First Published in 2005. The political manoeuvres which brought about the collapse of Britain's last Liberal government in May 1915 have already been the subject of much scholarly debate. This book will attempt to go beyond the arena of strictly party and factional politics and will examine some of the administrativeproblems the Liberals faced on the home front.

First published in 1967, this superb collection of essays on trade in the Middle Ages has been a major contribution to modern medieval studies. Professor Carus-Wilson examines:

* fifteenth-century Bristol
* trade with Iceland
* the Merchant Adventurers of London
* the thirteenth-century cloth industry (with its highly developed capitalist system)
* the export of English woollen cloth
* the wine trade.

Each paper is firmly rooted in original research and contemporary sources such as customs returns and company minutes, and, in addition, her expose of the dubious accuracy of Aulnage accounts is widely recognised as a classic.

Dr Dorothy Marshall covers a vital period in English social development, during which the traditional social hierarchy of order and degree was giving place to a class society marked by the growth of a self-conscious working class.
The author shows how, between 1776 and 1851, industrialization brought about major changes in the structure of society, so that by 1851 the outlines of modern urban and industrial society had been irrevocably drawn. She examines the social implications of the Industrial Revolution, referring in particular to the growth of urban society, the repercussions on the rural community and the resulting alterations in the social structure. She examines upper-, middle- and working-class opinions on such topics as religion and education, and traces the effect of the economic and social changes on the constitution and on political life. In the final chapter Dr Marshall describes the way in which the abuses of the new society brought about the demand for parliamentary legislation to deal with the injustices of the Poor Law, the factory system, and the problem of sanitation. This fascinating book was first published in 1973.

A fully interdisciplinary exploration of Irish Studies' development since the end of the Celtic Tiger (contributors include scholars from literary studies, history, sports studies, performance studies, music studies, language studies, politics, economics, media studies, art and visual culture, gender studies, and more) Includes essays from scholars and practitioners in Ireland, the US, and the UK Includes several essays that consider Irish studies in relation to ecological crisis, including the global pandemic Includes essays from both emerging and well-established scholars Addresses intersections between Irish studies and diverse theoretical frameworks, including queer theory, ecocriticism, critical race studies, feminist theory, disability studies, postcolonial theory, and queer theory.

Shipbuilding in the United Kingdom provides a systematic historical account of the British Shipbuilders Corporation, first looking at this major industry under private enterprise, then under state control, and finally back in private hands. The chapters trace the evolution of public policy regarding shipbuilding, ship repair, and large marine engine building through the tenures of radically different Labour and Conservative governments, and through the response of the board of the British Shipbuilders Corporation, trade unions, and local management also. The book benefits from comprehensive archival research and interviews from the 1990s with leading players in the industry, as well as politicians, shipbuilders, trade union leaders, and senior civil servants. This authoritative monograph is a valuable resource for advanced students and researchers across the fields of business history, economic history, industrial history, labour history, maritime history, and British history.

This is the first book to describe British wartime success in breaking Japanese codes of dazzling variety and great complexity which contributed to the victory in Burma three months before Hiroshima. Written for the general reader, this first-hand account describes the difficulty of decoding one of the most complex languages in the world in some of the most difficult conditions. The book was published in 1989 to avoid proposed legislation which would prohibit those in the security services from publishing secret information.

The period from 1957-1988 was transformative for the international oil industry. As the home to two major oil companies, BP and Shell, as well as the possessor of large quantities of oil and gas in its territorial waters, the United Kingdom was at the heart of this transition. While famous for its liberal policy towards 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 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.

'A book worth reading' Andrew Marr, Sunday Times The Debatable Land was an independent territory which used to exist between Scotland and England. At the height of its notoriety, it was the bloodiest region in Great Britain, fought over by Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and James V. After the Union of the Crowns, most of its population was slaughtered or deported and it became the last part of the country to be brought under the control of the state. Today, its history has been forgotten or ignored. When Graham Robb moved to a lonely house on the very edge of England, he discovered that the river which almost surrounded his new home had once marked the Debatable Land's southern boundary. Under the powerful spell of curiosity, Robb began a journey - on foot, by bicycle and into the past - that would uncover lost towns and roads, reveal the truth about this maligned patch of land and result in more than one discovery of major historical significance. Rich in detail and epic in scope, The Debatable Land takes us from a time when neither England nor Scotland could be imagined to the present day, when contemporary nationalism and political turmoil threaten to unsettle the cross-border community once more. Writing with his customary charm, wit and literary grace, Graham Robb proves the Debatable Land to be a crucial, missing piece in the puzzle of British history. Includes a 16-page colour plate section.

