In the aftermath of the Second World War the possession of aerospace technology—missiles, rockets and civil and military aircraft—was one of the hallmarks of a powerful nation, as well as an important diplomatic tool. Britain had a tremendous amount of expertise in these fields. The rise of the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, had transformed the international political and strategic situation. How would Britain use her technology to safeguard her interests in these changed circumstances? How and why did she fall behind? This thesis sets out to investigate these questions and determine the role aerospace played in influencing Britain’s relations with allies and neighbours in a new age. It looks at how she faced up to the dilemma of deciding whether to forge ever closer links with her transatlantic ally or overturn centuries of history by entering Europe. The study examines major British aerospace projects, their relative success or failure and their political legacy. It also looks at some of the personalities involved in the story, to illustrate attitudes to technology in Whitehall, the boardroom and the drawing office. Ultimately, it seeks to explain how the decisions that were made in the post-war decades shaped the country’s eventual destiny. / published_or_final_version / History / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This thesis is a study of a recurring figure or trope of post-war British school stories wherein a ‘radical’ character enters a school or classroom setting to introduce an alternative concept of learning or education. The radical may be a teacher or a student. Teacher types include the tyrannical pedagogue; the ostentatious but ultimately self-serving teacher-sophist; the charismatic, benevolent Master; and the predatory teacher. Representations of the pupil include the loving disciple; the disloyal pupil; the autodidact; and the student-creator whose steals the Master’s knowledge and runs, fashioning new worlds from it. While these types vary from story to story, all modern classroom radicals challenge the way teaching and learning are practised in their educational institutions. In doing so, they reflect on the purpose of schools and the political ambitions behind knowledge construction. The post-war British school story classroom radical asks perennial questions about the modern site of pedagogy. What gives one the right to teach? Why must one be taught? What is true teaching? How should one educate and to what end? This thesis begins with a historical overview of British school story fiction, and argues that this flamboyant school-story character emerges from the debris of World War Two. My thesis moves on to focus on eight key novels, plays and autobiographies: Lord of the Flies (William Golding, 1954), To Sir, With Love (E.R. Braithwaite, 1959), Forty Years On (Alan Bennett, 1968), Black Teacher (Beryl Gilroy, 1976), The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (Muriel Spark, 1981), Another Country (Julian Mitchell, 1981), The History Boys (Alan Bennett, 2004) and Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro, 2005). Chapter One focuses on radical dissent in the 1930s classroom, using Spark’s and Mitchell’s retrospective accounts. Chapter Two considers black teacher radicalism from the late 1950s to the 70s, using Braithwaite’s To Sir, With Love and Gilroy’s Black Teacher. Chapter Three takes the reader up to the 1980s, analysing the containment of radicalism in the figure of Alan Bennett and his work. Chapter Four discusses the limitations of classroom radicalism and the future of the school story radical in contemporary fiction, by examining the earliest and latest of the school stories selected for attention, Golding’s Lord of the Flies (1954) and Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go (2005). In the former radicalism is punished but idealised. The latter imagines a future of such a level of institutionalisation that radicalism in the classroom or elsewhere will have been rendered simply unthinkable. This thesis demonstrates that the radical in the classroom narrative trope is always didactic. Whether or not one is encouraged to agree with the radical, the implicit role of the radical character in the British school story is to educate the reader to think critically about the world and their place within it. Paradoxically, repeated textual examples of the radical’s failure and/or incorporation into the establishment point a type of critical pedagogical radicalism that is inherently conservative. This summation is supported by a brief genealogy of educational discourses and debates in Britain post-World War Two. / published_or_final_version / English / Master / Master of Philosophy

