The mid-nineteenth century has been presented in popular and academic narratives as a crucial period in the history of modern leisure in Britain, as urbanisation and changes to working hours provided new opportunities for recreation. These leisure practices shaped individual and collective identities. However, much of the scholarship in this area has focused on class, at times marginalising or overlooking themes such as gender, generation and sexuality. This thesis does not attempt to dismiss class as a useful tool for historical analysis, nor does it suggest that leisure did not feature at all in the formation and performance of class. Instead, it demonstrates that leisure played a powerful role in shaping masculinity. Men used specific leisure practices to construct, conceal and express different aspects of their male identity. The character, materiality and spatial dynamics of recreational sites helped men to move fluidly between different roles, in doing so asserting their own version of masculinity. Examining sites of leisure helps reveal these processes, as well as extending our knowledge and understanding of everyday life in the mid-nineteenth century. By doing this, the thesis argues that historical engagement with gender formation has to take place at the intersections of themes and methodologies, be it liminality and domesticity, emotion and space, or sound and space. This thesis presents a micro-history case study of leisure in Stalybridge, a textile town in the north west of England. Leisure practices in mid-nineteenth-century Stalybridge reflected the newness of both the town and the idea of leisure itself; as the town’s inhabitants sought to make sense of their newly urbanised and evolving environment, social and economic changes brought about an increasingly accessible and compartmentalised area of everyday life. Leisure thus shaped – and was shaped by – Stalybridge’s built-environment, place-identity and wider geography. Local writers drew on Stalybridge’s proximity to the countryside of the Peak District and southern Pennines in their depictions of the town, emphasising the opportunities for outdoor pursuits this presented. In calling attention to leisure, these authors attempted to shift focus away from industry as the central tenet of the town’s identity. Alongside its focus on gender and place-identity, the thesis makes two further key contributions to the study of identity and experience in the mid-nineteenth century. First, it engages with the recent ‘affective’ turn in history to uncover men’s emotional experiences. It reconstructs the walking practices of Stalybridge schoolmaster James Knight to show how he used this leisure practice to organise romantic encounters, form homosocial networks, and grieve in private. Secondly, a recurring theme is the unfixed nature of sites of leisure, from the liminality of the pub to the contested nature (or ‘in-between-ness’) of Stalybridge itself. This focus on liminality demonstrates that the past is not fixed, because people and places in the past were not fixed themselves. Recognising specificity and subjectivity in our research is thus vital to uncovering and understanding authentic experiences of the past. The thesis looks at three distinct leisure practices. Chapter One examines the liminality of the mid-nineteenth-century pub, arguing that, for young men in particular, these were sites of surrogate domesticity. It also challenges negative stereotypes of the Victorian pub, emphasising the diverse functions they fulfilled and the plurality of drinking cultures. Chapter Two discusses the prevalence of music in the mid-nineteenth-century urban environment, as well as its centrality to how Stalybridgeans viewed their town. It highlights the relationship between space, sound and local identity, as exemplified by the discourse surrounding the suitability of the town hall as a concert venue. Chapter Three argues that walking for leisure helped people both acquire and utilise knowledge of their surroundings, abetted by the inherent rhythmicity of that act. It also presents walking as an everyday act that played a crucial role in shaping and progressing key events and relationships in young men’s lives.

In this dissertation, I use methodological approaches from studies of urbanism, oil modernity, nation building, and identity formation to analyze the relationships between urban change, oil, state integration, and the politicization of group identities in the multiethnic Iraqi city of Kirkuk from 1918 to 1968. I argue that, in early to mid-twentieth-century Kirkuk, the oil industry, Baghdad’s policies, and the British neocolonial presence interacted with local conditions to produce the crystallization of ethnic group identities within a nascent domain of local politics. I find that at the time of the formation of the Iraqi state in the early 1920s, group identities in Kirkuk were fluid and local politics did not align clearly with ethnicities or other self-identities. Instead, they were largely subsumed under relations between more powerful external entities. Kirkukis’ political loyalties were based on which entity best served their interests—or, as was often the case, were positioned against a side based on its perceived hostility to their concerns. These political dynamics began to shift with Kirkuk’s incorporation into Baghdad’s domain, the beginnings of the Iraq Petroleum Company’s exploration just northwest of urban Kirkuk, and the end of British mandate rule. The Iraqi central government’s integration efforts exacerbated fault lines between emergent Kurdish, Turkmen, and Arab ethnic communities at a time when the city’s population and its urban fabric were growing rapidly. The oil industry, which provided the livelihood for a substantial percentage of Kirkuk’s population, became the focus of Communist-led labor organization. Consequently, the Iraqi government, the British government, and the oil company attempted to counter Communist influence through urban development schemes. The combination of urban growth and the expansion of discursive activities stimulated the emergence of a distinct civic identity and an accompanying arena of local politics in which Kirkuk’s ethnic communities were deeply invested. After the destabilizing effects of the Iraqi revolution in 1958, a cycle of intercommunal violence began in Kirkuk along increasingly apparent ethnic lines. Escalating conflict between Baghdad and the Kurdish movement for control of Kirkuk after 1958 fueled these tensions further. The reverberations of the revolution’s aftermath are still evident today.

