In this thesis I investigate the narrative rendering of urban experiences and the place of agency within these renderings, looking in particular at the personal stories of urban dwellers. Grounded in anthropological fieldwork in Britain - in the town of Romford (Essex) to the east of London - but also relying on written sources on British social realities, this thesis challenges the idea and practice of a traditional place-based ethnography, calling in turn for an anthropological appreciation of the individual writing of human experience. This I define as the considered ordering of the forms in terms of which individuals experience their lives. I recognise that such ‘writing', conceived as a cognitive pursuit, is possible within speech and not, as some may have it, the exclusive preserve of literary culture. In allowing that individuals may exercise authorship over their lives in this way, I find it is possible, as well as potentially illuminating, to compare individuals' writings, their personal accounts of their lives, with other genres for writing the reality of urban and peri-urban milieux in Britain. I hear significant correspondences between each story-genre, especially as regards the impacts of town planning on urban space for the populations that inhabit it, and discuss the possible theoretical implications of this correspondence. I focus extensively on two such genres in addition to personal stories: the sociological - examining Michael Young and Peter Willmott's sociological classic text ‘Family and Kinship in East London' - and the literary - a reading of the work of English poet and journalist John Betjeman. Running through the thesis is also an appreciation of the figure of the amateur, both as a real actor and as a metaphor for the postmodernist approach to culture to which I also subscribe.

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This study was designed to determine (a) the extent of the coverage in total wordage; (b) the direction and intensity of the articles; and (c) the impression conveyed by each newspaper toward the two main parties of the war. The findings show that (a) The New York Times devoted nearly twice as many words to the war as The Times of London; (b) the majority of the articles were neutral; (c) The New York Times was more favorable to the leftists and was as favorable to the rightists as The Times of London; and (d) the two newspapers were consistent in direction, and all deviation from neutrality remained within the limits of mild intensity.

This study of the Philanthropic Society (later the Royal Philanthropic Society) sets out to explain how it survived during many shifts in thinking about the treatment of juvenile offenders in nineteenth-century Britain. The study also pays particular attention to relationships between the Society and the state, showing how the Society was gradually drawn into dependence on the state. The thesis begins with an overview of the Society's work prior to its decision to move from London to Redhill in 1849. Next it proceeds to a close study of the Society's work until the end of the century. The decision to concentrate on the Redhill Farm School reflects not only changing views about the reformation of young offenders, but also the financial imperatives which forced the Society along paths shaped by the state. Close attention is paid to the way Parliamentary inquiries and commissions, which in the mid-Victorian period tended to laud the Society as a model, later criticized it for lagging behind advanced thinking. Interwoven within this narratives are descriptions of the specific measures the Society took for training and caring for boys at Redhill. It explores the nature of unpaid labour, training and discipline enforced at the farm school. It also examines the variety of subjects taught during the years a boy would spend working within a strict discipline, and the methods used to enforce such discipline. Another subject worthy of extended consideration is the Society's enthusiasm for emigration to British colonies following a boy's term of incarceration. The thesis closes with an examination of how and why the Society lost its reputation as a leader in the treatment of young offenders in the late-Victorian period, as government imposed new rules and regulations. The overall argument is that the Society born as the result of moral panics about children at risk became a long-term survivor as the result of partnerships with the state.

Bibliography: leaves 598-620.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Full text release at OhioLINK's ETD Center delayed at author's request

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Sir John Soane (1753--1837) is an intriguing character. This architect has transformed his London House into a Museum. The only thing we have left of him is the House and three Descriptions of it. I will not try to put apart what Sir John Soane has done in his House but see what he has done. Soane invites us in the House, lets you visit it and be lost. Once you have dived, accepted the invitation, you have found a house full of art objects gathered to teach architecture. Art and architecture meet. The experience is haunting. Through it the architect rediscovers the story of objects to identify, the everyday story he builds. The experience of the House is a mirroring of Soane's mind. The House which makes the architect understand his projection upon others. The amplitude and generosity of his vision becomes history.

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Bibliography: leaves 598-620 / 620 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, 1989