Twentieth Century British History - recent issues

Juvenile Delinquency, the Juvenile Courts and the Settlement Movement 1908-1950: Basil Henriques and Toynbee Hall

Bradley, K. — 2008-08-02

This article explores the relationship between the voluntary sector and the juvenile courts in the period c.1908–1950. It specifically examines the relationship between the settlement movement and the early juvenile courts by analysing the Inner London Juvenile Court, which sat at Toynbee Hall in the East End of London between 1929 and 1953. The settlements, which brought young graduates to deprived urban areas to undertake voluntary social work, were heavily involved in boys’ clubs. Many of those who began their careers in settlement youth work went on to work with the early juvenile courts, viewing their experience in clubs as a vital foundation for this work. This article focuses on Basil Henriques, a former resident of Toynbee Hall, warden of the Bernhard Baron Settlement in Stepney and magistrate at the Inner London Juvenile Court, and his 1950 book, Indiscretions of a Magistrate. It concludes that, by critically examining Basil Henriques and Indiscretions, it is possible to begin to fully explore the discourses around citizenship, gender, class and race that informed the views and practices of juvenile court magistrates in the period in which the voluntary sector and the welfare state underwent profound change.

H.G. Wells and the New Liberalism

Toye, R. — 2008-08-02

This article offers a new interpretation of H.G. Wells's political thought in the Edwardian period and beyond. Scholars have emphasised his socialism at the expense of his commitment to liberalism, and have misread his novel The New Machiavelli as an anti-Liberal tract. Wells spent much effort in the pre-1914 period in the quest for a ‘new Liberalism’, and did not believe that socialists should compete directly with the Liberal Party for votes. It was this latter conviction that lay behind his much misunderstood dispute with the Fabian Society. His political support for Churchill was one sign of his belief in the compatibility of liberalism and socialism, in which he was far from unique at the time. He also engaged, somewhat idiosyncratically, with the ‘servile state’ concept of Hilaire Belloc. Although he did not articulate his Liberal identity with complete consistency, he did so with increasing intensity as the First World War approached. This helps explain why key New Liberal politicians including Churchill, Lloyd George and Masterman responded to his ideas sympathetically. The extent of engagement between Wells and the ‘New Liberalism’ was such that he deserves to be considered alongside Green, Ritchie, Hobson and Hobhouse as one of its prophets.

Empire, Internationalism, and the Campaign against the Traffic in Women and Children in the 1920s

Gorman, D. — 2008-08-02

This article assesses the inter-war campaign against trafficking in women and children, with a particular focus on the leading role played by British and British-dominated voluntary associations. This humanitarian campaign was conducted by social relief organizations such as the Association for Moral and Social Hygiene (AMSH) and the International Bureau for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children (IBSTWC). While organized opposition to trafficking in persons was not new, these groups consciously ‘internationalized’ their advocacy and lobbying efforts in the 1920s and 1930s. Although their work against trafficking in the Straits Settlements, or the prostitution rings operating in the Mediterranean, was driven in part by the desire to protect Britain's national prestige, their moral impetus and their cooperation with non-British bodies reflected wider international concerns. The article also explores the use of public diplomacy as a new political tool, with a particular focus on the public-private cooperation evident in the League of Nations' work to combat the trade. Finally, the article advances some conclusions as to why British women's political organizations in particular were some of the earliest ‘internationalists’, how successful internationalists were in combating transnational social problems, and to what extent inter-war internationalists established a precedent for the subsequent growth of international social relief organizations.

'Minorities with a Message': The Beveridge Report on Broadcasting (1949-1951) and Wales

Medhurst, J. — 2008-08-02

This article explores the significance of the report of the Beveridge Committee on Broadcasting (1949–1951)—which was charged with considering all aspects of post-war broadcasting in Britain at a time of political, social, economic and cultural change—in relation to Wales. It argues that the interaction between the committee and the Welsh political and cultural and groups that submitted evidence to the committee allows for an insight into the cultural politics of Wales during the early post-war period. It also argues that a study of the report throws light onto issues of broadcasting and nationhood, the significance of the Welsh language in defining nationhood and a national consciousness and the relationship between a minority language and the state, at a time of political and cultural change. A study of the Welsh dimension of the committee's report also provides a framework for an understanding of the broadcasting politics of Wales in the 1950s and 1960s. Finally, the article exemplifies the tensions that existed between what media historian James Curran calls the ‘newness and modernity’ of the broadcast media and a political and cultural elite which sought to preserve a ‘traditional’ way of life in the face of the perceived impact of those media.

