British History

Sport, manhood and empire: British responses to the New Zealand rugby tour of 1905

by John Nauright

This article analyzes British responses to the successes of the 1905 New Zealand All Black rugby team in the context... more This article analyzes British responses to the successes of the 1905 New Zealand All Black rugby team in the context of fears of racial degeneration in Britain. It further explores how the British viewed the New Zealand team's innovative style of play including changes to standard formations used in the game as well as specialized positional play. Finally concepts of colonial robust masculinity suggested to British experts that the British "race" was not necessarily in decline in the colonies of settlement as evidenced both by troop performance in the South African War of 1899-1902 and on the playing fields.

Cornish Miners and the Witwatersrand Gold Mines in South Africa, c. 1890-1904

by John Nauright

Published in CORNISH HISTORY an online journal in 2005. Online link seems to be missing now. This article forms part of the work of my Masters Thesis at the University of South Carolina completed in 1988.

‘Right to Buy’: The Origins and Development of a Conservative Housing Policy, 1945 – 1980.

by Aled Davies

Draft Working Paper.

The ‘Right to Buy’ scheme was a central policy plank of the radical and reforming Conservative government under... more The ‘Right to Buy’ scheme was a central policy plank of the radical and reforming Conservative government under Margaret Thatcher. This article traces the origins and development of the policy through the post-war Conservative Party, demonstrating the way in which a statutory right of purchase for tenants originated immediately after the war, yet was resisted by Party elites until the late 1960s; at which point it became more feasible in the wake of political conflict at the local and national level. The introduction of the scheme was the culmination of economic and social change transmitted through the existing ideas of the post-war Conservative Party, lending support to the notion of a post-war consensus in British politics; whilst also supporting the challenge to the intellectual novelty of the ‘Thatcherism’.

The Evolution of British Monetary Targets, 1968 - 1979.

by Aled Davies

(Winton Institute Working Paper)

How far were monetary targets imposed on the post-1974 Labour Government by international and domestic financial... more How far were monetary targets imposed on the post-1974 Labour Government by international and domestic financial markets enthused with the doctrines of ‘monetarism’? The following paper attempts to answer this question by demonstrating the complex and contingent nature of the ascent of British ‘monetarism’ after 1968. It explains the valorisation of the ‘money supply’ which took place in post-devaluation Britain which led investors to realign their expectations with the behaviour of the monetary aggregates. After 1973, the collapse of the global fixed-exchange regime, coupled with vast domestic inflationary pressures, determined that ‘the City’ came to employ the ‘money supply’ as a convenient new measure with which to assess the ‘soundness’ of the UK Government’s economic management. The critical juncture of the 1976 sterling crisis forced the Labour Chancellor to make reluctant concessions in the way of monetary targets as part of a desperate attempt to regain market confidence. The result was to impose significant constraints on the Government’s economic policymaking freedom, as attempts were made to retain favourable money supply figures exposed to the short-term volatility of domestic and international investors.

Introduction to the Political Economy of the Sub-prime Crisis in Britain: Constructing and Contesting Competence

by james brassett

The First World War Revisited: A Review of Adrian Gregory's "The Last Great War: British Society and the First World War"

by Michael Chiarello

Review Essay.  Gregory, Adrian. The Last Great War: British Society and the First World War. Cambridge: Cambridge... more Review Essay.  Gregory, Adrian. The Last Great War: British Society and the First World War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.

The Struggle for Mastery of India: Parliament vs. the East India Company, 1763-c.1800

by Michael Chiarello

An Empire of Good Intentions? Liberalism and the Justification of Britain's Empire in India, c.1820-1905

by Michael Chiarello

Final Paper for Seminar in European History: European Colonial Cultures

The Scandal of Empire: A Review Essay

by Michael Chiarello

'The mere relation of the sufferings of others': Joseph Highmore, History Painting and the Foundling Hospital

by Jacqueline Riding

published in Art History, the journal of the Association of Art Historians (online March 2012, hardcopy June 2012)

