The British media discourse evolved during the first two years of World War II, as state narratives and censorship began taking a more prominent role. I trace this shift through an examination of newspapers from three British regions during this period, including London, the Southwest, and the North. My research demonstrates that at the start of the war, the press featured early unity in support of the British war effort, with some regional variation. As the war progressed, old political and geographical divergences came to the forefront in coverage of events such as Prime Minister Chamberlain's resignation. The government became increasingly concerned about the grim portrayals of the Dunkirk Evacuation in the press, as Britain's wartime situation deteriorated. I argue that as censorship and propaganda increased, newspapers fell into line, adhering to state narratives and uniting behind a circumscribed version of the events that molded a heroic presentation of Dunkirk. Censorship from the government came in various forms, often utilizing softer methods such as the control of information flow and warning publications, which complied in order to appear patriotic and avoid further suppression. My analysis of these papers indicates that this censorship and unity of the press continued during coverage of the Blitz, as the media discourse became more cohesive and supportive of the government's goals.

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This project examines the struggle journalists, editors, and their news outlets faced navigating multiple and changing boundaries between supporting their nations' fight and their need to uphold professional integrity in reporting the news during the 1944 Allied invasion of France, from D-Day (June 6) to the liberation of Paris (August 25), in three key western democracies: Britain, France, and the United States. Viewed holistically, these case studies exhibit how democratic states believed they needed to exact greater control over the press to better control the wartime narrative and ensure the public's belief in the legitimacy of their nation’s fight. Looking at the tensions between state-sponsored propaganda, wartime censorship offices, and the press in these three cases, one of which was bifurcated and therefore even more complicated, we can learn a lot about how state agencies and actors perceived citizens' dedication to the national wartime cause. The two in-tact democracies, Britain and the US, enacted significant control over the press to protect, even shape public morale and support. In Britain, with the war so ever-present, censorship consisted of a partnership between the Ministry of Information and journalists who worked together to protect national security and promote unity. For the US, because the war was so far away, Roosevelt's administration felt it had to control the narrative to overcome long standing isolationist sentiment. France, no longer a democracy but with a deep democratic tradition, highlights how important it was for the government to control the narrative to maintain the people's support and ensure its own legitimacy. Late in the war, the Vichy regime struggled to control the press, particularly as underground, resistance newspapers provided a hopeful counternarrative. In Britain and the US, the public, including journalists themselves, believed in the government's legitimacy and the war’s aims. As a result, news outlets were more willing to follow the rules and do their part for their nation’s wartime cause.

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<p>During the time between Queen Elizabeth I and the Restoration in particular, the foundations of English historical scholarship were laid and modern historical consciousness was born. Local pride was also manifested in historical-antiquarian- geographical accounts of the various regions of Britain, especially those based on county units. This type of study, often called "chorography" by contemporaries, centred on surveys on which local antiquities were often viewed. first hand. It is generally regarded as having been introduced into England by John Leland during the latter part of the sixteenth century, reaching its climax with the publication of William Camden's monumental Britannia, first issued in 1586.</p> <p>The present study examines the work of the chorographers who followed these two men (chronologically, at least), and who have been relatively neglected by subsequent historians and geographers. Here, the character of this literary form as a whole is for the first time set out in detail, i.e., its subject matter and parameters; thus also, many of the individual "regional studies" which are obscure or totally unknown to the scholars of today are examined with regard to the author's background, purpose, attitude, style, etc.</p> <p>In the second half of the seventeenth century, regional study became considerably more realistic and practical than that of the earlier workers in the field, usually concentrating on an examination of the natural--not "merely" civil-history of a region. The impetus for this is traced to t he influence of the activities of the Royal Society , which largely followed the scientific dicta of Sir Francis Bacon.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p> As steam-powered industrialization intensified in mid-nineteenth century Britain, the rate and severity of workplace injuries spiked. At the same time, a range of historical dynamics made working class people individually responsible for bearing the effects of industrial injury and carrying on in the aftermath of accidents without support from state or company. By the midcentury, railway accidents were represented as events that put on display the moral character of individual rail workers and widows, rather than &mdash; as in radical rhetorics of previous decades &mdash; the rottenness of state or company bureaucracies. Bearing injury or loss in a reserved manner came to appear as a sign of domestic virtue for working class women and men, though the proper manifestations of this idealized resilience varied by gender. Focusing on dynamics in the railway and nursing sectors, and in the sphere of reproduction, <i>Infrastructures of Injury</i> shows how variously situated working class subjects responded to their conditions of vulnerability over the second half of the nineteenth century. These responses ranged from individualized or family-based self-help initiatives to &mdash; beginning in the 1870s &mdash; strikes, unionization drives, and the looting of company property. Ultimately, this dissertation tells a story about how working class cultural and political practices were remade through the experience of injury and loss.</p>

