In assessing the rapid emergence of Middlesbrough as a nineteenth century ‘boom town’, Asa Briggs’ seminal Victorian Cities pointed to the centrality of the early businessmen and industrialists in the growth of ‘a new community’. The Quaker pioneers and the early ironmasters established the manufacturing basis of mid-Victorian Middlesbrough and dominated the Ironopolis’ early business associations, municipal institutions and political organisations. In contrast to the leading mid-century industrialists at the heart of urban governance in the manufacturing town, Briggs contended that the second and third generations of industrialist families failed to fill the void left behind by their retired or deceased fathers, instead abandoning the urban sphere and following the pattern of other English businessmen by choosing to live in the country rather than the town. This apparent urban ‘withdrawal’ aligned with what Wiener has considered a ‘decline in the industrial spirit’ amidst the adoption of a gentrified lifestyle, has been assumed rather than proven, with little exploration of the spatial dynamics of the industrial elites’ interactions with urban space.2 This thesis challenges the extent of elite ‘withdrawal’ by assessing wider spheres of urban governance hitherto underexplored, contributing an improved understanding of the wider social dynamic of urban life and industrial elites with emphasise on challenging the extent of declining urban engagement. Drawing upon newly accessible archival evidence and focusing on late nineteenth and early twentieth century Middlesbrough as a case study, it is contended that this period, most closely associated with declining urban engagement, was instead one of realignment and reconfiguration of urban authority and industrialist participation. By exploring the composition and makeup of Middlesbrough’s charitable, commercial, civic and cultural life during this period, it will be shown how country house-residing elites continued to be engaged with the industrial centre and played an important role by establishing new infrastructure, institutions and organisations. Moreover, through exploring the hitherto underexplored semi-private realm of Middlesbrough’s steel magnates beyond the town in their country estates and the surrounding villages of the North Yorkshire countryside, it is argued the country house and rural sphere served as arenas for extending interactions with urban interests spanning business, associational, cultural and philanthropic activity.

In the summer of 1991, St. Johns Expeditions, a Florida-based marine salvage company, discovered a shipwreck buried behind a shallow reef along the western edge of the Little Bahama Bank. The group contacted archaeologists to ascertain the significance of the discovery, and it was soon determined to be a Spanish ship dating to the 1500’s. The investigation of the shipwreck was entrusted to the author, working for the Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society (MFMHS), a not-for-profit research center based in Key West, Florida. Under the agreement, the collection of recovered materials will remain as an intact collection housed in both Key West and The Bahamas. Between 1992 and 1999, the MFMHS conducted six excavations to examine and document the shipwreck. Approximately 1,500 artifacts were recovered, along with many more olive jar sherds, iron fasteners, and barrel hoop fragments. Careful analysis of the materials found on the shipwreck, along with clues provided by the remains of the ship itself, shows that the sizeable vessel sailed between 1555 and 1575 and had touched at Tierra Firme (Colombia and Panama) before sinking during a return voyage to Spain. By comparing the archaeological evidence to the historical record, it becomes clear that the St. Johns shipwreck can be none other than the Santa Clara, a 300-ton Carrera de Indias trader owned by the famed Spanish mariner Pedro Menéndez de Avilés. While returning to Spain in October of 1564, it grounded on a reef in the western Bahamas and could not be freed. Its cargo of silver and the people on board were safely removed to an accompanying ship, and the Santa Clara was abandoned. Santa Clara comes from a time when the Spanish colonial system had largely shifted from the exploration and conquest of the Americas into a new stage of settlement and commercial development. The physical remains of the ship, combined with its history, reveal a material culture in use as the Americas began to be systematically exploited, as well as the sorts of people who sailed with these ships and what they were doing. With the identity and specific circumstances of the shipwreck now known, it can serve as an important touchstone in the understanding of the early Spanish colonial system.