Britain's love of its pleasure beaches gave rise to a peculiar holiday culture - the seaside. Here a usually reserved nation would let its hair down, roll up its trousers, put on a kiss-me-quick hat and laugh at bawdy entertainers. From Victorian sobriety and Edwardian elegance through working-class high spirits to the present day, this book celebrates the place that the seaside holds in all our hearts. PA Photos is the photography arm of the PA Group, which also owns the Press Association, the UK's national news agency. Established in the late 19th Century, the PA has been capturing editorial photography for 140 years, resulting in an extraordinary archive of over 15 million images recording British life over more than a century.

A charming, lively and often amusing tour of 36 forgotten episodes and overlooked people and places of Scottish history. While Scotland's history cannot be separated from its kings and queens, saints and warriors, there is a rich story to tell about the country's lesser-known places, people and events. This colourful history of Scotland tells those other tales, half-forgotten or misunderstood, that have been submerged by the wash of history. Bringing these stories to light and to life, this entertaining book reveals the richness and complexity of this nation on the northwest edge of Europe. Alistair Moffat guides us from the geological formation of the land that makes up Scotland to the first evidence of human habitation right up to modern times. In the process, we learn about the cave of headless children, the origins of the Scottish kings and the real heroes of Scottish independence, the invention of tartan and the romance of the Highlands, Scotland's answer to Shakespeare, and the many U.S. Presidents with Scottish heritage, among many other fascinating tales brought to life by Joe McLaren's attractive woodcut-style illustrations. Even the most knowledgeable Scot will experience a sense of newfound knowledge and appreciation for this unique country, its history and people.

A special gift book this Christmas From young princess to internationally revered head of state, Queen Elizabeth has always fascinated and intrigued. This fully updated second edition celebrates and remembers the glorious reign of Britain's longest-serving and much cherished monarch. Drawn from nearly a century of detailed and fascinating reporting by The Times, discover insights and memories of the extraordinary period of social change that was our nation's second Elizabethan age. Featuring Queen Elizabeth's obituary, as published in The Times Reflections of a nation in mourning, with images from the state funeral A collection of essays and articles written by leading royal historians, including Ben Macintyre, Hugo Vickers, Valentine Low and Professor Kate Williams Full-colour images from The Times archives

Steeped in conspiracy, scandal and socialism - the disappearance of radical icon Victor Grayson is a puzzle that's never been solved. A firebrand and Labour politician who rose to prominence in the early twentieth century, Grayson was idolised by hundreds of thousands of Britons but despised by the establishment. After a tumultuous life, he walked out of his London apartment in September 1920 and was never seen again. After a century, new documents have come to light. Fragments of an unpublished autobiography, letters to his lovers (both men and women), leading political and literary figures including H.G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw, and testimonies from members of the Labour elite such as Clement Attlee have revealed the real Victor Grayson. New research has uncovered the true events leading up to his disappearance and suggests that he was actually blackmailed by his former Party. In a time when homosexuality was illegal, and socialism an international threat to capitalism, Grayson was a clear target for those wanting to stamp out dissent. This extraordinary biography reinstates to history a man who laid the foundations for a whole generation of militant socialists in Britain.

James William Newland's (1810-1857) career as a showman daguerreotypist began in the United States but expanded into Central and South America, across the Pacific to New Zealand and colonial Australia and onto India. Newland used the latest developments in photography, theatre and spectacle to create powerful new visual experiences for audiences in each of these volatile colonial societies. This book assesses his surviving, vivid portraits against other visual ephemera and archival records of his time. Newland's magic lantern and theatre shows are imaginatively reconstructed from textual sources and analysed, with his short, rich career casting a new light on the complex worlds of the mid-nineteenth century. It provides a revealing case study of someone brokering new experiences with optical technologies for varied audiences at the forefront of the age of modern vision. This book will be of interest to scholars in art and visual culture, photography, the history of photography and Victorian history.

A Military History of the English Civil War examines how the civil war was won, who fought for whom, and why it ended. With a straightforward style and clear chronology that enables readers to make their own judgements and pursue their own interests further, this original history provides a thorough critique of the reasons that have been cited for Parliament's victory and the King's defeat in 1645/46. It discusses the strategic options of the Parliamentary and Royalist commanders and councils of war and analyses the decisions they made, arguing that the King's faulty command structure was more responsible for his defeat than Sir Thomas Fairfax's strategic flair. It also argues that the way that resources were used, rather than the resources themselves, explain why the war ended when it did.