The State We Were In

Lowe, R. — 2008-08-02

Shadow Sites: Photography, Archaeology & the British Landscape 1927-1955. By Kitty Hauser.

Wright, P. — 2008-08-02

Marketing Health: Smoking and the Discourse of Public Health in Britain, 1945-2000. By Virginia Berridge.

Hilton, M. — 2008-08-02

Unionists And Great War Commemoration in The North of Ireland 1914-1939: People, Places and Politics. By Catherine Switzer. * The Second World War and Irish Women: An Oral History. By Mary Muldowney.

Girvin, B. — 2008-08-02

Redefining Christian Britain post-1945 perspectives. Edited by Jane Garnett, Matthew Grimley, Alana Harris, William Whyte and Sarah Williams.

Bruce, S. — 2008-08-02

From Transmitted Deprivation to Social Exclusion: Policy, Poverty, and Parenting. By John Welshman.

Evans, T. — 2008-08-02

The Failure of a Dream: The Independent Labour Party From Disaffiliation to World War II. By Gidon Cohen.

Corthorn, P. — 2008-08-02

The Impact of the Spanish Civil War on Britain: War, Loss and Memory. By Tom Buchanan.

Mates, L. H. — 2008-08-02

Cabinets and the Bomb. By Peter Hennessey.

Barnaby, F. — 2008-08-02

The National Insurance Acts 1911-1947, the Approved Societies and the Prudential Assurance Company

Heller, M. — 2008-05-03

The role of the British major life assurance companies in administering the National Insurance Acts in the guise of approved societies has long been controversial. The companies have been accused of profiteering rather than civic duty or social altruism. This article, using the Prudential Assurance Company as a case study, questions this argument. Life assurance companies such as the Prudential were fundamental to the operational running of national health insurance in the first half of the twentieth century due to their scale, scope and expertise. In addition, they were keen to extend the scope of national health insurance and campaigned to make the acts more comprehensive. Finally, while the companies certainly did see benefits in administering the acts, these were related more to corporate identity, branding and public relations than to direct pecuniary gain. An analysis of the inclusion of the life insurance companies in the administration of the National Health Insurance Acts is thus as important for an understanding of twentieth-century Britain as it is for the development of modern social welfare.

Black Sailors on Red Clydeside: Rioting, Reactionary Trade Unionism and Conflicting Notions of 'Britishness' Following the First World War

Jenkinson, J. — 2008-05-03

The riot at Glasgow harbour in January 1919 was the first in a wave of rioting around Britain's ports in 1919. Violence was triggered by increased job competition in the merchant navy at the end of the war. Seamen's unions fuelled animosity between competing groups as they sought to protect white British access to jobs by imposing a ‘colour’ bar on sailors from racialized ethnic minorities. Many of the seamen targeted in this way were British colonial subjects from Africa and the Caribbean. Black colonial sailors in Glasgow resisted attacks by white rioters and asserted their rights to employment as British subjects. The riot was connected to wider industrial unrest on Clydeside as leaders of the union campaign for a reduced working week (to maintain full employment following demobilization) brought unskilled labour, including merchant seamen, into a general strike alongside skilled workers. Strike leaders, including Shinwell and Gallacher, linked the 40-hours movement to the seamen's unions’ protests against overseas labour by stressing the common interests of both in preserving the job prospects of (white) labour. The campaigns proved unsuccessful in the face of government fears over the revolutionary potential of the general strike and as the merchant shipping industry slid in to depression.

Women and Work after the Second World War: A Case Study of the Jute Industry, Circa 1945-1954

Morelli, C., Tomlinson, J. — 2008-05-03

This article examines the attempts by the Dundee jute industry to recruit women workers in the years circa 1945–1954. It locates its discussion of these attempts in the literature on the impact of the Second World War on the participation of women in the British labour market more generally, and the forces determining that participation. It stresses the peculiarities of jute as a traditional major employer of women operating in very specific market conditions, but suggests that this case study throws light on the broader argument about the impact of war and early post-war conditions on women's participation in paid work.

