The Rise and Fall of the Post-War Settlement

The People's Peace: British History, 1945–1989. By Kenneth O. Morgan.
Power, Competition and the State : Vol. 2, Threats to the Postwar Settlement: Britain, 1961–74. By Keith Middlemas.
Power, Competition and the State: Vol. 3, The End of the Postwar Era. By Keith Middlemas.
Selecting the Party Leader: Britain in Comparative Perspective. By R. M. Punnett.
British Politics Since 1945: The Rise and Fall of Consensus. By David Dutton.
UK Political Parties Since 1945. Edited by Anthony Seldon.
British History, 1945–1987: An Annotated Bibliography. By Peter Catterall.     

‘Ugly but . . . important’: the Albanian Hoard and the making of the archaeological treasure in the early twentieth century

This paper deploys the Metropolitan Museum's Albanian (or Avar) Treasure as a case study to explore the role and value assigned to the named treasure during the early twentieth century, a moment when Americans – most notably J.P. Morgan – were among the wealthiest and most avid collectors of Byzantine and medieval art. Outlining the market conditions for such treasures, the archaeological practices that authenticated them, and the art historical categories that gave them meaning, the paper demonstrates the extent to which the archaeological treasure was a social creation built by various players: finders, dealers, scholars, museums and collectors.     

Gender, nature, empire: women naturalists in nineteenth century British travel literature

Among the many British women abroad in the late nineteenth century were a number of travellers who toured the American West with a naturalist's pen and sketchbook. California, with its giant sequoias and redwoods, scenic Yosemite Valley and Sierra Nevada, and the Mediterranean flora of the southern coasts, especially attracted travellers with a naturalist orientation. We examine the botanical and naturalist writings and art of two well-known (and well-heeled) world travellers – Constance Gordon Cumming and Marianne North – and another more obscure British aristocrat, Theodora Guest, sister of the Duke of Westminster, who travelled in California in the late nineteenth century. We examine relationships among these elite women's association with the Romantic aesthetic and naturalist traditions, natural sciences, class-based associations between women and flowers, and emergent environmentalism. The works of these women indicate the process by which natural history rhetorics and styles became embedded within gender, class, and imperial relations; and how the division of natural history into professional and amateur domains relegated women to discursive margins.     

REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:
The Chief Governors: The Rise and Fall of Reform Government in Tudor Ireland, 1536–1588. By Ciaran Brady.
Natural Rights and the New Republicanism. By Michael P. Zuckert.
Lords of the Ascendancy. The Irish House of Lords and its Members 1600–1800. By Francis G. James.
Oliver Cromwell. By Peter Gaunt.
British Parliamentary Lists, 1660–1800. A Register. Edited by G. M. Ditchfield, David Hayton and Clyve Jones.
The Suffolk Poll Book 1710. (Raymonds Original Poll Books.) Exeter: S. A. and M. J. Raymond.
The Suffolk Poll Book 1790. (Raymonds Original Poll Books.) Exeter: S. A. and M. J. Raymond.
Lords of Parliament. Studies, 1714–1914. Edited by R. W. Davis.
The Sense of the People: Politics, Culture and Imperialism in England, 1715–1785. By Kathleen Wilson.
British 'Non-Elite' MPs, 1715–1820. By Ian R. Christie.
The Patriot Opposition to Walpole. Politics, Poetry, and National Myth, 1725–1742. By Christine Gerrard.
The Birth of Romantic Radicalism: War, Popular Politics and English Radical Reformism 1800–15. By Peter Spence.
Henry Brougham and his World: A Biography. By Trowbridge H. Ford.
Modern Wales. Politics, Places and People. By Kenneth O. Morgan.
The Liberal Ascendancy, 1830–1886. By T. A. Jenkins.
A Selection from the Diaries of Edward Henry Stanley, 15th Earl of Derby (1826–93) between September 1869 and March 1878. Edited by John Vincent.
The Age of Upheaval. Edwardian Politics 1899–1914. By David Brooks.
A Lonely Grave: The Life and Death of William Redmond. By Terence Denman.
Churchill and the Politics of War, 1940–1941. By Sheila Lawlor.
England Arise! The Labour Party and Popular Politics in the 1940s. By Steven Fielding, Peter Thompson and Nick Tiratsoo.     

