The Salvation Army in Sweden and the Making of Gender — Conversion Narratives 1887–1918

This article discusses how Swedish Salvationists wrote about femininity and masculinity in conversion narratives during the period 1887–1918; the “breakthrough” of modern Sweden. Through their religious conversion female Salvationists adopted a femininity that demanded the same right to participate in religious life as men. In a similar manner, men in the Salvation Army achieved a changed masculinity through conversion, which allowed them to express feelings and cry in public. Doing so, these Salvationists expressed an unconscious or conscious criticism towards the prevailing values about gender in society.     

‘Tomorrow She Will Reign’: Intimate Power and the Making of a Queen Mother in Rwanda,c.1800–1863

This article explores the relationship between erotic and institutional power through the political biography of the Queen‐Mother (Umugabekazi) Nyiramongi (r. 1845–1863) in Rwanda. Using historical narratives, genealogies, epic poetry and the translated text of royal rituals, this article argues that Nyiramongi used her status as first an object of desire and then as an erotic partner to her husband to manoeuver herself and her family into positions of institutional power. In contrast to previous literature, this article frames women like Nyiramongi as political actors who consciously cultivated their intimate assets to participate in the construction of systems of power, using their status as daughters, wives, lovers, mothers and sisters to exercise indirect power, often leading to positions of institutional and direct power.     

Imperial Rome and Britain's Language of Empire 1600–1837

Britain's pre-Victorian overseas expansion stimulated Roman comparisons. But imperial Rome was a warning as much as an inspiration to future empires, a harsh and uncomfortable model for Britain as a former Roman colony. Roman dignity was claimed for British monarchs and achievements by Dryden and others. But there were mixed feelings about identifying expanding Britain as a second Roman Empire. In the eighteenth century the British freedom-fighter Caractacus, defeated by the Romans, appealed far more to popular taste than Virgil's Aeneas or the Emperor Augustus. Sustained unease about imperial Rome, going right back to Tacitus, anticipated the liberal critique of imperialism of some Victorian and Edwardian commentators.     

British Lobbying in Newspaper and Parliamentary Discourse, 1800–1950

Lobbying is a significant component of the modern politics industry in Britain, but we know relatively little about its historical origins and evolution. This article draws on parliamentary debates and three databases which together account for 51 newspaper titles, in order to explore how lobbying was discussed in parliament and the media between 1800 and 1950, and to gauge the growing professionalisation of lobbying. Perceptions of lobbying became somewhat less negative over the period; there are relatively few reports or allegations of corruption associated with lobbying; and lobbying by the railway industry seems to have been less substantial, while public sector lobbying was more significant, than is commonly supposed. Direct advocacy with policymakers is overwhelmingly the dominant tactic used by lobbyists of the period, with few reports of coalitions or grass‐roots campaigns. Particular concerns were expressed about the influence of lobbying around private bills. While lobbying back‐bench MPs and parliamentary committees (rather than ministers and civil servants) accounted for over 80% of the activity revealed across the whole period, there are signs by the middle of the 20th century that the focus of lobbyists is beginning to turn away from Westminster and towards Whitehall. The article paints a detailed view of the scale, scope, and significance of lobbying as it was developing into a national and systematic industry.     

Humeral Impingement on the Acromion in a Scottish Island Population of c. 1600 AD

Apparently-articular facets on the undersurface of the anterior third of the acromion have been known in skeletal material since 1922 but without full discussion of the mechanism responsible. Twelve instances are described here, selected because an impingement area could be demonstrated on the greater tubercle of the humerus or on osteophytes that had replaced it. Both sides were affected but, with two exceptions, the right more severely; the less affected side could be regarded as an earlier stage. All were affected by osteoarthrosis. One was complicated by coraco-humeral impingement. The anatomical mechanism that normally prevents the humerus from rising against the coraco-acromial arch is described as well as the causes of the breakdown in the mechanism that leads to the impingement, derived largely from the clinical field, where the disorder is well-known. The complexity of the relation of the disorder to degenerative arthrosis is discussed because the degeneration is an age change in which wear and tear plays a localized part and the changes as they affect the shoulder joint differ fundamentally from those in the weight-bearing hip-joint. The mean estimated age of the group of twelve was 59 years but the occurrence of the acromion impingement disorder in young athletes illustrates the part played by mechanical joint abuse. Women predominated in this small group, partly because, through their longer life-spans, their joints were exposed longer to the susceptible period of age-related degeneration and also because their less robust musculo-skeletal systems were less adapted than men's to the equally shared labour. Two traditional women's tasks, corn-grinding and tweed-shrinking, are shoulder stressful.