Prime minister H.H. Asquith’s flawed handling of the third Home Rule Bill, the apparent exhaustion of the Irish Parliamentary Party leaders’ initiative, and the electoral decimation of the Liberal and Irish parties in the general election of 1918 are historical problems that have persisted since the publication of George Dangerfield’s The Strange Death of Liberal England. A pervasive scholarly focus on the question of Ulster and the negotiations of British politicians to find a solution has left comparatively unexplored the Liberal/Irish nationalist political dynamic. This thesis examines the political manoeuvrings of the third Home Rule crisis from this unconventional perspective, and considers less extensively researched primary source material. It considers efforts to reanimate the issue of Irish self-government in Britain, and argues that the identification of Home Rule with British democracy caused Liberal enthusiasm to flare in 1914. The thesis presents evidence that the Irish Party leaders were much more strategic in their thinking than has been appreciated hitherto, and that John Redmond thwarted efforts at collusion between Asquith’s government and the Unionist opposition. It also suggests that seeds of the electoral disintegration of the Liberal and Irish Parliamentary parties may be found in the third Home Rule crisis, when the actions of the parties’ leaderships radically diverged from the aspirations and expectations of their respective political constituencies.

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This thesis examines the emergence of church cricket clubs in Halifax and the Calder Valley between 1860 and 1920. It encompasses the years of mature factory-based industrial society following Chartism as well as the upheavals of the Great War and its immediate aftermath. Though a period of relative tranquillity, from 1873 the staple textile trades began to stagnate, bringing economic uncertainty only partially offset by industrial diversification and a brief post-war revival. From the mid-1880s this brought ndustrial unrest and the emergence of labour politics. Churches, having experienced growth, were also betraying signs of decline towards the end of the century. Their role in welfare and education was being eroded and denominational influence on party political allegiance was being replaced by that of social class. And yet, religious organisations became the area’s biggest single source of popular organised cricket during its crucial formative decades. This study evaluates why, from such an unpromising situation around 1850, religious bodies became involved in cricket and what were the nature, extent and relevance of this. It addresses several key questions. What was the contribution of clergymen? Who were involved in the clubs and what did this mean for them? What was the significance of grounds and their development? How did the clubs finance themselves? What did their rules reveal? What part did they play in their local communities? Within these themes will be evaluated crucial factors such as social class, gender, religious denomination, identity, topography and demography as will important concepts such as cultural diffusion, muscular Christianity, social control and secularisation. This thesis shows that church sponsorship provided the platform for mainly working-class agency in developing cricket clubs. This agency manifested itself in a mutualism and self-reliance similar to that of the highly popular and consciously independent organisations such as Friendly Societies and Co-operatives, which operated in the same arduous economic context. Nonetheless, at a time when workers were becoming increasingly assertive in the world of industry and politics, church cricket exhibited class co-operation and harmony. Moreover, greater genuine popular adherence to ecclesiastical organisations was found to exist than has often been allowed. Those cricket clubs that became established initially reinforced their churches’ identity, helping them to retain a profile in their localities, and so retard the advance of secularism. However, as those clubs’ cricketing potential grew, they became ever more a part of their wider communities. This situation was aided by their crucial fundraising entertainments, which often secured a place in their districts’ social calendar. Increasingly the clubs became an alternative attraction to the church in their communities and ultimately a small agent of secularism. It is, in summary, contended that church cricket in Halifax and the Calder Valley was more the product of industrial society, and the adaptation of ordinary men and women and their culture to that society, than it was of muscular Christianity or clerical influence.

John Trussell of Winchester (1575-1648) was a poet, historian and civic official. His life and works have been little studied, but they are broad in scope, and provide a fascinating insight into early modern religious and political affiliations and the role that manuscript literature of several kinds could play in provincial urban society. Using his extensive unpublished writings as well as printed works, this, the first full-length biography of Trussell, describes his career and the place of literature within it. Trussell’s participation in the pro-sport poetic anthology Annalia Dubrensia, his youthful association with the Jesuit Robert Southwell, the influence of Justus Lipsius’s thought on his own, and the development of his civil war allegiance are critically examined. The thesis shows how the few scholars who have written about Trussell’s literary activities have often tended to form judgements based on a simplified picture of clashing early modern dichotomies, and aims to redress the balance by telling the story of his life in detail, so that the nuances of his attitudes can emerge. It contends that chronological narrative biography is the best tool for understanding the complicated reality of early modern lives, enabling historians to transcend the constraints of scholarly paradigms and established historiographies and achieve a holistic understanding of the way early modern individuals participated in the life of their society.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Comparative Literature / Master / Master of Philosophy