This is a social and cultural study of preaching in the post-Reformation period, approached through the themes of space, identity and affectivity. Firstly, it reveals a high level of material investment in the spaces for preaching and shows how this expressed a reformed conceptualisation of sacred space and time. Secondly, lay support for preaching is investigated as a social institution and this is contrasted with a case study of conflict caused by preaching. This reveals how preaching could foster both broad and narrow varieties of godly identity, and how these interacted with one another and a sense of local identity and community. Thirdly, sermons delivered in the Pennine area are examined to show how affective responses were encouraged in hearers. By studying preaching in these ways, new light is shed onto the experience of religion at the parish level. It is argued that a wide crosssection of the population supported the preaching of the Word of God in some way and willingly participated in sermon-centred piety. The boundary between a ‘the godly’ and others is seen to be permeable, fluid and plural, and religious conflict explained by contest over the positioning of this boundary. It is proposed that attending a sermon could be an affective experience. The ‘plain’, didactic sermons delivered in the Pennine parishes contained imagery and sensory language, with attention brought onto the body, sickness and healing. Furthermore, the divine presence in worship was located in the unfolded Word, leading to the possibility of a numinous experience during the sacred time of preaching. Finally, some answers are provided to the long-standing conundrum of how preaching ministers were able to fulfil their pastoral roles and maintain the parish as a unit, while at the same time admonishing their hearers, preaching predestination and nurturing the more religiously committed of their flock. It is proposed that this balancing act was less of a feat when the broader appeal of preaching-centred worship, as revealed in this study, is considered. Preachingcentred worship offered the opportunity for pious material expression, social participation and interaction, and contained affective aspects that could be appreciated at various levels.

This thesis examines the role of the Caribbean as a place of refuge, internment and transit for Jewish refugees from Europe during the interwar and Second World War period. It approaches the subject from the different perspectives of the British Government, West Indian colonies, refugee organisations and refugees themselves. It is divided into three parts, the first examining local, national and international concerns of the British Government towards its colonies in the Caribbean. It explores how these concerns impacted on the development of immigration policy in the British West Indies, and how the Colonial Office managed to steer a course between protecting West Indian interests and following Government directives over its refugee policy. The second section traces the vital role played by British, American and European Jewish refugee organisations. It explores their practical involvement in directing refugees to the West Indies, in negotiating entry for refugees with invalid travel documents, and in providing maintenance. It also explores how the West Indies took on greater significance for refugee bodies as the war progressed. Whilst concentrating on their involvement with the West Indies, this section analyses the achievements and limitations facing voluntary refugee bodies during this period. The last section of this thesis considers the movement of refugees to the British West Indies, analysing how much choice was involved in their destination. Particular attention is paid to the experience of internment and attempts to establish Jewish communities. The reactions of British West Indians to the question of Jewish immigration, and to the presence of Jewish refugees is explored within the context of the social, political and economic situation of the British West Indies in the 1930s and 1940s.

This thesis uses a "strategic culture" approach to gain insights into non-nuclear weapon outcomes in Australia, South Africa and Sweden. Strategic culture refers to the ideational and cultural pre-dispositions possessed by states towards military strategic issues. The theoretical aim for this research is to explore the various conceptions of strategic culture offered in the literature and to evaluate the potential benefits of conducting strategic cultural research. Strategic Studies has traditionally been dominated by realist theories, which typically provide rationalist materialist explanations for outcomes. This thesis highlights the relevance of domestic strategic cultural context to strategic decision-making and, in the process, explores the potential inadequacies of non-cultural strategic analysis. It will be contended that strategic culture is illsuited to provide an alternative theory to explain causes of outcomes. Instead it provides an approach for investigating the "cultural conditions of possibility" for strategic decision-making. These will be seen as constituting the assumptions made by theories that pursue rationalist materialist ontologies. Non-nuclear weapon outcomes are potentially problematic for realist explanations by suggesting instances of states not maximising their power by acquiring the most powerful weaponry. This thesis focuses on non-nuclear decision-making in Australia, South Africa and Sweden. In each case it is possible to identify distinctive strategic cultural proclivities which have shaped perceptions of security-material factors. The aim is therefore to provide a thick description of these cultural tendencies and to explore how they affect nuclear decision-making. This will provide insights into why the non-cultural accounts which dominate the literature on these non-nuclear outcomes, might be inadequate. Equally, it will emphasise the value of pursuing a strategic culture approach.