This dissertation maps the roots of systemic inequality within Seattle’s housing market, zeroing in on the residential mobility of Japanese and African Americans over the course of the 20th century. It analyzes the experiences that have led Japanese and African Americans to occupy distinctive positions within the city’s housing market, as they fought for belonging in a segregated city. Though they shared the burden of living in segregated neighborhoods through much of the first half of the 20th century, Japanese and African Americans occupied distinct economic positions within the city. While Japanese Americans far outnumbered African Americans until World War II, the segregation of African Americans within the city followed a separate trajectory. Shaped by the legacy of slavery and the nation’s Jim Crow order, African Americans became increasingly set apart within the housing market. Seeing how Japanese and African Americans have navigated a segregated housing market is crucial to understanding the racial dimensions of Seattle’s development. While the ghettoization of Japanese Americans facilitated their incarceration during World War II, the city’s fixation on restricting black mobility during the 1950s and 1960s opened up spaces for Japanese Americans. Rather than simply refuting the model minority image, this dissertation examines how it came to shape Seattle’s housing market after World War II. The city’s open housing movement brought about fair housing laws but also a renewed commitment to property rights and the exclusion of African Americans. Weak and unenforced fair housing legislation – though it opened doors to those of a particular class – led to growing divides. These divides are explored in the last part of this dissertation, which highlights the dimensions of post-civil rights era segregation and the struggles waged by low-income black renters to challenge the city’s raced, classed, and gendered boundaries.

Entre la fin du XVe siècle et les années 1610, le, le parlement de Bretagne s'installe à Rennes au détriment d'autres candidates au statut de capitale provinciale (Nantes et Vannes). On observe alors une sorte de « renaissance politique » de la ville appuyée sur des attitudes nouvelles de prédation institutionnelle qui visent à atteindre une forme de distinction à l’échelle de la province. Le parlement s’installe définitivement à Rennes dans les années 1560 et contribue à attirer de nouvelles élites qui constituent de nouveaux réseaux de notabilité. Au même moment, la municipalité et le siège présidial voient leur importance et leur champ d'action redéfinis dans les domaines politique et administratif à mesure que le parlement progresse dans ses prérogatives en ville. La thèse tente de démontrer que l’installation d’une cour souveraine et le maintien d’une volonté de distinction accélère le passage d'une ex-Capitale ducale à une capitale servant de relais pour la monarchie, forte de ses institutions mais où l’équilibre politique entre les différents corps constitués est rendu plus complexe. L’intégration du duché de Bretagne au royaume de France a proposé aux élites urbaines des options et des opportunités en termes de discours, de fidélités et d’attitudes politiques et les Rennais se sont positionnés, dans ce domaine, avec une habileté toute particulière. Le processus est en relation étroite avec la composition sociale et professionnelle du corps de ville. La « communauté de Rennes », à l’origine dominée par un groupe de marchands, procureurs et notaires concentrés sur la fiscalité et la gestion urbaine (notamment du dispositif des murs de la ville) s’est enrichie à partir du début du XVIe issus des cours de justice ordinaires (sénéchaussée, prévôté puis présidial). C’est ce groupe à plusieurs composantes qui s’est battu, contre Nantes en particulier, pour que Rennes devienne et demeure la capitale institutionnelle et judiciaire de la province bretonne. / Between the end of the 15th century and the 1610’s, the parliament of Bretagne chose the city of Rennes over others candidates like Nantes or Vannes. At the same time there seemed to occur a sort of political Renaissance of the city linked to new attitudes, like the desire of creating new institutions that aimed to obtain a form of distinctive honor in the province. The parliament settles once and for all in Rennes in the 1560’s and participates to introduce a new elite in order to build innovative webs of notability. In the mean time, the municipality and the siège présidial saw their political responsibilities minored as the prerogative of the parliament was getting bigger in the city. The study tries to show that the settling of the judiciary court and the upkeep of a strong will of distinction speeds up the transition from an ex capital of the Dukes, to a royal provincial capital with the possibility of becoming a representative of the royal power. The city would eventually be stronger thanks to the variety of its institutions but the political balance has become more complex. The integration of the duchy to the French crown generated a series of options and opportunities to the urban elite in areas such as speeches and political attitudes. In this context, Rennes chose its position with a very accurate skill. This process seems to be related to the social and professional composition of the corps de ville. The “communauté de Rennes”, formerly led by a group of merchants, prosecutors or notaries who used to focus on the tax system and urbanism (especially the fortification walls of the city) was enriched in the beginning of the 16th century by new elements from the judiciary courts (“sénéchaussée”, “prévôté” and “siège présidial”). This group with various components led the fighting, against Nantes in particular, to let the city of Rennes become and remain the institutional and judiciary capital of the province of Bretagne.