The following pages contain a study of the British media coverage of freemasonry in the twentieth century. They consider how and why the public image of freemasonry changed from that of a highly-respected elite organisation, at the centre of public life in 1900, to a position on the fringes, regarded by many with suspicion and disapproval in the 1990s. They focus on national newspapers only. This thesis describes how the press projected a positive message of the organisation for almost 40 years, based on a mass of news, which I believe - and show - emanated from the organisation itself (making it an unexpected pioneer in modern public relations practice). It concludes that the change of image and public regards which occurred during the twentieth century was due, mainly, to Masonic withdrawal from the public sphere. It considers - and finds wanting - the suggestion that this withdrawal was a response to Fascist persecution and it offers a number of additional explanations. Freemasonry's reluctance to engage with the media after 1939 powerfully assisted its critics, who grew in strength as a result of developments within the media and the churches. Within the media, greater competition spawned a more challenging form of journalism and accelerated the decline of deference. The rise of secularism and religious pluralism in Britain provided Christianity with increases competition and led some adherents to re-define freemasonry and treat it as a rival. "Conspiracy culture" remained strong throughout the period, rendering the secrecy of freemasonry a major handicap to public understanding. The history of freemasonry in twentieth century Britain is largely an unexplored field and, in examining the fraternity's media profile, this study also illuminates the organisation's collisions with nationalism, communism, and state welfare provision.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-07, Section: A, page: 2707. Adviser: Mark D. Steinberg. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 176-193) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

The 1958 crisis in Lebanon was a significant event in modern Middle Eastern and international history. Interpretations, however, overlook or subordinate the Lebanese dimensions and how the Lebanese interpreted crisis and causation, through the lens of established community mythologies. Lebanon contains different, confessionally-defined communities, with a long history of tensions and clashes between them. Examination of these enables the Lebanese dimensions to the 1958 crisis to be given due weight. While regional and international dimensions are of clear importance, the crisis resulted from internal Lebanese factors, long and short term, relating to the different communities, rather than to the impact of international issues such as Nasserism. Where such issues were significant it was because they were not imposed, but invoked by Lebanese elements in the name of Lebanese foreign policy, in order to further their own cause and agendas for Lebanon. The mythologies surrounding the 'historical' evolution of the communities helped shape the differing agendas for Lebanon. Of the communities, the Maronite community and its invocation of mythology has played a consistently significant role. The Druze and Sunni, were, at different times, of significance also, particularly in terms of relations with the Maronites. These groups used their interpretations of the 'history' of Lebanon to justify their agendas for the future of Lebanon, and in so doing, helped to precipitate a crisis. The political compromise set up to administer Lebanon was based on 'historical' assumptions and differences, and was consequently vulnerable. In this context, the role of Chamoun in escalating the ever-present level of intercommunal tension, in 1957 and 1958, is another major element in the study. The study uses a range of sources, including official and private papers, unpublished memoirs, oral evidence and newspapers, to map communal feelings and tensions leading to the crisis itself, and its resolution.

"Ich suche ein unschuldiges Land": Reading History in the Poetry of Ingeborg Bachmann" reads the discourse on fascism as one among multiple discourses in the poetry (1948-1967) of the postwar Austrian writer Ingeborg Bachmann. In Chapter One I position myself in relation to previous work on Bachmann's poetry, as I argue for a reading of her poetry that examines her engagement with the legacy of National Socialism. Chapter Two presents a reading of Bachmann's early poems (1948-1952), in which the poetic subject can be seen flying over a ruined "landscape of history," recalling Walter Benjamin's angel of history flying over debris and rubble. Historiography and historical discourse were as much in rubble as the physical landscape of the former German Reich; the imposing structures that had previously dominated the figurative landscapes of history and literature were in ruins. In Chapters Three and Four, poems from Die gestundete Zeit (1953) are examined in the context of a gap in historical discourse during the early 1950s--a period in which this discourse is suspended because of "das Unsagliche" of National Socialism. The poems discussed in Chapter Four, although dealing predominantly with poetological questions, also represent a self-reflexive "Engagement" with the legacy of National Socialism in the "afterbirth of horrors." Chapters Five and Six are devoted to Anrufung des grossen Baren (1956). Chapter Five focuses on landscapes of night and darkness as metaphors for the aftermath of National Socialism. The second part of the chapter explores the concept of an "unbeschriebenes Land," and the nexus of guilt, memory, and language that are brought together in these poems. The sixth chapter discusses Bachmann's presentation of Italy as an anti-idyll that forbids the possibility of escape from history into an "unschuldiges land" (Ungaretti). The final chapter treats the late poems (1957-1961; 1964-1967) that have traditionally been read as signaling Bachmann's "Sprachkrise," but which also problematize what it means to write "das unbeschriebene Land." Like Benjamin's angel, the poetic subject of Bachmann's poetry, very often flying over this landscape of history, seeks the "unschuldiges Land" but ultimately articulates the impossibility of innocence and nationhood.

