Rhetoric,reality and dissent: The Vietnam policy of the British labour government, 1964–1970

This article analyzes the interactions between Prime Minister Harold Wilson and the parliamentary and extra-parliamentary Labour party in the formulation of Britain's policy towards the Vietnam conflict.Two well-known theses about the structure and functioning of Britain's major political parties serve as the point of departure for this analysis. R.T. McKenzie (British Political Parties) contends that the distribution of power within the Labour and Conservative parties is fundamentally similar. In contrast, Samuel Beer (British Politics in the Collectivist Age) argues that there is greater intraparty democracy in the Labour party than in the Conservative party.The article concludes that by and large the Labour Government was a reluctant supporter of U.S. Vietnam policy. The Parliamentary Labour left consistently challenged the Government on this issue but stopped short of any attempt to oust the Government. Wilson took the opinions of the extra-parliamentary party into account but refused to be bound by them. Thus, while Labour's dissidents had a degree of influence over Britain's Vietnam policy from 1964–1970, they did not exercise veto power.     

Society without the social: the Spanish labour movement and the rise of the social, 1840–1880

Focusing on the Spanish case, this article addresses two fundamental questions: why were many unionized workers sceptical about state intervention in labour issues throughout the nineteenth century, and why did this attitude begin to change from the 1860s onwards? Its main thesis is that workers’ attitudes derived ultimately from different historical notions of ‘society’ that shaped their perceptions and experiences of labour relations and their attitude toward the role of the state. Thus, a notion of society as an aggregation of individuals shaped unionized Spanish workers’ hostility toward state intervention since the creation of the first unions in the 1840s. From the 1860s onward, a new conception of collective relations, namely ‘the social’, began to transform some workers’ expectations of the role of the state in labour conflicts. The main factor that explains this change, it is argued, lies in the relationship between the workers’ imaginary, their actions, and their expectations about these actions.     

From the suburbs to the house: The metropolitan–rural population and the success of women candidates

We analyze the voting behavior of metropolitan and rural residents in relation to women's legislative representation. Examining election data on the U.S. House and all lower state houses, we find that the greater the metropolitan population in a legislative district, the more likely it is to be represented by a woman. We extrapolate from these findings that the modern increase in women's representation can be attributed in part to the rural-to-suburban shift in population and legislative seats.     

Democracy's breakdown and the rise of fascism: The case of the Spanish Second Republic, 1931–6

A number of plausible, competing, mass-based accounts exist in the literature explaining the breakdown of democracy and the rise of fascism in Spain, Italy and Germany. The objective of this article is to specify further empirically mass-based accounts of the social origins of democracy and modern authoritarianism in the Spanish Second Republic (1931–1936). In specifying mass-based general theories of the breakdown of democracy and the rise of fascism in inter-war Europe, the article contends that the polarising dynamic of agrarian reform is a central factor undermining the Republic.     

Migration to London and the development of the north–south divide, 1851–1911

This article uses census data for England and Wales covering the period 1851–1911 to provide new insights into patterns of migration to London. It examines several related themes including the role migration played in London’s growth during this period, age and gender differentials and distance travelled. Calculating net migration rates, the article demonstrates that after age 30, of those born outside of London, more left the Capital than came, yet over time an increasing proportion of the migrant population was retained. The proportion of family migrants fluctuated over the period, yet compared to others tended to travel shorter distances, a feature which increased over time with suburbanization. Turning to the geographical origins of migrants, London drew migrants from across the entirety of England and Wales. However, the data suggest that the migrant sex ratio became more homogeneous over time, with distinct pockets of male dominated migration that were visible in 1851 disappearing by 1911. Lastly, the article investigates migration from the perspective of place of departure rather than destination, as is traditionally the case. This reveals a distinct regional geography, suggesting that the present-day north–south divide was already evident in 1851, and became increasingly distinct over time.     