The Historia Francorum oui ceperunt Iherusalem is an eyewitness account of the First Crusade, written by a Provencal priest, Raymond of Aguilers, who accompanied the Count of Toulouse on the Crusade. As such it is an important primary source for the History of the First Crusade. Only ten manuscripts of the work of Raymond of Aguilers have survived, and the main purpose of this thesis has been, by collating these manuscripts, to restore the original text as written by Raymond of Aguilers. The evidence and reasoning which have led the present editor to construct the text herein contained, are to be found in the Critical Introduction. The work of Raymond of Aguilers has twice been previously edited: by Jaques Bongars in his collection of Crusader sources, the Gesta Dei per Francos (Hanover 1611); by various editors of the Academie Royale des Inscriptions et des Belles Lettres in their collection of Crusader sources, the Recueil des Historiens des Croisades; Historiens Occidentaux, (Paris, 1856). These editions are both, however, unsatisfactory, and the present text is the first to be constructed using all the known manuscripts of the work of Raymond of Aguilers. The Historia Francorum has always raised considerable difficulties of interpretation when it has been used as a source for the First Crusade. Recent work has tended to reduce these difficulties. In the Historical Introduction the editor has tried to give an account of the latest research, and to offer his suggestions as to how the Historia Francorum may best be used. The Historical Introduction has another purpose; in preparing the text it has been found necessary to take some account of the purposes and outloot of Raymond of Aguilers. Various matters of special interest, such as Raymond of Aguilers use of other eyewitness accounts of the First Crusade, have been dealt with in the Appendices.

Developing from the recent surge of interest in the Royalist cause during the Civil Wars, this thesis explores the question of how Royalists were portrayed in the press between 1637 and 1646. It addresses the question through textual analysis and specifically examines printed material in an effort to investigate the construction of Royalist identity as well as the peculiarities of Royalist discourse. At its most fundamental level, this thesis seeks to address the issue of Royalist identity, and in doing so suggests that it was predicated on an inconsistent and problematic form of English patriotism. According to the argument presented here, Charles I led a cause that was supposed to protect and champion the core institutions and cultural norms upon which the very nature of Englishness rested. Royalism existed to preserve England from what were perceived as the foreign and anti-English agendas of Parliament. An underlying argument in this thesis is that Royalist print aspired to define and anchor language, with the implication that textual meaning was solidly formed and unquestionable. Royalist text, unlike that of Parliament, was supposed to represent truth, effectively rendering Royalist print a force for stability in an increasingly chaotic world. Alongside its focus on the ways in which the Royalist press tried to fashion an English identity for the King’s supporters, this thesis also explores the image of the cavalier stereotype. It aims not to debunk such a stereotype, but to explore the implications behind it and show how they challenged and undermined the Royalists’ Englishness.