Myxomatosis in 1950s Britain

Bartrip, P.W.J. — 2008-05-03

In 1953 myxomatosis, a viral disease of rabbits, broke out in Britain for the first time. It rapidly killed tens of millions of the animals from Kent to the Shetlands. Many farmers and foresters welcomed a disease that virtually eliminated a long-standing and serious agricultural pest. Others were horrified by the sight of thousands of dead and dying animals. With meat still rationed, consumers rued the loss of a cheap and nutritious foodstuff. Rough shooters deplored the loss of prey and hatters and furriers the unavailability of the fur on which their businesses depended. Rabbits also had champions within the ‘establishment’; these included Winston Churchill who was personally influential in making deliberate transmission of the disease a criminal offence. The arrival in Britain of myxomatosis presented the authorities with difficult questions: should they try to contain it, spread it or do nothing; should they take advantage of rabbit depopulation and try to exterminate such a destructive animal? In the event the outbreak was allowed to run its course and rabbit extermination became government policy. This article considers who or what was responsible for the disease reaching the UK and how it then spread throughout the country. It examines the responses of government, other institutions and members of the public. Finally, it explores the impact of rabbit de-population on agriculture, the natural environment and public opinion.

Britain's Pensions Crisis: History and Policy. Edited by Hugh Pemberton, Pat Thane and Noel Whiteside.

Blackburn, R. — 2008-05-03

Between Empire and Revolution: A Life of Sidney Bunting, 1873-1936. By Allison Drew.

Hyslop, J. — 2008-05-03

Anglo-American Media Interactions, 1850-2000. Edited by Joel H. Weiner and Mark Hampton.

Ellwood, D. W. — 2008-05-03

Debating Nationhood and Governance in Britain, 1885-1945: Perspectives from the 'Four Nations'. Edited by Duncan Tanner, Chris Williams, Wil Griffith and Andrew Edwards.

Ward, P. — 2008-05-03

Mutualism and Health Care: British Hospital Contributory Schemes in the Twentieth Century. By Martin Gorsky and John Mohan with Tim Willis.

Reinarz, J. — 2008-05-03

Women Police: Gender, Welfare and Surveillance in the Twentieth Century. By Louise A. Jackson.

Williams, C. A. — 2008-05-03

Labour and the Countryside: The Politics of Rural Britain 1918-1939. By Clare V. J. Griffiths.

Burchardt, J. — 2008-05-03

The Conservative Party and European Integration since 1945: At the heart of Europe? By N. J. Crowson.

Hendley, M. — 2008-05-03

From Dreams to Disillusionment: Economic and Social Planning in 1960s. By Glen O'Hara.

Ritschel, D. — 2008-05-03

Liberal government and politics, 1905-1915. By Ian Packer.

Tanner, D. — 2008-05-03

Triumph of the South: A Regional Economic History of Early Twentieth Century Britain. By Peter Scott.

Carter, H. — 2008-05-03

A Disputed Identity: Women Conscientious Objectors in Second World War Britain

Nicholson, H. — 2008-02-08

British women were conscripted to the military for the first time during the Second World War. The legislation introducing this measure incorporated a conscience clause, which allowed women to become conscientious objectors to military service. A total of 911 women were granted this status by tribunals. However, at least three times that number identified themselves as conscientious objectors. This discrepancy was the result of a complex and often contradictory legislative position, combined with the contrasting definitions of the category applied by the authorities and individuals. Refusal to assist the war effort brought many women into conflict with a government which only recognized objection to military service and refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of objection to civilian work and civil defence duties. Women who identified themselves as conscientious objectors were not all reacting to state compulsion and many adopted the identity as a result of deeply held beliefs which predated the outbreak of war. The varied experiences of female conscientious objectors are tied together by their identification with a category from which the majority were officially excluded. The problems faced by women who wished to register a conscientious objection to the Second World War are explored in this article, along with the motivations and affiliations which led them to do so.

'Mrs Fairly is a Dirty, Lazy Type': Unsatisfactory Households and the Problem of Problem Families in Norwich 1942-1963

Taylor, B., Rogaly, B. — 2008-02-08

Either as the ‘underclass’, or ‘residuum’, poor families with anti-social habits have excited comment and criticism, but rarely historical analysis. Using a rich archive of material on ‘unsatisfactory households’ in Norwich from 1942 to 1963, this article argues that it is essential to understand the material conditions in which such families lived: a period of apparent prosperity throughout Britain before the ‘rediscovery of poverty’ in 1965. This article uses the work of Norwich city council to unpick contemporary debates on ‘problem families’ and to explore the kind of family designated as ‘unsatisfactory’, in terms of economic position, family composition and patterns of behaviour. It concludes by examining the relationship between council workers and the listed families, and the agency of these families and their neighbours in mediating the attentions of officials.

