Respectability Bankruptcy And Bigamy In Late Nineteenth And Early Twentieth Century Britain

Respectability, Bankruptcy and Bigamy in Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth-Century Britain explores the vexed question of middle-class respectability in Victorian and Edwardian Britain. It focuses upon the life of London solicitor Hamilton Pawley (1860–1936), who was barred from working by the Law Society, twice declared bankrupt, and in 1919 was sentenced to eighteen months’ imprisonment with hard labour for bigamously marrying a woman practically forty years his junior. If Pawley did not suffer the revenge of respectable society, it is difficult to think who would. Drawing upon the fact that the disgraced and the disreputable have always tended to attract a disproportionate amount of attention, the book ranges widely, exploring such important issues as middle-class education, career choices, the dynamics of family life, and the workings of the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century legal system. It shows that Pawley was able to hold on to his professional – and even gentlemanly – status for far longer than seemed likely. This all suggests, the book concludes, that although respectability was as important to the middle class as we have always been told, it was both easier to acquire and easier to retain than we have generally been led to believe. This book will appeal to all those interested in British society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The period from 1957 to 1988 was transformative for the international oil industry. The United Kingdon, home to two major oil companies, British Petroleum (BP) and Shell, as well as the possessor of large quantities of oil and gas in its territorial waters, was at the heart of this transition. While famous for its liberal policy toward oil and gas production, both before and after the discovery of North Sea oil and gas, this period actually saw the United Kingdom respond to shifts in power from the major oil companies to the oil-producing states, many of them in Organization of Petroleum Exporting Companies (OPEC), by building up its competency regarding oil matters. This took the form of efforts to influence the activities of BP and Shell abroad as well as in creation of a state-run oil company, the British National Oil Corporation, in an attempt to exercise greater state control over oil and gas production and distribution. The failure of these efforts was driven in part by internal divisions within Whitehall, the efforts of the oil companies themselves, and ultimately the political will of the Conservative Party under Margaret Thatcher to get the state out of the business of oil and gas.

This book uses the ‘strategic-relational approach’ to explain how the Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown integrated the United Kingdom into the US ballistic missile defence system in order to maintain national security and to uphold the ‘special relationship’ while at the same time recognising that voters were in general opposed to missile defence. Labour’s Ballistic Missile Defence Policy 1997–2010 examines how the Labour administration was tasked with navigating a domestic political environment in which they had to appear tough on defence in general in order to appeal to a broader range of the electorate while recognising that voters were opposed to missile defence in particular. This book seeks to answer the question of why the centre-left government of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, elected on a mandate of multi-lateralism in international relations and espousing an ‘ethical dimension’ to foreign policy, committed the United Kingdom to US ballistic missile defence – an internationally divisive military project associated with the US Republican Party and George W. Bush in particular. This book is essential for students and researchers interested in British military history, international relations, strategic studies, British politics, Labour politics and political theory.

During the nineteenth century Liverpool became the heart of an international maritime network. As the 'second city' of Empire, its merchants and shipowners operated within a transnational commercial and financial system, while its trading connections stimulated the development of new markets and their integration within an increasingly global economy. This ground-breaking volume brings together ten original contributions that reflect upon the development of the city's business community from the early-nineteenth century to the outbreak of the First World War with an emphasis on the period from 1851 to 1912. It offers the first detailed analysis of Liverpool's merchant community within a conceptual and historiographical framework which focuses on the economic, social and cultural role of business elites in the nineteenth century. It explores the extent to which business success was predicated on the maintenance of networks of trust; analyses the importance of business culture in structuring commercial operations; and discusses the role of ethics, trust and reputation within the changing framework of the business environment. Particular attention is paid to the role of women and the important contribution of the family to commercial success and the maintenance of social networks. Changes in business practice and social networks are also examined within a spatial context in order to assess the impact of the development of a distinct commercial centre and the clustering of commercial activity on interaction, reputation and trust, while particular attention is paid to the effect of suburbanization on existing associational networks, the social cohesiveness of business culture, and the cultural identity of the merchant community as a whole.