Questa tesi discute il ruolo, la funzione e i significati attribuiti alla montagna in due periodi capitali della storia del Novecento: il fascismo e la Resistenza. Nella prima sezione di questa ricerca ripercorro alcune tappe significative della politica ambientale fascista che aiutano a comprendere l’impatto che il regime ha avuto sul paesaggio montano italiano. Con le sue bonifiche, le migliorie agrarie e il rimboschimento ma anche le semine degli alberi, le cerimonie commemorative nei sacrari della Grande Guerra e le attività sponsorizzate dal nuovo turismo di massa, il fascismo vede nel territorio un originale strumento di autorappresentazione e una grande occasione nel contesto mondiale per definirsi in chiave moderna. Nelle stesse montagne che il fascismo conquista dopo l’armistizio del ‘43 andranno migliaia di partigiani ma con scopi molto diversi da quelli che si erano prefissati i gerarchi del regime, cambiando radicalmente la semantica stessa dell’andare in montagna. Nella seconda parte di questo studio rivisito alcune grandi opere degli scrittori della Resistenza (Fenoglio, Meneghello, Calvino, ma anche Pavese) dalle quali si evince come la memoria del paesaggio della guerra, alla prova col testo, resiste la canonica funzione di cornice naturalistica per incarnarsi in luogo dal quale emerge la coscienza dello scrittore e a cui vengono attribuiti inediti significati simbolici. È il nuovo valore di questa montagna, per la prima volta nella storia letteraria italiana vera protagonista del racconto, a essere qui scandagliato, sia come esperienza concreta sia come metafora dell’esistenza. / Romance Languages and Literatures

This dissertation examines colonial legacies and transnational identities in the works of four francophone writers from Algeria: Hélène Cixous, Zahia Rahmani, Nina Bouraoui, and Boualem Sansal. Their autobiographical and fictional texts focus respectively on the history and memory of a particular minority identity singled out by French colonialism: the Jews of Algeria, the Harkis (indigenous Algerians who fought in the French Army during the War of Independence), the “métis” (mixed-race) individuals, and the “pieds-noirs” (European settlers). The memory of these historical minorities still continue to shape identities in contemporary Algerian and French societies, beset by “wars of memory” about the colonial past and the War of Independence. The writers’ texts confront the official memory and national narratives of both France and Algeria. By employing literature as a tribunal for history and by constructing a memorial discourse dissonant with official historical narratives, these writers not only disrupt the public understanding of Franco-Algerian history, but also blame the French and Algerian governments for their personal or collective tragedies. The political charge is carried within the texts’ particular stories of exile and loss. The four narrators in their respective texts are like orphans of Algeria displaced in France mourning the double loss of the Algerian land and their father, who embodies the country of origin. / Romance Languages and Literatures

Puritans entered a novel position of power in the early 1640s. Their attempts to ‘combat’ heretics and further reform in the 1640s/50s were impeded by the dismantling of legal and ecclesiastical apparatus previously employed against them. Influential Presbyterians and Independents in Parliament, the Westminster Assembly, and the New Model Army, were also divided over defining orthodoxy, enforced conformity to a national Church and liberty of conscience. Chapter one addresses crucial developments in defining and punishing heresy, in the Early Church, and in England, from the first noted burning of a heretic under Henry IV up until the outbreak of Civil War. Existing fractures within Puritanism intensified as lapsed censorship produced an explosion of new or public heterodox ideas. Chapter two explores disagreements over legitimate means of reform and establishing ‘truth’, by examining the case of anti-Trinitarian Paul Best which initiated a Parliamentary Ordinance to enable execution of obstinate heretics. This legislation generated public controversy, especially in print. Chapter three addresses the significance of preaching, fasting and prayer as spiritual means to oppose heresy, and emphasis on collective national responsibility and repentance. Particular attention is paid to the Humiliation for heresy on 10 March 1647. Chapter four compares the differing political and ecclesiological contexts which produced the Heresy Ordinance and the 1650 Blasphemy Act, especially a shift from Presbyterian to Independent dominance in positions of government. The Rump settlement was predominantly shaped by a magisterial Independent vision of reform. Chapter five addresses Interregnum problems with enforcing the Blasphemy Act and upholding liberty offered in the Instrument of Government. The cases of Socinian John Biddle and Quaker James Nayler reveal fears of unrestricted definitions of heresy, and rigidly defined orthodoxy. Overall across these decades, concerns to avoid establishing precedents which could endanger the godly prevented systematic suppression of heresy and blasphemy.