The prevailing political theory of late medieval England established the wealthiest men as the best able to bear the responsibilities of town governance and protect the common good of the community. Examining three middling towns in Greater East Anglia: Colchester, Ipswich, and Great Yarmouth, this study explores the relationship between the ruling elite and other inhabitants of their towns. Although the ruling elite were distinguished through their wealth and power, they were also active members of their community. Not only did they act to protect the economic and political interests of the community, but they were also invested in their local economies and connected to the other members of their community through legal structures and trust networks. Economic and political circumstances, however, impacted the development of these relationships. Great Yarmouth’s reliance on the highly competitive herring industry created a closely connected ruling elite, whose frequent actions together in defense of the town’s common good along with their regulation of the trade to the benefit of their own self-interests solidified their rule. In contrast, Colchester and Ipswich’s reliance on the cloth industry, which expanded in the late Middle Ages, created a number of opportunities for the ruling elite outside the town resulting in a higher turn over within these towns’ ruling elite. Although they acted to protect the jurisdictional boundaries of the town and were connected to other inhabitants of the town through trust networks, these connections were weaker than in Great Yarmouth. Local circumstances are essential to understanding how late medieval towns were governed.

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This thesis examines the experiences and impact of wartime mobilization in the county of Devon. It argues that a crucial role was played by the county’s elites who became the self-appointed intermediaries of the war experience on a local level and who took an explicitly exhortative role, attempting to educate Devonians in the codes of ideal conduct in wartime. These armchair patriots, defined by the local commentator Stephen Reynolds as ‘provincial patriots’, superintended the patriotism of Devon’s population, evaluating that patriotism against the strength of their own. Through a critical exploration of Reynolds’ definition of Devon’s elite as the police-men and women of patriotism, this thesis reveals the ambiguities, constraints and complexities surrounding mobilization and remobilization in Devon. The evidence from Devon reveals the autonomy of Devon’s citizens as they attempted to navigate the different challenges of the war while they weighed-up individual and local interests against the competing requests that the ‘provincial patriots’ prescribed for them. In many cases, their responses to the appeals and prescriptions from Devon’s elite were informed by what they considered to be an appropriate contribution to the war effort. Therefore, the choice to participate in the measures introduced in the name of war effort in Devon was not a binary one. A tension between individual survival and national survival in the county was apparent in the encounters between Devon’s elite as agents of mobilization and the county’s populace during the war. Through various campaigns of superintendence in order to police the patriotism of Devon’s people, the ‘provincial patriots’ attempted to navigate through the terrain of these competing priorities and resolve this tension. In their endeavours to mobilize Devon’s populace, the authority of Devon’s elite was criticised and they faced constant negotiation between individual priorities and those of the nation. This analysis of the complexity of the Devonian experience of the First World War is sceptical about the ‘total’ nature of the First World War because the war to some Devonians was not the pre-eminent issue and did not absorb all of the county’s efforts. Rather, a significant part of Devon’s population was primarily concerned with individual priorities and that of the county throughout the war years.

In this thesis, a collective urban sector-consisting, in various different guises, of civic governments, urban merchants, and townspeople-is presented as a vital and distinctive component of later medieval English political society. The dynamics of this urban political sector are reconstructed through the use of a modified version of the 'urban systems' approach found in historical geography and economic history, positing that towns are defined by their evolving relationship with one another. Drawing from the municipal records of twenty-two towns, this thesis charts the composition of the later medieval English 'urban system' and the manner in which urban groups belonging to this 'system' participated in a broader national political sphere over four chronological periods-1413-35, 1435-50, 1450-61, and 1461-71. In 1413-35, the highly authoritative and institutionalised governments of Henry V and the child Henry VI fostered vertical relationships between the Crown and a variety of individual civic governments, leading both national and urban political actors to operate within a shared political culture, but not necessarily encouraging inter-urban political communication. This would change in the periods that followed, as the absence of strong royal authority after 1435 renewed the strength of lateral mercantile networks and facilitated the re-emergence of a semi-autonomous inter-urban political community, which saw little reason to participate in the civil wars of the early 1450s that now seemed divorced from its own interests. In the 1460s, however, the financially extractive policies of Edward IV once again gave civic governments and ordinary townspeople a greater stake in royal government, which was reflected in the high level of urban participation in the dynastic conflicts of 1469-71. The developments occurring in these four phases illustrate both the interdependence of urban and national politics in the later medieval period, and the mutability of their relationship with one another.