The field, the museum and the lecture hall: the spaces of natural history in Victorian Cornwall

This paper contributes to our understandings of the geographies of science through an analysis of nineteenth–century natural history and, in particular, of the provincial natural history society. Focusing on nineteenth–century Cornwall and one of the main natural history societies operating in the county at that time – the Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society – it is argued that a set of key spaces were integral to the operations and outputs of such societies. The paper details the significance of the Penzance Society's museum, field sites and lecture hall as sites for communal work of local natural historians. They were also important, it is argued, in their construction of West Cornwall as a site of national natural scientific importance. Lastly, these spaces defined an agenda for regional scientific study. In particular, they promoted a taxonomic method that would transform local people into rigorous scientists and the local region into a 'book of nature'.     

La position de la France dans l'industrie européenne des machines à vapeur durant la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle∗

At least from the standpoint of the steam‐engine industry, the nature of industrial relations between France and other countries underwent a significant change during the half century which elapsed between 1860 and 1910. Towards 1860, the major characteristics are dispersion and nationalism; on the other hand, at the beginning of the twentieth century, while there is a new concentration on the national level, it confronts a distinct cosmopolitanism on the international level. To give an idea of this evolution, we will refer to two French works on steam‐engines, dated 1861–62 and 1913 respectively. They are of an essential practical nature and describe a large number of engines which were actually available on the market. Below, we will successively examine the early manufacturers existing through 1861–62, then those dating from 1913 only, and finally the establishments which have endured throughout the whole period under consideration. This study aims at pointing out the clear decadence of the French industry which became increasingly dependent upon foreign sources in the areas of technical creativeness as well as production.     

New evidence for the Byzantine Church of the Holy Apostles from Fatih Camii, Istanbul

The Church of the Holy Apostles was one of the most important buildings in Byzantine Constantinople. The mausolea of Constantine the Great (the main imperial burial place until the eleventh century) and of Justinian I were in the complex surrounding this vast cruciform church. Nothing of this complex appeared to have survived its demolition to clear the site of the Ottoman mosque complex of Fatih Camii after 1461. Fieldwork in 2001 recorded walls pre–dating the fifteenth–century phase of the mosque complex, still standing above ground level and apparently including a large rectilinear structure. This is identified as the Church of the Holy Apostles and an adjacent enclosure may be that containing the mausoleum of Constantine the Great. The reconstructed church plan resembles those of St John of Ephesus and St Mark's (San Marco), Venice – churches known to have been modelled on the Church of the Holy Apostles, Constantinople.     

The Ethnologist’s Kitchen: Lewis Henry Morgan and the Aztecs

In 1876, The North American Review published ‘Montezuma’s dinner,’ Lewis Henry Morgan’s devastating review of Hubert Howe Bancroft’s second volume of Native Races of the Pacific States. Morgan, who believed that Aztec social organization mimicked that of the tribes of the Great Lakes he had studied closely, sought to dispute the historical accounts of pre-conquest societies proposed by Romantic historians such as William H. Prescott. Morgan’s case against Bancroft and Prescott rested on the still well-entrenched notion that Spanish eyewitness accounts of the Conquest were a weak foundation on which to reconstruct Aztec political and social structures. Even as Morgan’s views on the Nahuas became discredited, ‘Montezuma’s dinner’ continued to be read and referenced, which may have prompted historian Charles Gibson to dispel its inaccuracies and preconceptions once and for all. Although Morgan’s review cannot teach us much about Nahua social organization or dining habits, it nevertheless represents a significant and overlooked chapter in the debate about historical evidence (including written sources and artifacts) that accompanied the configuration of history and ethnology as disciplines.     

Some churches of the Anglo-Saxon missionaries in southern Germany: a review of the evidence

An historical introduction outlines the main events in the lives of the principal missionaries – Willibald, Wynnebald, Waldburga, Sola – during the central years of the eighth century, and argues that Willibald was consecrated bishop of Erfurt. A review of the topographical and archaeological evidence concentrates on Eichstätt, whose street pattern reveals the layout of the early town and monastery; new interpretations are suggested for unusual features uncovered by excavation at the cathedral/monastery site. The excavations at Solnhofen are similarly re-examined. Overall, no substantial evidence is found for Anglo-Saxon influence on the church archaeology of the area.     