Status,gender and life cycle in the consumption practices of the English elite. The case of Mary Leigh, 1736–1806

The consumption practices of the elite have received a great deal of attention from historians over the years. The role of women (and gender) is mostly considered in the context of married couples, and therefore at a particular stage in the life cycle, with emphasis placed on the complementary role of husband and wife in the household economy. We know less about the consumption behaviour of single women, especially the ways in which this developed over their life course, singleness being seen as a passing stage rather than a long-term condition for many elite women. This article takes a case-study approach to explore in detail how consumption and shopping behaviour were shaped by gender, status and family, and how the relative importance of these changed over the life course of the individual. It focuses in particular on what was bought from whom and the factors shaping the choice of supplier, and argues that single status gave women freedom to act, but that this was framed by the obligations of status and the constraints of family. Landownership, of course, brought responsibilities as well as opportunities that shaped spending; but family as lineage was especially important in shaping patterns and geographies of spending.     

The Eastern Mediterranean and the Making of Global Radicalism, 1860–1914

David Gaunt, Familjeliv i Norden (1983), 327 (Gidlunds, Malmo, n.p.). (Family Life in the Nordic Countries.)

Peter Clark, The English Alehouse: A Social History 1200–1830 (1983), xiv+353 (Longman, paperback, £9.95).

Mary Fulbrook, Piety and Politics: Religion and the Rise of Absolutism in England, Württemberg and Prussia (1983), viii+215 (Cambridge University Press, £20.00, paperback £7.95.)

Ira Berlin and Ronald Hoffman (eds), Slavery and Freedom in the Age of the American Revolution (1983), xxviii+314 (University Press of Virginia, Char‐lottesville, $15.95).

John Bohstedt, Riots and Community Politics in England and Wales 1790–1810 (1983), x+310 (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., £25.50).

Karen Halttunen, Confidence Men and Painted Women: A Study of Middleclass Culture in America, 1830–1870 (1983), xviii + 262 (Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut, £15.50).

David Englander, Landlord and Tenant in Urban Britain, 1838–1918 (1983), xviii+342 (Oxford University Press, Oxford, £22.50).

Konrad H. Jarausch, Students, Society and Politics in Imperial Germany: The Rise of Academic Illiberalism (1982), viii+448 (Princeton University Press, Princeton, $40.00, paperback $16.50).

Joseph Buckman, Immigrants and the Class Struggle: The Jewish Immigrant in Leeds 1880–1914 (1983), xii + 183 (Manchester University Press, £17.50). Harold Pollins, Economic History of the Jews in England (1983), 339 (Associated University Presses, £20.00).

S. A. Smith, Red Petrograd : Revolution in the Factories, 1917—1918 (1983), (Cambridge University Press, £25.00).

Robert J. Waller, The Dukeries Transformed: The Social and Political Development of a Twentieth‐Century Coalfield (1983), ix+319 (Oxford University Press, £22.50).

Ian Kershaw, Popular Opinion and Political Dissent in the Third Reich, Bavaria 1933–1945 (1983), xv+425 (Clarendon Press, Oxford, £22.50).

P. Abrams, Historical Sociology (1982), xviii+353 (Open Books, Shepton Mallet, £12.00, paperback £6.00).

D. Smith, Barrington Moore: Violence, Morality and Political Change (1983), viii+195 (Macmillan, £12.95, paperback £4.95).     

The destruction of liberty in French Guiana: law,identity and the meaning of legal space, 1794–1830

Abstract

This article examines the colonial legal culture of French Guiana from 1794 to 1830 during a period marked by dramatic historical rupture; slaves in the colony who were liberated by decree of the French legislature in 1794 were returned to slavery under Napoleon. People who managed to remain free in the nineteenth century endured humiliating legal handicaps as well as challenges to their free status. In Guiana during this period, a person's access to the ‘rights of man and citizen’ depended on intricate and ultimately fragile legal structures. The perils besetting Guiana's freed people during and after the French Revolution often arose from the highly adjustable character of legal space – the legal status of imperial territory in relation to domestic soil. This article draws on archival materials including notarial documents and trial records to reconstruct the role of law and legal discourse in mediating everyday life, familial relationships and social encounters on the French colonial frontier.