A Technocratic Imperial State? The Colonial Office and Scientific Research, 1940-1960

Clarke, S. — 2008-02-08

Accounts of the history of British imperialism that talk of imperial ideology as the product of the beliefs of a class of ‘gentlemanly’ administrators and capitalists often fail to engage fully with the changed character of colonial policies after 1940. Most notable is a failure to appreciate the decidedly technocratic turn in policy that occurred with the creation of a substantial Research Fund for the colonies. This article shows that a significant expansion in colonial research offered the prospect of restoring the credibility of British action in the colonial sphere at a time when the British government faced severe criticism over the management of its colonial possessions. With the emergence of new colonial policies that emphasized the need for metropolitan intervention and innovation came attempts to rationalize the development process that were based on faith in the efficacy of scientific solutions to colonial problems. In order to achieve their aims, officials at the Colonial Office afforded members of the scientific elite in Britain considerable powers in the organization and direction of colonial research. The result was the expansion of the research council system that had developed in Britain to the Colonial Empire as a whole with the extension of a liberal ideology of research which emphasized the need for freedom for the individual researcher. This article considers the implications of this for the organization of research in the colonies after 1940 and the relationship in practice between research and colonial development.

'Disturbing the Complacency of Religion'? The Evangelical Crusades of Dr Billy Graham and Father Patrick Peyton in Britain, 1951-54

Harris, A., Spence, M. — 2008-02-08

This article explores some little-examined aspects of the widespread revival of religion in Britain in the 1950s through a close examination of the evangelistic crusades of the Baptist minister Dr Billy Graham and the Irish-American Roman Catholic priest, Fr Patrick Peyton. Against the backdrop of the ‘secularization debate’, which continues to dominate the existing historiography of the period, it suggests that a re-examination of the role of religion in English society might provide new and valuable insights into the broader social and cultural preoccupations of the post-war era. Employing a cross-denominational approach it argues that, much to the surprise of some contemporary commentators, the considerable appeal of these religious crusaders lay in their ability to articulate common fears and anxieties about the individual, the family, and Cold War society within a religious context. Moreover, from a contemporary historical perspective, it questions whether the appeal of Graham's and Peyton's evangelism is better viewed not as an instance of an ‘illusory’ religious revival of old-fashioned Christianity before a plunge into ‘secularism’, but rather as an illustration of a broader and hitherto unexplored shift in post-war England towards new configurations of religiosity.

The London Broadcasting Company (LBC) and Independent Radio News (IRN) Archive

Chignell, H. — 2008-02-08

UK commercial radio was formally launched in October 1973 when LBC went on air. Its sister station, IRN, began providing a news service at the same time for the growing number of ‘Independent Local Radio’ stations. During the period 1973–1996 these two organisations assembled an archive of over 7,000 reel-to-reel tapes which now represent the largest commercial radio archive in Britain. For historians of the media, and of the twentieth century more generally, the collection is a rich and varied source of social, cultural and political evidence. Media historians, including historians of journalism, can hear examples of a more populist and innovative style of reporting (or ‘reportage’) than was to be heard on the BBC. For the first time the phone-in was an integral part of the schedule and a more opinionated style of presentation was pioneered by Brian Hayes and others. The archive, soon to be digitised and made available online, contains a radio history of the period which started slightly before Margaret Thatcher's election as Leader of the Conservative Party and finished a few years after the end of premiership. New clips, current affairs series like Decision Makers, parliamentary debates (made by the LBC parliamentary unit) and phone-ins all covered the major news stories of the time. There are, to take a notable example, 62 tapes on the Falklands War including 778 individual news items. The archive is an important and hitherto largely neglected source for future historians of the period.

The Origins of Modern Spin: Democratic Government and the Media in Britain, 1945-51. By Martin Moore.

Beers, L. — 2008-02-08

Smoke Signals: Women, Smoking and Visual Culture. By Penny Tinkler.

Robertson, E. — 2008-02-08

Communists and British Society 1920-1991. By Kevin Morgan, Gidon Cohen and Andrew Flinn.

Srebrnik, H. — 2008-02-08

Lloyd George and Churchill: Rivals for Greatness. By Richard Toye.

Dutton, D.J. — 2008-02-08

Britain, France and the Entente Cordiale since 1904. Edited by Antoine Capet.

Parr, H. — 2008-02-08

Writers, Readers, and Reputations: Literary Life in Britain 1870-1918. By Philip Waller.

Hilliard, C. — 2008-02-08