This wide-ranging collection brings together multiple perspectives on a key period in Irish history, from the Fenian Rising in 1867 to the creation of the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland in 1921, with a focus on the formation of Irish identity. The chapters, written by team of experts, focus on key individuals or ideological groups and consider how they perceived Ireland's future, what their sense of Irish identity was, and who they saw as the enemy. Providing a new angle on Ireland during the period from 1867 to 1921, this book will be important reading for all those with an interest in Irish history.

What was a "garden" in medieval and early modern British culture and how was it imagined? How did it change as Europe opened up to the wider world from the 16th century onwards? In a series of fresh approaches to these questions, the contributors offer chapters that identify and discuss newly-discovered pre-modern garden spaces in archaeology and archival sources, recognize a gendered language of the garden in fictional descriptions ("fictional" here being taken to mean any written text, regardless of its purpose), and offer new analysis of the uses to which gardens - real and imagined - might be put. Chapters investigate the definitions, forms and functions of physical gardens; explore how the material space of the garden was gendered as a secluded space for women, and as a place of recreation; examine the centrality of garden imagery in medieval Christian culture; and trace the development of garden motifs in the literary and artistic imagination to convey the sense of enclosure, transformation and release. The book uniquely underlines the current environmental "turn" in the humanities, and increasingly recognizes the value of exploring human interaction with the landscapes of the past as a route to health and well-being in the present.

The period between 1880 and 1914, the subject of this volume, sees increasing questioning of free trade, especially in those sectors impacted adversely by foreign competition, and within political circles, where the notion of protecting native industries shifted from an agricultural to an industrial base. There was a greater willingness, especially in the Conservative party, to consider it as a viable policy. The ‘constituencies’ or interest groups created by free trade however defended it fiercely among the Liberal party and in manufacturing industries, primarily those highly dependent on export markets. Debates on commercial policy in this period had another dimension which had been subsidiary in earlier periods—the colonial empire and the economic, political, and cultural ties with it promoted. The period between 1880 and 1914 was one where the language of empire was at its height and the economic relationship between the Mother Country and the colonies entered political debate in a forceful way. The sources include several petitions from parliamentary papers attacking the system of commercial treaties pursued by the British government. Towards this end, extracts from the journal Fair Trade, and a body of newspaper material detailing extra-parliamentary movements against free trade, from the Leeds Mercury, Glasgow Herald, Pall Mall Gazette, and Daily Mail, are also included. Making the transition to the early twentieth century and the rise of the labour movement, printed sources such as Fabian tracts on tariff reform, as well as material from the International Free Trade Congress, are incorporated.

This volume takes up the story of exacerbated political divisions from 1841 onwards, with a clearer demarcation in political life caused at least partly by commercial policy considerations. Ultimately, the success of free trade policies, implemented by Sir Robert Peel after 1841, saw the reconfiguration of political parties and had lasting effects and impact on party politics. Yet in the period up to 1879, there was a broad consensus on maintaining the free trade settlement of 1846. This period, often seen as a ‘free trade interlude’ book-ended by a far more complex range of opinions, policies, and strategies surrounding commercial policy, was characterised by British manufacturing expansion, deeper penetration of foreign and colonial markets, and the adoption of freer trade policies by foreign nations. Ultimately, none of these developments lasted in the long term. By the end of 1879, commercial policy was again controversial. The type of sources in this volume include correspondence from The Panmure Papers, the Later Correspondence of Lord John Russell, and diary material from Lord Ashley and John Bright. There is also a considerable body of material from newspapers, including the Morning Chronicle, Northern Star, Manchester Guardian, and Liverpool Mercury. Manuscript materials from Richard Cobden, John Benjamin Smith, and Lord John Russell among others are also present.

