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xi, 711 leaves ; 30 cm / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of History, 1980

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The thesis examines the transformation of popular leisure in mid-nineteenth century England, with special reference to the various schemes of 'rational recreation' whereby social reformers attempted to control the content and direction of cultural change. The movement aimed to improve the conduct of working-class leisure in such a way as to promote moral progress and class reconciliation. Through the philanthropic -provision of new recreational amenities and the fraternal encouragement of middle-class superintendants, the workers were to be immunised against the corruptions of their own culture and instructed in the social values and disciplines of their betters. After giving account of the state of popular recreations and the genesis of the reform design in the 1830s and-'40s, the thesis examines the developing concept and performance of rational recreation in the context of the rapidly expanding new leisure world which overtook Victorian society from the mid-century on. Following a consideration of the changing practice and rationale of leisure among the middle classes and the implications for social reform, the thesis looks at the increasing activity and debate in reform circles in these years, and examines the influence of rational recreation on working-class culture in three specific areas: the reform experiment of the Working Men's Club movement; the promotion of organised games and the new athleticism; and the emergent mass entertainment industry of the music halls. The study is based on extensive reading in contemporary periodicals, the specialist press, government reports and social commentaries on working-class life, and draws on local evidence from Bolton, Lancashire. Rational recreation enjoyed some success, but working-class leisure retained a strong class identity and resisted any comprehensive conversion to the bourgeois value system. While recognising that popular recreations increasingly conformed to the patterns required by a maturing urban industrial society, the thesis concludes that such adjustments owed more to an internal process of largely autonomous adaptation and growth in working-class culture than to the direct influence of reformers who were, in any case, ill-equipped to overcome the social distance between the classes which remained a pronounced feature of English leisure. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

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This thesis compares criminal defences of insanity and idiocy between 1660 and 1830 in northern England and southern Scotland, regions which have been neglected by the historiographies of British crime and "insanity defences". It is explained how and why English and Scottish theoretical principles differed or converged. In practice, however, courtroom participants could obtain to alternative conceptions of accountability and mental distraction. Quantitative and qualitative analyses are employed to reveal contemporary conceptions of mental afflictions and criminal responsibility, which provide inverse reflections of "normal" behaviour, speech and appearance. It is argued that the judiciary did not dictate the evaluation of prisoners' mental capacities at the circuit courts, as some historians have contended. Legal processes were determined by subtle, yet complex, interactions between "decision-makers". Jurors could reach conclusions independent from judicial coercion. Before 1830, verdicts of insanity could represent discord between bench and jury, rather than the concord emphasised by some scholars. The activities of counsel, testifiers and prisoners also impinged upon the assessment of a prisoner's mental condition and restricted the bench's dominance. Despite important evidentiary evolutions, the courtroom authentication of insanity and idiocy was not dominated by Britain's evolving medical professions (including "psychiatrists") before 1830. Lay, communal understandings of mental afflictions and criminal responsibility continued to inform and underpin the assessment of a prisoner's mental condition. Such decisions were affected by social dynamics, such as the social and economic status, gender, age and legal experience of key courtroom participants. Verdicts of insanity and the development of Britain's legal practices could both be shaped by micro- and macro-political considerations. This thesis opens new avenues of research for British "insanity defences", whilst offering comparisons to contemporary Continental legal procedures.

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