/SPG activity, and an increased consumption of British political news and commentary. All three informed and shaped colonists’ views regarding Jacobitism. In light of these developments, this thesis examines in three case studies colonial manifestations of Jacobitism within a larger British Atlantic context. Taking into account the voluminous recent research on Jacobitism, this examination reveals that there was an identifiable transatlantic Jacobite subculture. This subculture is recognizable by its associations with elements of British culture inextricably linked to Jacobitism: nonjuring, Scottish Episcopalianism, high church Anglicanism, and – increasingly after 1710 – Toryism. These associations were demonstrated by overt expressions of Jacobitism, such as seditious words and celebrations of Jacobite holidays. They are also illustrated by accusations of Jacobitism. This thesis seeks to incorporate Jacobitism into the burgeoning field of Atlantic History and demonstrate the significance of Jacobitism as an important element of a process of colonial Anglicization. This contribution to historical understandings of the Anglicization of the British Atlantic World seeks to encourage discussions between the disparate fields of British and colonial history.

This thesis investigates the relationship of trade unions to the American political system from 1919 to 1924. It does so by Studying the state of industrial relations and the effects of contemporary events on their conduct. The President's First Industrial Conference is employed to examine the state of industrial relations at the end of the First World War. Changes caused by the rise of the Engineering movement, the Open Shop Campaign, the recession and recovery and by successive crises are then traced to reveal the nature of the problem with which politicians had to wrestle. The rest of the thesis studies the response of Congress and the administration of Wilson, Harding and Coolidge to what was known euphemistically as the 'labor problem' and analyses any trends in political outlook occasioned thereby. The research relied heavily on the private papers of contemporary politicians and official government, business and union documents falling within the dates which delineate the thesis and concentrates on the relationship aspect rather than purely political or labour issues. The thesis contributes to knowledge of the period by emphasising the complexity of the political landscape. It contributes to the understanding of trade unionism's role within politics. The major themes are the continuing development of progressivism during the early twenties, the consequent diminution of the importance of traditional partisanship and the political climate which resulted. The other major theme is the debate among unionists regarding their movement's political implications and the effect of this on the nature of unionism's relationship with progressives. The conclusions are that progressives remained a force in these years and drifted leftwards as Progressives understood and expounded the economic power struggle underlying industrial disputes. Unionists had many friends; economic factors, not political hostility, were its most damaging enemy. But the friends and enemies policy submerged unionism's political identity, hurting its own cause by contributing to the. ambivalence between unionism and progressives and thus aggravating the political confusion between 1919 and 1924.

The study will analyse how Anglo-American evangelicals' antipathy towards slavery spread and transformed in the context of the transatlantic evangelical network. Many researchers have treated antislavery sentiment as a spontaneous reaction, or as one of a number of background moods influencing those who started the abolitionist movement. However, this sentiment spread in the Atlantic world as result of evangelical activities throughout the eighteenth century. The formation of the transatlantic evangelical network is central to understanding the spread of antislavery sentiment. Stimulated by the Great Awakening in the 1730s and the 1740s, Anglo-American evangelicals began to travel between both sides of the Atlantic. Much evidence suggests that a religious and ideological sense of unity was being forged during this process. Importantly, the evangelical network offered a channel of transatlantic communication allowing Anglo-Americans to debate common issues. Although in itself not antislavery, it had the potential to develop antislavery sentiment among its members. Many historians have not traced the development of antislavery ideals in the mid-eighteenth century as there seemed no public self-identifying antislavery movement. However, close examination of 'proslavery' literature reinvents this period into years of transformation of evangelical attitudes to slavery, far from a 'dark age' of unquestioned proslavery expression. Below the surface, fledgling antislavery sentiment was spreading in the Atlantic world before the American Revolution. In the tense atmosphere of the American Revolution in the 1770s, antislavery sentiment became transformed into moral conviction. Many members of religious communities on both sides of the Atlantic lost their confidence in the imperial system, and were fearful for their moral health. As part of this process, ill-feeling towards both the inhumanity and religio-moral inconsistencies of slavery became transformed into a moral ideology. Furthermore, the Revolution stimulated evangelical abolitionism and participation in wider secular political activities. After the Revolution, the evangelical network seemed to be reinvigorated, responding to new territorial and economic circumstance. However, conflicts within the transatlantic evangelical community caused by disestablishment debates stimulated the process of division, and influenced the developmental process of the antislavery movement in the transatlantic evangelical network. Consequently, evangelicals in each area developed individual abolitionist movements, producing different outcomes. This reflects that the transatlantic evangelical network's mission for a transatlantic channel for the antislavery cause was finishing.