This volume explores the period between Smith’s 1776 The Wealth of Nations and ends in the early days of the Anti-Corn Law League campaign on the eve of the 1841 General Election, which prominently featured contrasting commercial policy options between Conservative and Liberal parties. During this period, we witness the growth of free trade sentiment, with opposition to monopolies like the old Chartered Companies, and attempts to create more liberal bilateral commercial treaties. Most importantly, we see the imposition of the protectionist Corn Laws in 1815 at the behest of a Parliament largely based on the landed interest. Between 1815 and 1846, the Corn Laws become the fulcrum of the entire debate on commercial policy, the ‘keystone in the arch’ of the protective system, and slowly, divisions begin to emerge throughout society and between the political parties, culminating in the formation of the Anti-Corn Law League and their attempt to influence politics via ‘pressure from without’. The sources include printed matter such as the diaries of Lord Colchester; various parliamentary papers on commercial policy; printed correspondence of William Pitt, Lord Melbourne, Joseph Sturge; periodical literature from numerous sources such as the Eclectic Review, and The Oriental Herald. Also included is a considerable body of newspaper material from the Manchester Times, Dundee Advertiser, and The Chartist, reflective of the growing importance of the provinces and manufacturing interests in commercial, and local and national politics.

British Civilization: A Student's Dictionary is an invaluable reference guide to the British way of life.It explains the often puzzling and confusing terms and phrases used routinely in Britain and by British people.

This easy-reference alphabetical guide sheds light on a comprehensive selection of words, phrases, organizations and institutions. All these are fundamental features of British civilization and society, and include aspects of:

* politics and government
* the Law, economics and industry
* education
* the media
* religion and social welfare
* health and housing
* leisure and transport.

This volume examines the critical factors and processes by which the Provisional Irish Republican movement campaign from 1969 to 1998 transformed a once acquiescent nationalist population in Northern Ireland into a counterpublic of resistance demanding national self-determination and social justice. Considering the establishment of Irish Republican community institutions, prison protests, Republican Feminism, and Provisional IRA media and communications, this volume explores the emergence of Republicanism as a mass social movement in the nationalist Catholic ghettos and rural regions of Northern Ireland in the 1970s - a development that helped to sustain the armed struggle of the Provisional Irish Republican Army for three decades. An examination of the emergence and transformative power of the counterpublic discourse and action of the Irish Republican movement, this volume provides a framework for conceptualizing counterpublics in social movement studies. As such it will appeal to scholars of sociology, history, and politics with interests in social movements and mobilization.

Britain in the Twentieth Century is a new approach to teaching and learning twentieth century British history at A level. It meets the needs of teachers and students studying for today's revised AS and A2 exams.
In a unique style, Britain in the Twentieth Century focuses on the key topics within the period. Each topic is then comprehensively explored to provide background, essay writing advice and examples, source work and historical skills.
From 1900 to the new millennium, the key topics featured include:
* Britain in a new century, 1900-1914
* the First World War and its impact
* inter-war domestic problems
* British foreign policy, 1919-1939
* Britain and the Second World War
* social and economic change, 1945-1979.

The kingdom of Scotland has had a turbulent history, at points the site of a tribal contest and of a far-reaching political controversy. This guide traces the history of the Scottish crown from Kenneth MacAlpin in 843 AD to Jame VI in 1603 when the crown became one with England.This informative guide is filled with family trees and colour photographs of fascinating portraits and artefacts from Scotland's history. It provides an accessible and informative introduction to the story of the country's monarchy and the complex and dangerous competition that surrounded the crown.This well-researched guide covers each Scottish house and ruler in separate comprehensively detailed sections, all the way until George III was acknowledged as the Stuart successor in 1807.Look out for more Pitkin Guides on the very best of British history, heritage and travel, including others in a series of historical titles about Scotland.

The essays in this book focus on the controversies concerning Britain's economic performance between the mid-nineteenth century and the First World War. The overriding theme is that Britain's own resources were consistently more productive, more resilient and more successful than is normally assumed. And if the economy's achievement was considerable, the influence on it of external factors (trade, international competition, policy) were much less significant than is normally supposed. The book is structured as follows: Part One: The Method of Historical Economics Part Two: Enterprise in Late Victorian Britain Part Three: Britain in the World Economy, 1846-1913.

Britain, 1846 - 1919 is an exciting new approach to teaching and learning late nineteenth and early twentieth century British History at A Level, up to and including the First World War. It meets the needs of teachers and students studying for today's new AS level exams.
In a unique style, Britain, 1846-1919 focuses on the key topics within the period. Each topic is then comprehensively explored to provide background, essay-writing advice and examples, source work and historical skills exercises.
From 1846 to 1919, the key topics featured include:
* the Age of the Railways
* Public Health and Social Policy
* Gladstone and Disraeli at home and abroad
* the Irish Question
* the Liberal and Coalition Ministries in the early Twentieth century.
Using essay styles and source exercises from each of the exam boards, AQA, Edexcel and OCR, this book is an essential text for students and teachers.