This book examines British and Argentine media output in the prelude to and during the 1982 Falklands/Malvinas Conflict and acknowledges the aftermath and legacies of the media response. Yards of ink have been spilt, reinforcing the view that the Argentine Junta’s action on 2nd April 1982 was a ‘diversion’ from domestic tensions. This view, coupled with the paucity of any thorough, in-depth analysis afforded to Argentine media aspects of the War - particularly the press - necessitates this volume’s copious international study of the Conflict. Uniquely, US media output is also analysed alongside Britain’s and Argentina’s, all drawing upon Cold War historiography and media theory, with a view to contesting the traditional consensus that media outlets merely reflected government opinion during the Crisis, providing almost no effective dissent. Asserting media and culture influenced the climatic decision-making process of key actors in the Conflict, this book’s triangulated approach explores the integral, influencing role played therein by culture, and how it was not only instrumental to government actions, but also to Argentine, British and US media output. This book’s revisionist approach makes it a reference point for any nascent research on Falklands/Malvinas media reporting and Argentine and international approaches—particularly the US—to the 1982 Conflict.

Taking place in 1982, a major event in both post-colonial history and the final phase of the Cold War, as well as a cultural touchstone for two different countries, the Falklands/Malvinas Conflict is one of the most important events of the last two decades of the twentieth century. This volume builds upon the aims of the international Falklands/Malvinas Conflict’s thirty-seventh anniversary conference held at The University of Manchester on 25th and 26th April 2019, examining both Argentine and British sides of the conflict, as well as joining together the voices of the Falklands/Malvinas veterans with those of Falklands/Malvinas commentators, teasing out the multifaceted nature of the conflict. This allows readers to connect first-hand veterans’ accounts with academics’ and commentators’ research, as well as providing a larger picture and broader scope of how the 1982 conflict played out and is remembered in not only Argentina and Britain but also the United States, forty years after the conflict. Including previously unheard first-hand accounts of the Falklands/Malvinas Conflict from key Argentine and British participants and combatants, such as Commodore Michael Clapp and Major General Julian Thompson and key members of 2 PARA, this volume offers a unique understanding of the conflict from a range of perspectives. Therefore, this volume is an invaluable resource for students and researchers interested in the Falklands/Malvinas Conflict.

This political history studies the phenomenal growth of the modern British state’s interest in collecting, collating and deploying population data. It dates this biopolitical data turn in British politics to the arrival of the Labour government in 1964. It analyses government’s increased desire to know the population, the impact this has had on British political culture and the institutions and systems introduced or modified to achieve this. It probes the political struggles around these initiatives to show that despite setbacks along the way and regardless of party, all British governments since the mid-1960s have accepted that data is the key to modern politics and have pursued it relentlessly.

This book provides the definitive account of the making of the 1942 Beveridge Report and its influence on wartime and post-war social policy. The Beveridge Report: Blueprint for the Welfare State aims to offer a definitive analysis of the famous document, so influential in the founding of the Welfare State and the National Health Service, which still resonates in current debates about ‘getting back to Beveridge’ and a ‘Beveridge for the 21st Century’. It is based on extensive research into the papers of the Beveridge Committee, official Government archives and the papers of contemporary politicians and groups. Published to coincide with the Report’s 80th anniversary, the book is treated as a case study in policy formulation during the 1940s. Key features of the book include The first systematic review and assessment of the work of the Beveridge Committee and the evidence submitted to it Detailed analysis of the enthusiastic reception of the Report and the government’s lukewarm attitude A full survey of the detailed planning for welfare reform and Beveridge’s role when excluded from it An assessment of the influence of Beveridge upon the creation of the Welfare State by Attlee’s Labour Government This important book will be of interest to scholars of twentieth-century British, social history, political history and contemporary politics and comparative health and education systems. Derek Fraser is Emeritus Professor at the University of Teesside, where he served as Vice-Chancellor for 11 years.