The history paintings of the English artist Joseph Highmore (1692-1780) have received limited critical analysis within... more The history paintings of the English artist Joseph Highmore (1692-1780) have received limited critical analysis within art historical scholarship both past and present. Portrait painting dominated his professional practice from 1715 to 1762 and yet, as this article will contend, the study and production of history painting was both a significant intellectual pursuit and an important creative strand within his artistic output. This article will begin by exploring the role of history painting within Highmore’s art practice and career. It will then focus on the context, purpose and creation of the three extant examples of Highmore’s history painting: 'The Good Samaritan', 'Hagar and Ishmael' and an oil on canvas ‘sketch’ known as 'The Angel of Mercy'. All three reflect ideas surrounding charity in mid-Georgian Britain and further, have direct or indirect associations with one charitable institution in particular: London’s Foundling Hospital. The analysis presented here will reveal an artist employing and adapting the tools of traditional Western history painting as a means of engaging with and reflecting these contemporary contexts and issues.

Navigating culture: navigational instruments as cultural artefacts, c.1550-1650

by Richard Blakemore

Journal for Maritime Research, 14:1 (2012)

This research note explores the possibility of approaching navigational instruments not as evidence of the progress of... more This research note explores the possibility of approaching navigational instruments not as evidence of the progress of scientific knowledge, but of the experiences of early modern seafarers. These instruments formed an important part of the material culture of seafaring, existing as physical elements of the mental framework through which mariners understood both the natural and the human world around them. Some of these cultural contexts can be reconstructed through evidence such as navigational literature, ships' journals, maritime court records, and seafarers' wills. Instruments and navigation were associated explicitly with the wider activity of shipping, with all its economic and political potential, as well as with the new developments in early modern science, and the perception of the natural world as a site of divine providential intervention. While basic navigational skills contributed to a shared culture amongst seafarers, instruments were also status symbols, conferring authority, signifying competence at sea and representing not only expertise but the sorts of behaviour considered appropriate for a shipmaster.

Review: The Chinese Taste in Eighteenth-Century England by David Porter

by William Coleman

Historians of British Art Newsletter, Winter 2011-12, pp. 18-20

"The Franklin Mystery"

by adriana craciun

cover essay for May 2012 Literary Review of Canada

This essay considers current 21st century searches for the ships and debris of the John Franklin Arctic disaster in... more This essay considers current 21st century searches for the ships and debris of the John Franklin Arctic disaster in relation to ongoing debates over access to Northwest Passage waterways, aboriginal heritage, and configurations of the Arctic as an energy frontier.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF POOR RELIEF IN LANCASHIRE, c. 1598–1680

by Jonathan Healey

Poverty in an industrializing town: deserving hardship in Bolton, 1674-99

by Jonathan Healey

Agrarian Social Structure in the Central Lake District, c . 1574–1830: The Fall of the ‘Mountain Republic’?

by Jonathan Healey

Famine and the Female Mortality Advantage in Early Modern England (Working Paper)

by Jonathan Healey

John Cabot and his Italian financiers

by Francesco Guidi Bruscoli

in “Historical Research”, first published online 27 APR 2012, DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2281.2012.00597.x

While the early Bristol expeditions to North America have always been thought of as a purely English phenomenon, this... more While the early Bristol expeditions to North America have always been thought of as a purely English phenomenon, this article demonstrates that they were partly funded by Italian capital. Following the slight leads left behind by a deceased historian, documents have been found which demonstrate that a payment of fifty nobles was made in 1496 to the Venetian explorer, John Cabot, from the London branch of a Florentine company: the Bardi. This article discusses the significance of the payment for Cabot and his expedition, the reasons why the funding might have been advanced, and the position of the Bardi within London's Italian community.

‘Beyond respite: a case study in local power and authority during the minority of Henry III’, Henry III Fine Rolls Project: Fine of the Month (July, 2010).

by Colin Veach

‘King and Magnate in medieval Ireland: Walter de Lacy, King Richard and King John’, Irish Historical Studies, xxxvii, no. 146 (Nov, 2010), 179-202.

by Colin Veach