The folk music movement was an important influence on English cultural life in the years immediately before the First World War. From remote origins in the 1830s and 1840s and small beginnings in the 1880s and 1890s, it suddenly caught the public mood between 1904 and 1914 and for a brief moment it seemed as though a genuinely indigenous and unifying cultural force might have been found. This proved to be a false hope, but nevertheless the movement has survived and has a continuing place in English cultural historiography. This movement, however, has never been provided with a general history, still less one which has tried to analyse what actually happened. Instead, over the past thirty years since 1970 an interpretation has developed based on Marxist political thought and cultural theory. Coming as it does from a political position based on class conflict and hostility towards nationalism, this interpretation is profoundly antipathetic to the phenomenon it has sought to analyse and has been more concerned to condemn than to understand. It has seen folk song and dance in terms of material expropriated from the working class, misrepresented and transformed in order to reflect 'bourgeois' ideology, and then fed back to the working class via their children in the state education system. Its weakness is that it has never been able to prove these propositions. This thesis attempts to undermine the Marxist interpretation and to provide a firm foundation of research for future analysis. Chapter One is a historiographical survey of the literature showing how it has developed and exposing its lack of a research base. Chapter Two is a narrative intended to provide a connecting thread for the analytical material which follows. Chapter Three examines the folk music organisations. Chapters Four and Five challenge the central assumptions of the Marxist interpretation by showing that the material was not exclusively 'working class', that folk music collection and publication was careful and scrupulous, and that the movement never succeeded in penetrating the state education system to any significant extent before 1914.

No description available.

Emphasis in this study is primarily economic, examining the nature and scale of technical progress in the East Riding of Yorkshire in the years of high farming, and the ability and willingness of landowners and farmers to invest in land improvement. A social dimension is added by considering fluctuations in the prosperity of those who owned, farmed and worked the land, but detailed discussion is reserved for labourers. Most of the study's conclusions fall within current thinking though some indicate the need for re-interpretation and revision. It is undeniable that there was significant technical progress in the agricultural industry of the East Riding in the three decades after 1850. This is attested by improved trunk and field drainage in many parts of Holderness, the Vale of York and the Hull Valley; increases in the average size of farms in some of the least efficient areas of the lowlands; the widespread use of new types of machinery and implements, first on the Wolds and later in the lowlands; and the increasingly systematic use of artificial feedstuffs and fertilisers on medium-sized and large farms. However, equally undeniable is the considerable gap between the effort and cash expended in up-grading the agricultural system and practical achievements measured by heavier crop yields, higher productivity among farm workers and the greater efficiency of drainage systems. The main conclusions reached in this study are as follows. First, the farming technology of the 'Railway Age' was applied most extensively on the Wolds. Its application on the clays, which predominated in the lowland areas, was partially successful but was frustrated in many instances by lack of knowledge, conservatism in the handling of new techniques and methods, and the enormity of the physical and legal difficulties in modifying the traditional farming landscapes of the Vale of York and the plains of Holderness. The progress of the middle decades of the nineteenth century narrowed the gap between farming standards on the Wolds and lowlands but Wold farmers still commanded outright superiority by the l870s. Farming developments in the East Riding give no support to the notion of a technological breakthrough in clayland farming; on the contrary they strengthen the notion of a slow evolutionary development in which more farmers over successive generations became acquainted with, and more inclined to use, improved methods. Second, the absence of an 'agricultural revolution' in the 1850s and 1860s in connection with the introduction of cheap drainage, can be traced to several factors, among the most important being high costs and lack of co-operation between estate managements in drainage enterprises. Drainage was not cheap. East Riding evidence indicates that savings were significantly less than those calculated previously. Local landowners also showed little inclination to co-operate in drainage schemes, an essential prerequisite if the problems of entire watersheds were to be resolved satisfactorily. Field drainage was certainly better in 1880 than a generation earlier but the improvement had been piecemeal and was certainly not large enough to underpin any radical change in the quality of lowland farming. Third, despite important drawbacks, estate Managements showed sound business qualities which equipped them to play a determining role in agrarian improvement. The large majority of East Riding landowners involved themselves in improving their estates and were dedicated to the business of farming. This also applies to farmers. Tenants invested in improved seeds, artificial fertilisers and feedstuffs, and occasionally in items of fixed investment like buildings and drainage systems. Most investments were unprotected by farming covenants in the early part of the period and some historians have concluded from this that farmers were either foolish in laying out their capital, or were inclined to caution and lacked the spirit of those farming under long leases. The East Riding study finds no support for this view. Farmers' investments were underpinned not so much by contractual arrangements between tenant and landlord as by informal understandings. A large part of the county's progress in agriculture can be traced to the firmness of landlord-tenant relations. Fourth, there was no smooth shift to grass farming or a mixed farming system more heavily committed to grass and livestock. Corn was less important in the overall composition of East Riding agricultural output in 1880 than at the time of Repeal, but this hides the fact that the acreage under the plough increased in the 1850s and early 1860s, and that the total cereal acreage was fairly stable down to 1880. Farmers were not deliberately unresponsive to price movements which were generally more favourable to livestock producers. For example, there was a high correlation between movements in wheat supply and price in the years between 1867 and 1890. The movement against grass in the early part of the period reflects the absence of a strong price trend in corn, loyalty to wheat, and a determination to see reasonable returns from investments in the drainage of arable land. Finally, and at a social level, the standard of living of agricultural labourers rose between 1850 and 1880 but rural families remained perilously close to the poverty line. The 'Revolt of the Field', which had distinct echoes in the East Riding, is a useful symbol here because at one level the articulateness of its leaders and the movement's efficient. organisation attest to the progress achieved by labourers since the days of Swing. However, at another level, and judging from evidence collected from strike meetings held in villages throughout the East Riding, the 'revolt' still remained basically a protest against elemental poverty. Wages and conditions had improved but a hard winter or a brief period when prices rose faster than wages, still overwhelmed household budgets leaving labourers, even on the Wolds where wages were highest, beholden to farmers and parish officials for basic necessities.

