Twentieth Century British History - current issue

Labour and the Politics of Internationalism, 1906-1914

McNeilly, E. — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:02:12 PST

Historians have traditionally characterized the early Labour party as an insular, ‘labourist’ organization out of sync with the mainstream of European socialism and indifferent to foreign affairs and internationalism. However, this perspective is deeply misguided, as Labour's ‘Big Four’—MacDonald, Snowden, Hardie and Glasier—used their positions of authority in the Labour Party, Independent Labour Party (ILP) and the British Section of the International to place foreign policy and socialist internationalism at the heart of their efforts to further the Labour alliance. This article explores two aspects of the ‘politics of internationalism’: first, the Labour leadership's use of socialist internationalism to legitimate the Labour alliance with trade unions in the face of criticism from the ILP left wing; second, the party's portrayal of itself as a more faithful exponent of a Gladstonian moral foreign policy than the Liberal government. Labour and the ILP were crucial allies in the revisionist and pragmatic wing of the Second International, and these ties allowed the ‘Big Four’ to portray the Labour coalition as in keeping with democratic socialist strategy in Europe. At the same time, historians should explore the possibility that Labour's parliamentary and public interventions on foreign affairs aimed to undermine Liberalism on its left flank by exploiting radical concerns over the Liberal government's foreign policy, particularly its dealings with Russia, to portray Labour as the defenders of the Gladstonian tradition in foreign affairs and, hence, as the only conscionable choice for progressives in the twentieth century.

From Danger and Motherhood to Health and Beauty: Health Advice for the Factory Girl in Early Twentieth-Century Britain

Long, V., Marland, H. — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:02:12 PST

A survey of government reports and the archives and journals of other agencies interested in industrial health in early twentieth-century Britain has led us to conclude that, in addition to apprehension about the potentially harmful impact of industrial work on the reproductive health of women, there was a great deal of interest in the health of young, unmarried girls in the workplace, particularly the factory. Adopting a broader time frame, we suggest that the First World War, with its emphasis on the reproductive health of women, was an anomalous experience in a broader trend which stressed the growing acceptability of women's work within industry. Concern with girls' health and welfare embraced hygiene, diet, exercise, recreation, fashion and beauty within and outside of the workplace, as well as the impact of the boredom and monotony associated with industrial work. The health problems of young women workers tended to be associated with behaviour and environment rather than biology, as were anxieties about the impact of work on morals, habits and character. Efforts to ensure that young female factory workers would be equipped to take their place as citizens and parents, we argue, often dovetailed rather than diverged with the ‘boy labour’ question.

Inventing David Low: Self-Presentation, Caricature and the Culture of Journalism in Mid-Twentieth Century Britain

Hampton, M. — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:02:12 PST

This essay examines cartoonist David Low’s various public self-portrayals between the 1920s and 1950s both as a study of Low’s self-invention as a public figure and as a window into twentieth-century understandings of the function of journalists. These self-portrayals included both relatively abstract discussions of caricature as a craft, various autobiographical writings (culminating in Low’s Autobiography (1957)), and self-caricatures in cartoons. Collectively, they reveal that, despite attempts in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to transform journalism into a well-defined profession or a trade, the narrative of journalism as an open and fluid profession remained salient. At the same time, journalism had gained sufficient prestige that even a caricaturist attempting to project himself as an ‘artist’ found it compelling to argue that his artistry enabled his practice as a ‘journalist’. Low’s portrayal of the ‘artist as journalist’, moreover, championed a particular vision of journalism, an ‘educational’ ideal of the press that appeared increasingly anachronistic in the age of the mass-circulation press. In Low’s telling, caricature offered a way of conveying complex political positions in an ostensibly simple medium. Alongside the advantages of his medium, Low claimed personal qualities, chiefly an antipodean independence and common sense, that accounted for his success as a journalist.

Sincere and Reasonable Men? The Origins of the National Council for Civil Liberties

Clark, J. — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:02:12 PST

The National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL; now known as Liberty) was conceived in the putative anti-left policing of political protest in 1934 but it was actually the result of a chance encounter in the press between Ronald Kidd and Lord Trenchard, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, at the end of 1933. Kidd’s campaign, which centred on the policies and actions of the Commissioner, attracted prominent cross-party backing for a civil liberties pressure group. At the same time, associations with the radical left and ‘fellow travelling’ community ensured the NCCL would be regarded by the authorities as a communist front organization and would fall under the assiduous watch of the security services. Nonetheless, the NCCL became a rallying point for disparate concerns for police powers and civil liberties and contributed to the inter-war culture of non-party politics.

The Progressive Professionals: The National Council for Civil Liberties and the Politics of Activism in the 1960s

Moores, C. — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:02:12 PST

This article examines the work of the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL) in the 1960s. It examines how the activists and policies of the NCCL are accommodated within existing frameworks of political and social activism. Within this period the Council amalgamated traditional civil liberties concerns alongside a new human rights agenda seen as characteristic of emerging new social movements. This politics was pursued in a more formal manner than that envisioned by social movement theorists and was conducted by activists more representative of a narrative stressing the rise of the professional society than that of the middle class radical. The NCCL was representative of the activism of ‘progressive professionals’ occupying a space somewhere between the pressure group and the social movement. These expert activists can be found in a range of organizations in which they used the skills, expertise, knowledge and respectability associated with professional socio-economic status to promote and advocate left wing causes.

Juke Box Britain: Americanisation and Youth Culture, 1945-60. By Adrian Horn.

Moran, J. — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:02:12 PST

Constructing the Monolith: The United States, Great Britain, and International Communism, 1945-1950. By Marc J. Selverstone.

Wilford, H. — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:02:12 PST

Harold Wilson's Cold War: The Labour Government and East-West Politics, 1964-1970. By Geraint Hughes.

Daddow, O. — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:02:12 PST

Heroin: The Treatment of Addiction in Twentieth-Century Britain. By Alex Mold.

Weinhauer, K. — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:02:12 PST

NGOs in Contemporary Britain: Non-State Actors in Society and Politics since 1945. Edited by Nick Crowson, Matthew Hilton and James McKay.

Nehring, H. — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:02:12 PST

100 Years of State Pension: Learning from the Past. By Tony Salter, Andrew Bryans, Colin Redman and Martin Hewitt.

Pemberton, H. — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:02:12 PST

The Politics of Housing: Power, Consumers and Urban Culture. By Peter Shapely.

Clapson, M. — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:02:12 PST

From Jack Tar to Union Jack: Representing Naval Manhood in the British Empire, 1870-1918. By Mary A. Conley.

O'hara, G. — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:02:12 PST

Feminism and Criminal Justice: A Historical Perspective. By Anne Logan.

Seal, L. — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:02:12 PST

The Future of Class in History: What's Left of the Social? By Geoff Eley and Keith Nield.

Maslen, J. — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:02:12 PST