This thesis challenges the predominant historiographical view of the post-1960s political environment in America as moving inexorably to the right by developing a fresh perspective on liberalism during the 1980s, a decade often proclaimed as the apogee of conservatism. By presenting substantial archival evidence that liberal politicians and organisations remained a vibrant and dynamic political force during the so-called ‘Reagan Revolution’, this thesis examines how liberals resisted the conservative challenge and worked towards developing a political approach for the post-New Deal era. Through reinterpreting the impact of liberalism, and the principal vehicle of its promulgation, the Democratic Party, this study examines the development of liberalism from three distinct, though interrelated stands of enquiry: exploring strategies concerning the intellectual; institutional; and mobilisation aspects of liberalism. Ronald Reagan’s victory in 1980 created a powerful incentive to rethink the direction of liberalism. Taking Congress as its first focus, this thesis demonstrates how continued Democratic control of the House of Representatives placed Capitol Hill at the centre of an intellectual process to update liberalism for the 1980s. Yet grassroots liberal groups also began their own process of reform, professionalising operations and increasing political influence. Thus, part of this thesis’ significance lies in its examination of the interactions between elected officials and liberal groups in Reagan’s shadow, exploring the institutional ties that would fuel liberal campaigns during the decade. As will be demonstrated, these processes combined to foster a liberal recovery of sorts by the close of the decade. Changing tone, instead of substance, allowed liberals to survive the 1980s intact, and this thesis argues that the decade should be seen as a far more complicated period of political contest than conventional orthodoxy holds. By examining how the emergence of ‘identity politics’, principally through race and gender issues, interacted with the evolution of liberalism and energised political communities to establish more effective coalition-building efforts, this thesis reveals the gestation of a nascent coalition of women, minorities, and young professionals that, through successful mobilisation strategies, would provide the electoral base for liberal victories in later decades. As the 1980s progressed, negotiating liberalism in opposition allowed networks to form and develop to sustain the liberal philosophy, help liberals attain success at state and congressional level, and arguably facilitate Bill Clinton’s subsequent presidential triumph in 1992. Therefore, by tracing the evolution and transformation of liberalism through the decade, this thesis contributes to and enhances our understanding of 1980s American political history.

This thesis explores the uses of classical learning in colonial Rio de la Plata and early independent Paraguay (c.1767-1815). It examines different ways in which classical influences are discernible: in the works of the Jesuit José Manuel Peramás (Chapters 1 and 2), in colonial classrooms and library inventories (Chapter 3), and in the political discourse of Paraguayan independence (Chapter 4). As missionaries, educators and authors of Latin literature, the Jesuits exerted a powerful cultural force in the Rio de la Plata until their expulsion in 1767, yet their legacy in the intellectual life of colonial Paraguay has been neglected; Paraguayan historians dismiss the colonial period as a time of cultural stagnation, only revived by the importation of Enlightenment ideas from Europe and North America in the late eighteenth century. Yet these same scholars have not satisfactorily explained the ideology of the independence, given that the political rhetoric of the new republics was not always consistent with Enlightenment ideals. My thesis takes a revisionist point of view, arguing that the uses of classical knowledge reflected broader intellectual trends in the transition from the colonial to independent periods which help explain the initial construction of national identities in the Rio de la Plata.