<p>This thesis argues that it is productive to consider playthings, playmates, playgrounds, and play practices as constituting a set with shared design characteristics. </p><p> Before turning to the case studies that lead to the principles of play design, we must first address two foundational methodological points: </p><p> First, in order to analyze something as play, we must be able to speak constructively about play itself, which is a bewildering subject. In chapter 1, <i>Play</i>, we review the literature on play, reconciling multiple perspectives and definitions, and distill seven play characteristics that underpin the thesis. </p><p> Second, in order to analyze software, we must have methods for doing so. Chapter 2, <i>Software</i>, advances an analytical framework for this purpose. This is a methodological contribution to the nascent field of software studies, which seeks to interpret the semi-visible infrastructure of computing that mediates modern life, from our bodies and our most intimate relationships to our public and political lives. To link software to play, I introduce an additional analytical framework for considering software as a resource for play. </p><p> Will Wright created <i>SimCity</i> to amuse himself and learn about cities. To build it, he appropriated from multiple traditions in which computers are used as tools for modeling and thinking about the world as a complex system, most notably system dynamics and cellular automata. Wright&rsquo;s make believe play was scaffolded by these software practices, which offered inspiration and guidance, as well as abstract computational primitives for world building. Chapters 3&ndash;5 trace the historical contexts and origins of <i>SimCity</i>&rsquo;s many design influences, from system dynamics (chapter 3) and cellular automata (chapter 4)&mdash;two very different ways of seeing, thinking about, and computationally representing the world&mdash;to <i> Pinball Construction Set</i> and <i>Raid on Bungling Bay</i> (chapter 5). </p><p> Taking up the evolution of software in this way allows us to see how it is formed, what it is made of, and how ideas are embedded within and perpetuated by it. Deconstruction also helps us to understand software as a medium of dynamic representation, a scaffold for thought, an aesthetic experience, and its appeal as a resource for play. </p><p> In Chapter 5, <i>SimBusiness</i>, I give a historical account of <i>SimCity</i>&rsquo;s creation and the social circumstances that shaped its design, and sketch the history of Maxis, the company that marshaled and published <i>SimCity</i>. The trajectory of Maxis offers a parable about play and creativity. We see in Maxis&rsquo;s formation and unraveling the inescapable tension between play and capitalism, and between intrinsic and extrinsic play&mdash;the private autotelic play that innovates and creates, and the public play of player-consumers that pays the bills. </p><p> Chapter 6, <i>SimCity</i>, completes the <i>SimCity</i> case study by considering it as play artifact and experience. Using extensive diagrams that translate and map its code, I perform a close reading of <i> SimCity</i>, explaining how it conjures the illusion of a miniature living city, and how this living world scaffolds play. </p><p> Two non-digital examples round out the play design case studies. In chapter 7, <i>City Building Education</i>, we look at Doreen Nelson&rsquo;s practice of building and role playing model cities with children in classrooms. Nelson&rsquo;s simulation is an excellent counterpoint to Wright&rsquo;s, and their comparison elucidates many play design principles. Chapter 8, <i> Adventure Playground</i>, looks at an unusual playground in which children build with junk, and play with risks and materials, like wood, paint, and nails, that are typically withheld from them. In addition to illuminating principles of play design, the adventure playground tradition reveals play&rsquo;s &ldquo;refructifying&rdquo; (Sutton-Smith 1999) capacity to sweep up everything, even the detritus of civilization, and creatively reimagine it. Conceived amidst the darkness of World War II, adventure playgrounds illustrate how life transcends ruin through play&mdash;an important lesson for the 21st century&rsquo;s unfolding challenges. </p><p> In chapter 9, <i>Play Design</i>, I articulate play design principles drawn from the case studies. The principles are analytical, enabling us to see how play is scaffolded, as well as generative, prescribing design strategies for scaffolding play. This analytical-generative pairing enables us to deconstruct the design of a plaything, and transfer these design techniques to a new project&mdash;a technique that should be of interest to the educators, marketers, and designers of all stripes who have often envied the deep focus, enthusiasm, and pleasure afforded by make believe caves, dungeons, cities, and computationally animated living worlds. Play design is also deeply relevant to new embodiments of computation on the horizon, such as augmented reality and tangible dynamic media. Play is profoundly appropriative, and good play designs teach us how to robustly accommodate unpredictable environments and activities. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)</p>