Of the many powers granted to federal, state, and local governments through the Constitution of theUnited States, eminent domain is possibly the strongest and most imposing, at least as it relates to citizens’ property rights. This dissertation explores several large-scale public undertakings inNew Orleansduring the period from 1929 to 2011 in which the application of eminent domain was necessary to accomplish the government’s goals. This research window will allow the analysis of eminent domain applications from the construction of the Municipal Auditorium through the new medical center projects spurred by the flooding associated with Hurricane Katrina. This timeframe also allows for evaluation of the interaction between planning inNew Orleansand the City’s exercises of eminent domain. By better understanding the past uses of eminent domain and the goals and policies that drove the exercise of this power, researchers and planning practitioners will be better informed in making decisions that will impact the rebuilding and the future ofNew Orleans. The specific cases studied as part of this dissertation are: the Municipal Auditorium (Chapter 2); the development of Public Housing (Chapter 3); the Civic Center (Chapter 4), Bridges and Highways (Chapter 5), the Cultural Center (Chapter 6); and the Medical Center of Louisiana at New Orleans and Veterans Administration Medical Center (Chapter 7). The reason for evaluating all types of projects resulting in the use of eminent domain use inNew Orleansis because all have profound impacts on the communities in which this governmental power is exercised. The primary finding of this dissertation is that the exercise of eminent domain has never been used a principal tool in the implementation of redevelopment proposals in the city ofNew Orleans. All projects throughout the established research period required the use of governmental expropriation authority to complete land acquisition, but in all cases the government’s authority was used conservatively and only when privately negotiated purchases failed.

Esta pesquisa procura elaborar uma história sociocultural da cidade de Sorocaba, no período compreendido entre a década de 1890, quando ocorre a intensificação da industrialização na cidade, e meados dos anos 1940. Assim, o objeto a ser estudado é a própria cidade de Sorocaba nesse período, o que significa pensar a inserção e especificidade da cidade nos fluxos da modernidade, processo histórico pautado pelas transformações e adensamento das relações capitalistas no país. A partir dessa questão, procuro investigar aspectos do desenvolvimento urbano ocorrido em Sorocaba, pensando a cidade como artefato, a partir do estudo de alguns melhoramentos urbanos fundamentais como a implantação do serviço de água e esgotos e a utilização da eletricidade; e as representações, impressões e percepções elaboradas nesse contexto e que interagem com essas transformações. O que significa procurar apreender a fisionomia da cidade. Tais modificações são implementadas pelas elites dirigentes locais e que, por conta disso, constroem uma representação da cidade que a tornaria conhecida como Manchester Paulista. Portanto, o objetivo é analisar e historicizar tal construção simbólica, interagindo-a com outras representações / percepções da urbe, engendradas por diversos grupos, segmentos e classes sociais no âmbito do cotidiano; procurando, desse modo, apreender as múltiplas práticas, formas de sociabilidade, que vão se tecendo entre os diferentes atores no espaço urbano em decorrência das modificações pelas quais passa a cidade durante o período em tela. / The purpose of this research is to create a social-cultural history about the city of Sorocaba, in the corresponding period between the decade of 1890, when industrialization is intensified in the city, and the first years of the decade of 1940. Therefore the object to be studied is the city of Sorocaba itself during this period; the challenge is also to reflect about the entrance and specificity of the city in the modernity flow, a historical process regulated by the transformation and intensification of the capitalistic relations in the country. Concerning this issue, I intend to investigate aspects of the urban development that took place in Sorocaba, so in order to think of the city as an artifact, it is crucial to study a few fundamental urban improvements, like the introduction of the water and drain system and the use of electricity, and the representations, impressions and perceptions elaborated in this context that interact with these transformations. The idea is to search for and grasp the physiognomy of the city. Such modifications are implemented by the local governing elites, which consequently build an image of the city that would become known as the Manchester of São Paulo. Therefore, the aim is to analyze and historicize this symbolic construction, connecting it with other representations/ perceptions of the urbe, produced by several groups, segments and social classes in the daily routine, by this means the endeavor is to grasp the various practices, forms of sociability, that occur among different actors in the urban space as a consequence of the modifications that the city goes through during the observed period.