This thesis draws upon evidence from over twenty archives in the UK and US. It uses the context of Liverpool, arguably the ‘second city of empire’ because of its extensive social, economic, and political networks overseas, to enhance knowledge of British imperialism during the American Revolutionary era (1763-1783).Part One analyses the ‘gentlemanly capitalist’ paradigm of P.J. Cain and A.G. Hopkins. In brief, this theory argues that the landed elite and financial-commercial services, concentrated upon the City of London, held sway over British imperial policy-making. This was chiefly because these interests were regarded as being ‘gentlemanly’, or socially acceptable, to the landed elite. In contrast, northern manufacturers were less influential in the imperial decision-making process. By working longer hours and being associated with labour unrest, industrialists were not perceived as being sufficiently gentlemanly by the ruling order. My dissertation tests this theory within the context of the late-eighteenth century. This is an original contribution to knowledge because most, although not all, studies of Cain and Hopkins focus upon later periods. Hanoverian Liverpool is an ideal test case because the town had a mixed economy. It contained a manufacturing base, served a wider industrial hinterland, and, because Liverpool was linked to the Atlantic empire, spawned a mercantile service sector community with interests in commerce and finance. This thesis generally supports Cain and Hopkins, but with some modifications. One of these is to view the late-eighteenth century as a period of emerging gentlemanly capitalism, referred to here as ‘proto-gentlemanly capitalism’. The fact that Liverpool merchants and the local landed elite were not yet fully socially integrated, is one of several reasons why the town lacked success in influencing imperial policy-making between 1763 and 1783.Warfare was synonymous with the Hanoverian empire. Therefore, Part Two expands our knowledge of the empire at home, or how the American War (1775-1783) impacted upon Liverpool economically, socially, and culturally. Previous histories of the economic impact of this conflict upon Liverpool concentrated upon overseas trade, and therefore stressed its negative consequences. However, this thesis looks at both overseas trade and domestic business. It paints a more nuanced picture, and, by using Liverpool as a case study, shows that the impact of warfare upon the UK economy produced mixed results. Finally, this thesis considers the socio-cultural impact of the war upon Liverpool. In the process, it demonstrates that military conflict affected both the northern and southern regions of Britain during the eighteenth century. Militarisation of the local community prompted discussions regarding the boundaries of national and local government. The War of Independence split opinion, thereby revealing divergent trends within British imperial ideology. Finally, on balance, the American War cultivated a ‘British’ national identity in the town (although there were still other identities present).

Following the end of the colonial period, Latin America became a thriving market for goods from the industrializing world, particularly the United States, Great Britain, and France. This thesis explores the sociocultural implications of importation into Mexico City and Caracas, Venezuela, situating the flow of commodities within cultural processes. It analyzes how ordinary people in the two cities interacted with goods from abroad. While most studies of this phenomenon focus on elites, this research suggests that they did not comprise the only group to desire, acquire, and display imported commodities. In Mexico City, non-elites could achieve upward mobility by displaying European items. In Caracas, powerful external commercial ties allowed city residents of most classes to obtain foreign commodities and construct their identity by way of them. Thus, people throughout the social strata associated with imported goods, leading to internal and external effects on cultural identity. / Tinker Foundation / University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

This thesis examines the planter class in Jamaica in the period before the end of slavery in 1834 and considers the relations of the planters with local free society and the metropole. In spite of the large body of scholarly work on Jamaica during the slavery period, we lack a modern study of the planters. Based on archival research conducted in Britain and Jamaica, this research tackles the related issues of how locally resident planters sustained slavery in Jamaica and sought to control local society, how they related to other local groups and to the metropole, and how they identified themselves as British slaveholders in an age in which slavery was coming under increasing criticism in Britain. The study looks at the composition of the planter class and at the relations between the planter elite, non-elite white men, free non-whites and enslaved people. It also examines the way that the planters and their allies responded to criticisms directed against them and their local practices. The main conclusions of the thesis are that, to maintain the creole institution of slavery, the planters depended heavily on the support of other white men, who enjoyed a range of privileges and opportunities. This assuaged class tensions within white society and led to a distinctively local social order based on ideas of racial difference. However, in the period before emancipation, the rising population of free coloureds and free blacks, along with the increased influence of non-conformist missionaries, meant that the planters struggled to sustain local support across free society. Furthermore, their cultural and practical reliance on the metropole weakened their position as anti-slavery came to dominate British public opinion. Therefore, shifting circumstances in both Jamaica and Britain helped to make the planters' continued defence of slavery impractical and contributed to the emancipation of enslaved people in the 1830s.