In the 1970s, Taiwan, officially known as the Republic of China (ROC),suffered a series of diplomatic setbacks. Nixon’s visit to Beijing in 1972 preluded the normalization between the United States (US) and the People’s Republic of China (PRC), as well as the estrangement between the Republic of China (ROC)and the US. A year before, Taiwan was forced to withdraw from the United Nations (UN). Many countries then ceased to cooperate with Taiwan and turned to the PRC. This made Taiwan the “Orphan of Asia”. To survive and prevent further isolation, Taiwan rallied support from the international community, especially the US, its old ally. It strengthened propaganda in the US and attempted to build a prosperous and democratic image of itself. It sought to appeal to the American public. This thesis investigates Taiwan’s propaganda activities in the US and explores how the Kuomintang (KMT) government built a favorable image of Taiwan during the 1970s. The most notable propaganda organization of the ROC was the Government Information Office (GIO). The GIO’s overseas branch in New York, the Chinese Information Service, launched propaganda campaigns in the US through organizing political, economic and cultural activities. Although the GIO was centrally responsible for propaganda, the execution of the campaigns was a product of collaboration between various government organizations. This thesis analyzes the GIO’s responsibilities within this network of collaboration. The thesis then explores the variety of Taiwan’s propaganda strategies. The KMT tried very hard to solicit support from different sectors in the US. They appealed to the general public by launching advertising campaigns, cultural exhibitions and art performances. Apart from the general public, they also targeted reporters, members of Congress and scholars by offering material benefits including free trips to Taiwan and academic funding. Several public relation firms were also hired to publicize Taiwan in the US media. Some of these publicity campaigns were even illegal. The overseas Chinese formed a large constituent to the Taiwan government’s propaganda efforts. However, the overseas Chinese were not a singular group of people and recognizing this, the GIO tailored their campaigns accordingly. Taiwan wooed Chinatown leaders by giving them financial benefits and educated Chinatown residents through controlling the Chinese media and Chinese language schools. Meanwhile, the KMT threatened and punished Taiwan Independence Movement supporters in American universities. They also made attempts to re-educate these supporters and their families in and out of Taiwan. Through these activities, Taiwan hoped to create an illusion that the KMT supporters were not limited to people in Taiwan, but included the majority of Chinese around the world. By examining Taiwan’s propaganda organizations and strategies in the 1970s, the thesis aims to expand our knowledge of US-PRC-ROC relations in the 1970s, and show how Taiwan adapted to the changing international environment. / published_or_final_version / History / Master / Master of Philosophy

Not available / text

Not available / text

With the institution of the Moroccan Protectorate by the French in 1912, the military command had as its primary intention that of restoring law and order. Under the strong personality of the "resident general", Lyautey, a new era of "soft" political colonization was introduced in Morocco; brutish military conquests were followed by a certain cooptation process of the Moroccan elite. This association policy allowed the perception of real cooperation between the French and the Moroccans but was actually aimed at the tight regulation of the population. The efficiency of this regulation was achieved through its technocratic approach; it showed respect for the Moroccan Islamic traditions and its institutions. / This study analyses the French colonial policy in Morocco between 1912 and 1925 through the means of reforms introduced into the judicial Islamic system. The author compares the system's organization, its jurisdictions and its procedures before 1912, and their reforms throughout the 1912 to 1925 period, when Lyautey was in command.

No description available.

No description available.

In this thesis, we wish to observe French Canadian literary criticism in 1950, during what is referred to as a "dark age" of the intellectual and artistic history. Hence, we decided to analyze three newspapers literary pages, La Presse, Le Quartier latin and Le Devoir, and a specialized journal, Lectures, published in Montreal. Nowadays, this literary criticism is looked upon as paradoxical and outdated because its aesthetics concerns are bent by morals. Thus, we tried to enlighten its axiological criteria, supported by liberal or catholic ideologies, already enabling very modern aesthetics comments, and by doing so, bring into favor a spread out collection of criticism texts.

This thesis is a discursive and historical analysis of the concept and usage of 'postfeminism' in contemporary feminist debates. The importance of the vocabulary used to frame these debates is demonstrated through a survey of popular feminist discourses in the 1920s, and the circulation of the term 'postfeminism' in 1980s and 1990s mainstream and feminist media, academic journals, and bestselling books. Foremost among these contexts are mainstream newspaper and magazine articles in which postfeminism is used as a descriptive term applied to trends in fashion, television and film. Through an investigation of the texts and contexts in which post feminism is used, associations to generational disparity, antifeminism, the 'death of feminism,' commercialism, and other 'post-' discourses such as postmodernism, will be illustrated. In the process, it will be demonstrated that feminism, as it is represented through discourses of postfeminism, resides in an area of cultural criticism which straddles the spheres of the academic and the popular.