Preliminary Report on the Excavation of the 17th-Century Anglo-Dutch East-Indiaman Avondster in Bay of Galle, Sri Lanka

The Avondster was a 17th century British ship captured by the Dutch and used by the United Dutch East India Company (VOC) trading with Asia until it was wrecked in Galle Harbour, Sri Lanka in 1659. The shipwreck was found in 1997 to be in very good condition but under threat from development in the harbour. From 2001–2004 an archaeological project was implemented by the Dutch/Sri Lankan Mutual Heritage Centre. The aims were to record and recover important cultural material as well as to build up the capacity of a Sri Lankan Maritime Archaeology Unit for implementing future work.
© 2005 The Nautical Archaeology Society     

MYCENAEAN PICTORIAL POTTERY FROM CYPRUS IN OXFORD

Summary. Six fragments of Mycenaean pictorial vases picked up at different sites in Cyprus are described and discussed. Comparison with other such material and chemical analysis of most of the fragments lead to the conclusion that the original vases were made in the north-east Peloponnese. These and other findings suggest the possibility of a pottery export trade during the 14th–earlier 13th century BC (Late Helladic IIIA2–IIIB1), such as is documented for 6th century BC Athens.     

THE CULTURAL BIOGRAPHY OF A PHOENICIAN MUSHROOM-LIPPED JUG

Summary.   This paper is the biography of a single piece of pottery found in a tomb in Sardinia. The form is one that is common in Levantine sites in the Mediterranean in the Early Iron Age, but this single vessel, its history, context, and form, allows a greater story to be told: it points to a second wave of Levantine exploration and colonization – probably Tyrian – that built upon a Euboean–northern Phoenician initial phase in the eighth century BC.     

Man vs. Machine: Betty’s Hope and the Industrialisation of 19th-Century Caribbean Factories

Factories of the 19th century have often been viewed as a secondary aspect of Caribbean plantations. However, factories of this period played a vital role in the expansion of cross-Atlantic trade as well as the development of modern social systems. The introduction of steam to the plantation, not just in the factory, revolutionised productive methodologies, spaces and products, forging new modes of manufacture, distribution and worker narratives. This article will discuss the development of steam technologies at the Betty’s Hope, Antigua, the flagship plantation on the island.     

The temptations of cult: Roman martyr piety in the age of Gregory the Great

Pope Gregory the Great (590–604) was arguably the most important Roman writer and civic leader of the early middle ages; the Roman martyrs were certainly the most important cult figures of the city. However modern scholarship on the relationship between Gregory and the Roman martyrs remains curiously underdeveloped, and has been principally devoted to comparison of the gesta martyrum with the stories of Italian holy men and women (in particular St Benedict) told by Gregory in his Dialogues; in the past generation the Dialogues have come to be understood as a polemic against the model of sanctity proposed by the Roman martyr narratives. This paper explores Gregory's role in the development of Roman martyr cult in the context of the immediate social world of Roman clerical politics of the sixth and seventh centuries. Gregory's authority as bishop of Rome was extremely precarious: the Roman clerical hierarchy with its well-developed protocols did not take kindly to the appearance of Gregory and his ascetic companions. In the conflict between Gregory and his followers, and their opponents, both sides used patronage of martyr cult to advance their cause. In spite of the political necessity of engaging in such 'competitive generosity', Gregory was also concerned to channel martyr devotion, urging contemplation on the moral achievements of the martyrs – which could be imitated in the present – as opposed to an aggressive and unrestrained piety focused on their death. Gregory's complex attitude to martyr cult needs to be differentiated from that which was developed over a century later, north of the Alps, by Carolingian readers and copyists of gesta martyrum and pilgrim guides, whose approach to the Roman martyrs was informed by Gregory's own posthumous reputation.     

The chronology and sources of the early Irish annals

Chronological divergence between the different early Irish annals has hampered the use of their many unique records of events in Ireland, Britain and the European continent as historical sources. This paper reviews recent work which has demonstrated that their original chronological apparatus consisted of a kalend (Kł) followed, until at least the mid-seventh century, by the ferial of 1 January, and from this a consistent chronology has been restored for the annals over the years AD 1–722. In addition, critical examination of their regnal and episcopal successions has established that the 'world history' section of these annals and Bede's Chronica maiora are not mutually dependent, but rather share a common source which has been identified as a kalend-plus-ferial chronicle composed by Rufinus of Aquileia in the early fifth century.