From its establishment in 1966 until its closure in 1999 the Glaswegian fashion design and manufacturing company, ‘Marion Donaldson’, was one of the most successful independent fashion businesses in the United Kingdom. The longevity enjoyed by the company coincided with a period of intense social, political, and economic upheaval in the United Kingdom, the effects of which contributed to the decline and eventual deterioration of the domestic fashion industry by the end of the century. This thesis takes ‘Marion Donaldson’ as its central case study, and uses the history of the company as a lens through which to investigate how the British fashion industry operated in practice, and how individual businesses in that industry collaborated, adapted to change, and coped with the industry’s decline. Structured around what were the four key sectors of the domestic fashion industry – design, manufacturing, sales, and retailing – this thesis demonstrates the importance of small businesses, collaboration, and balance to the industry as it battled decline. By focusing on a Glasgow example, it adds to the existing scholarship on British fashion and business in the post-war period, and goes some way to offering a corrective to those studies that have focused only on London-centric histories. The history of women’s fashion in the twentieth century has been dominated by metropolitan studies of elite clothing, while the history of mass-produced women’s wear and its associated industries have been overlooked. This thesis redresses the balance in this respect through analysis of evidence from the ‘Marion Donaldson’ Collection and the oral testimony of Marion and David Donaldson, owners of the company. In addition to oral history, the thesis builds on current methodology used in dress and textile history, economic history and the history of business and enterprise culture, and applies it to the wider context of the British fashion industry using a combination of surviving artefacts and traditional documentary sources.

This thesis analyses British Jewish identity between 1945 and 1960 through the medium of Jewish youth movements. It argues that youth movements are key sites for the formation and transmission of communal identities into subsequent generations. It entails institutional studies of three Jewish youth organisations: the Jewish Lads’ Brigade, the Victoria Boys’ and Girls’ Club, and the Maccabi Union and is divided accordingly, with chapters devoted to each. The thesis examines the preferred identities that each club sought to impose on their members, using these identities as case studies for the wider British Jewish community. Each chapter addresses issues of national identity, gender, sexuality, faith, ethnicity, Jewish heritage and culture, Zionism, popular music and youth behaviour in order to construct an image of the manner in which various sections of British Jewry perceived their sense of identity. The results of the thesis demonstrate that British Jewish identity was fragmented and heterogeneous, with various sections of the community interpreting the over-arching communal identity in a number of different and at times contested ways. These interpretations were liminal in nature, existing at the boundaries of a variety of sub-identities, and drew on themes that were specific to both British Jews and to wider non-Jewish society, demonstrating that British Jews saw no distinction between the ‘British’ and ‘Jewish’ aspects of their identities. Such interpretations were highly dynamic and continued to evolve in the face of developing circumstances, both within and outside of British Jewry. In exploring the differing communal identities on offer within British Jewry, the thesis also charts the emergence and priorities of a new communal elite and suggests that it is more precise to speak of multiple British Jewish identities and communities than of a single communal bloc.

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As relations deteriorated between the United States and the Soviet Union after World War II, the Truman administration faced increased pressure to preserve United States national security. One of its most important responses to this expanding Cold War was the National Security Act. Passed by Congress in July 1947, this legislation established a new, potentially revolutionary, presidential advisory body--the National Security Council. The primary role of the National Security Council was advising the president concerning matters involving United States national security. It was not until the outbreak of the Korean War and the development of NSC 68 that Truman began to place more than minimal emphasis on the new organization’s recommendations. The implementation of NSC 68 in 1950 revolutionized how United States national security policy was to be conducted. However, besides its role in the development of this one national security paper, the National Security Council wallowed in relative obscurity throughout the Truman administration. It was not until the inauguration of the Eisenhower presidency that the National Security Council began to fulfill the role envisioned by the 1947 National Security Act. This thesis examines the role played by the National Security Council in the development and implementation of United States national security policy during the Truman and Eisenhower administrations. It focuses specifically on the importance of the National Security Council’s basic national security papers in determining policy. It concludes that from a relatively unimportant position in the Truman administration, the National Security Council developed under Eisenhower into an instrumental advisory body where national security problems were discussed, debated, and acted upon. / Master of Arts

Through a study of geopolitical codes, this thesis examines the condition of the Westphalian sovereign state in the post-Cold War world. Focusing primarily on the events of September 11th 2001 and their aftermath, the research questions the sustainability of the state as conceived by (neo)realists in the context of new regional and global actors and the processes underpinning these. From a critical realist perspective the study uses a comparison between Europe, where regionalization is particularly noticeable, and the hegemonic United States, in order to explore how the non-state global terrorist actor and the regional European actor impact upon responses, characterizations and therefore geopolitical codes relating to terrorism. In so doing the plausibility of emerging common European geopolitical codes is considered. The thesis is structured around the discussion of the codes of the United States, Britain and France, in addition to a more limited examination of the European Union. This (neo)realist component is complemented by the use of discourse analysis, a technique more common in critical geopolitics. The analysis is applied to government documents from each of the sample states (and the EU). From this analysis the research determines that each state retains unique geopolitical codes while sharing many components that contribute to their reproduction as sovereign states. Furthermore, although common European codes appear to be unlikely in these circumstances, the European context and imaginations apparent in Britain and France points to a regional dimension. The thesis concludes that the Westphalian sovereign state remains the dominant geopolitical actor, although other actors impinge upon it. This is more apparent in Europe where the regional dimension constitutes an added layer of governance and may signify a move away from the ‘modern’ character of the Westphalian state that continues to be more persistent in hegemonic America.

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M.A. (Historical Studies) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

This thesis is concerned with the development of a Fair Trade social movement in Britain between 1960 – 2000. It situates the analysis of Fair Trade within the context of historical debates about political consumption. It examines the role of the ethical consumer as a political activist and questions whether Fair Trade has led to a new understanding of the meaning of global citizenship. It is argued that contemporary questions about the limitations of Fair Trade as a model for international development should be grounded in an informed understanding of the intellectual and applied origins of the movement. Revisiting the origins of Fair Trade is not only an important academic exercise but provides the movement with an opportunity to reassess its core values. The intellectual origins of the movement are considered with reference to the nineteenth century thinkers and consumer campaigns. Although building on the politics of the past, the messages and organisational structure of Fair Trade represented a new and distinctly modern approach to campaigning more closely aligned with the ‘new social movements’ than traditional labour or consumer politics. The roles of the main actors are explored, including development non-governmental organisations, religious groups, consumer organisations, co-operatives and supermarkets. While acknowledging the consumer at the heart of the Fair Trade movement, it is argued that what is needed is a more nuanced approach to our understanding of ethical consumerism.

This thesis examines the British Commonwealth and Allied Naval forces operation on the west coast during the final two and a half years of the Korean War, particularly focused on their co-operation with the anti-Communist guerrillas. The purpose of this study is to present a more realistic picture of the United Nations (UN) naval forces operation in the west, which has been largely neglected, by analysing their activities in relation to the large number of irregular forces. This thesis shows that, even though it was often difficult and frustrating, working with the irregular groups was both strategically and operationally essential to the conduct of the war, and this naval-guerrilla relationship was of major importance during the latter part of the naval campaign. It concludes that, to the British Commonwealth Commanders and Allied Naval forces on the west coast, a large part of the relationship with the guerrillas during the Korean War could be explained as that involving a compelled co-operation with unreliable partners.