This is a study concerning the social history of paediatric nursing between 1920 and 1970. Oral history data was collected from past nurses of children and from people who had been in hospital as children within the period in question. The study explores the professional orientation of nurses and their role within the micro-culture of the acute hospital, their relationship with doctors on the one hand and with the child and family on the other. It is found that until the later years of the period 1920-1970, paediatric nursing was a regimented discipline, whose professional identity was intimately associated with that of medicine and with notions of 'science' and 'professionalism'. In practice, 'science' meant practicing the 'known way' as described in the literature of the time and which had been passed down by word of mouth and which could not be exposed to critique or review. 'Professionalism' meant being respectful and obedient to senior nurses and to doctors. This created a situation where nursing could not initiate change and as a result, failed to provide social and psychological care appropriate to the child and family. Nursing failed to question and develop its own practice and what changes did take place were the result of other agencies' manipulation of nursing for their own ends. The nurse participants express a strong sense of value for their work history and are proud of what they achieved. Nursing is seen as a demanding and challenging occupation, to which the system of discipline and hierarchy presented most of the challenges. Nursing was an emotionally rewarding area of work, the nurse participants obtaining most satisfaction from being able to 'nurse the child better'. Nurses cared about the children but failed to realise that the emotional neutrality associated with their professionalism was interpreted by the children as a lack of affection. It is found that the child participants tended to be traumatised by their hospital experiences. The cause of this trauma is found to be the way in which nurses practiced according to a scientific and professional paradigm. Unwittingly, this last resulted in the nurses being perceived by the child participants as lacking in affection or emotional 'care' for them as children. Many of the participants remain confused and troubled by this aspect of their experience. By the end of the period 1920-1970 the system of discipline and hierarchy was being disassembled and nursing began to evaluate itself and subject itself to scientific scrutiny. At the same time, paediatric nursing did change to become more child and family orientated and it began to present a more 'human' face to the child patients and their families. These changes are identified with broader changes in society to which paediatric nursing did eventually become aligned.

The work of historians over the past decade has done much to clarify the nature of the impact of cheap imports on British agriculture in the late nineteenth century. A feature of such work has been the emphasis placed on the positive adaptation of agriculture in changing economic circumstances; an emphasis which runs counter to the older tradition of historical writing on this subject. There has, however, been less attention paid to the process by which this tradition came to be established, originating as it did in the contemporary response of public opinion to the fate of agriculture. It was not the economic fortunes of agriculture alone which excited contemporary interest. Rather, it was the effect of these on the role which agriculture played in the life of the nation and the effect on the nature and status of those classes whose incomes derived directly from the land. In fact, for contemporaries, interest lay not so much in the agricultural question as in the Land Question. A general historical literature has touched on various aspects of this contemporary interest in the land and agriculture. It is the purpose of this thesis to attempt a more systematic approach to this interest and, more specifically to examine the problems of agriculture within the context of attitudes towards the land and rural society. Two major themes emerge within this context. The first concerns those most closely involved with the economic and technical aspects of agriculture. It is connected with their appreciation of the need for adaptation and as to how this should be met, or, alternatively, rendered unnecessary. The second is the wider interest in structural change in agriculture as an answer to associated economic, social and political problems. As such, it encompasses the historical background to the variegated schemes of land reform advanced in the late nineteenth century, the nature of these and their relation to contemporary interest in the status of the agricultural labourer. It also raises the questions of the political response to the advocacy of land reform and of the defence of the continued existence of the English land system. Finally, an examination of the historiography of this and later periods reveals the degree to which these two themes have contributed towards a traditional picture of an agricultural system in dire straits.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

In May 1996 the AIDS Council of NSW launched Talk Test Test Trust ???Together (TTTT), an HIV prevention campaign aimed at decreasing risk of infection within gay men???s relationships. The rationale behind TTTT was ???negotiated safety???: that it was safe not to use condoms for anal sex in primary relationships if specific steps were followed. TTTT generated contestation within AIDS Councils in Australia and New Zealand, but also amongst researchers, policy makers and gay communities. Arguments about TTTT and negotiated safety appeared logical and reasonable and did not fall neatly along an Australia/New Zealand divide. This study used a qualitative approach to interview key HIV educators in New South Wales who were involved in the development of TTTT and New Zealand educators who did not promote negotiated safety. This thesis argues that in order to understand the contestation around negotiated safety and TTTT it is necessary to understand the broader social and historical factors that shape HIV prevention contexts and practice. These include factors arising from the epidemic itself (which, to some extent, were responsible for the difference between Australia and New Zealand) such as the increasing complexity of gay men???s risk reduction strategies, the rise of a positive voice, and impact of treatments and factors associated with and the broader context such as the rise and continuing history of a gay political and social movement and associated identity and community formation, and later, fragmentation, changing concepts of love, intimacy and relationships and of risk and the uncertainty, anxiety and fear from living in a complex individualised detraditionalised world. This approach will show that a focus on a dynamic epidemic, and the broader social and historical context can shed light on arguments made about negotiated safety and TTTT. Further, applying Bourdieu???s formulation of the complex interaction of habitus, fields and practice (1977) makes sense not only of the arguments made about negotiated safety and TTTT, but of educator practice and of HIV prevention, of the broader HIV and AIDS sector, and of how societies continue to learn to live with and adapt to the epidemic.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Nebraska, 1906. / Bibliography: p. 99-103.