<p> This thesis analyzes <i>Plans, Elevations, Sections, and Details of the Alhambra</i> (1836-1842) by British Architect Owen Jones in relation to British conceptions of Spain in the nineteenth century. Although modern scholars often view Jones&rsquo;s work as an accurate visual account of the Alhambra, I argue that his work is not only interested in accuracy, but it is also a re-presentation of the fourteen-century monument based on Jones&rsquo;s ideologies and creative faculties. Instead of viewing the Alhambra through a culturally sensitive, historical lens, Jones treated it as an Imaginary Geography, as Edward Said called it, through which he could promote his interests and perspectives. </p><p> Although there were many British views of Spain in nineteenth-century, this thesis will focus on two sets of seemingly contradictory conceptions of Spain that were especially important to Jones&rsquo;s visual and ideological program in <i>Alhambra</i>: Spain&rsquo;s status as both the Catholic and Islamic Other, and its frequent interpretations through both romantic and reform-oriented lenses. Through a closer look at <i>Arabian Antiquities of Spain</i> by James Cavanah Murphy and the illustrations from <i> The Tourist in Spain: Granada</i> by David Roberts, I show the prevalence of these mindsets in nineteenth-century reconstructions of the Alhambra. Then, I compare portions of these works to plates from Jones&rsquo;s <i>Alhambra </i> to illustrate Jones&rsquo;s similar adaptation of these perspectives despite the visual peculiarity of his work as a whole.</p>

<p> This dissertation investigates the role of <i>El Censor,</i> the essay periodical published in Spain from 1781 to 1787, in challenging government policies and church traditions during the Enlightenment. It argues that the editors and authors of the 167 discursos (essays) criticized social customs and institutions during the last two decades of the antiguo r&eacute;gimen while remaining firmly in their religious faith. The political and historical context of <i>El Censor</i> is presented against the backdrop of the absolutist policies of King Carlos III and the vigilance of the Spanish Inquisition. <i>El Censor</i>&rsquo;s editors and publishers were Luis Garc&iacute;a Ca&ntilde;uelo and Luis Marcelino Pereira, who at first seemed enigmatic because of their political and religious views. Nevertheless, they and their contributors soon identified themselves as veritable enlightened men, who sought to modernize Spain and the Spanish Roman Catholic Church. In the weekly essays, they published their observations of everyday life and the iniquities that existed in the society of their time. Government authorities banned <i>El Censor</i> twice before shutting it down permanently. Afterwards, the Spanish Inquisition placed twenty-three of the discursos on the syllabus of forbidden books. This dissertation presents eight of the banned discursos with English translations and commentaries. More than two-hundred years after <i>El Censor</i>&rsquo;s prohibition, the discursos continue to speak to twenty-first century readers about the absurdities and injustices of society and power. This dissertation gives credence to the study of the religious Enlightenment; it demonstrates that it was possible to be enlightened and a true Christian. It reveals that <i>El Censor </i> held onto idealist views and moral integrity while facing obstacles from government, church, and angry apologists. In the pages of the discursos, there are recognizable characters like Eusebio the pious hypocrite; Calixto the proud, lazy noble; Candido Zorrilla, the baroque fanatic; and Pedro Camueso y Machuca and el equ&iacute;voco. This dissertation reveals several unexpected discoveries that challenge long-held notions about the Enlightenment, the Roman Catholic Church, and Spain.</p>

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The problematic relationship between racism and slavery has occupied the attention of several recent generations of scholars. Too often, however, the works produced have been limited by a reliance on familiar "American" sources, an inflexible temporal scope, and an overly restricted terrain. This dissertation seeks to break out of the confines of this generally teleological and parochial tradition in order to explicate the larger social and cultural context in which Anglo-American racial slavery was forged. In particular, it is argued that racism and slavery were not necessarily linked together in the English imagination before the settlement of Jamestown and that their relationship to each other cannot be understood in either a causative or linear fashion. "Race" and "slavery" are terms that possess specific historical connotations which must be understood in an early modern context in order to grasp the full import of their application and conflation in colonial British American society.;The opening section of this work addresses the multiple meanings and forms of human bondage in early modern England. Particular attention is paid to the legitimacy of slavery in Tudor England, as well as its attendant symbolic value and social meanings. Next, the problem of identity is considered, with a particular emphasis on the efforts of elite Englishmen to reinvent "Englishness" through mythic national histories and climate theory. Then, the issue of English "attitudes" about Africans is addressed. Prevailing ideas about African peoples were neither uniform nor consistent; there were, in fact, multiple stereotypes concerning the role of Africans in the Atlantic world. Finally, the dissertation shifts focus to the Anglo-American world, where the significance of the first three sections is tested. Here, traditional English conceptions of bondage, as well as Iberian and Spanish American conceptions of proper social relations in multiracial societies, were initially employed in the new settlements. These models proved to be confusing, even threatening, when blended in Anglo-American settlements and they were ultimately subverted by the growing importance of race-based plantation slavery. Questions of status and identity among the English were equally as important as prejudicial assumptions about Africans or Indians in shaping the corpus of ideas that supported the Africans or Indians in shaping the corpus of ideas that supported the development Anglo-American slavery.