Fault, Breakdown, and the Church of England's Involvement in the 1969 Divorce Reform

The 1969 reform of the divorce laws was part of a wider trendtowards the relaxation of family law that took place in mostwestern countries in the 1960s and 1970s.In Britain, the legislationresulted only in a regime of partial no-fault divorce. Thiswas the result of a compromise between church and state, whichis investigated in this article using Lambeth Palace papersand the archives of the Church of England's Moral Welfare Council. In particular, we focus on the origins of and reasons for theprofound shift in the Church's views on divorce that occurredin the 1960s. These had as much to do with changing views asto the source of sexual morality and the difficulties of imposingan external moral code. However, because divorce law reflectsa view of marriage, it was impossible for the Church to acceptfull no-fault divorce, which would have meant divorce by mutualconsent and have threatened the idea of marriage as a vocation.The compromise reached allowed the Church to go on treatingChristian and civil marriage as compatible. ^*The authors' names appear in alphabetical order.     

Our Schools,Our Country: American Evangelicals,Public Schools,and the Supreme Court Decisions of 1962 and 1963

American evangelicals have long maintained a tense and paradoxical relationship to mainstream American culture. This article explores the effect of the 1962 and 1963 United States Supreme Court school decisions on that perennial tension. Unlike many conservatives, conservative evangelicals greeted the court's 1962 Engel decision to ban state‐written prayer in public schools with cautious approval; however, evangelicals saw the 1963 Schempp decision to ban Bible reading and the Lord's Prayer from those schools as an affront. The unique relationship between evangelical belief and America's public school system forced evangelicals to reconsider their special place in both schools and society as a whole. They concluded with surprising unanimity that those school decisions had done more than forced evangelical belief out of America's public schools; the decisions had pushed evangelicals themselves out of America's mainstream culture.     

'A Matter of Regret': Britain, the 1983 Grendada Crisis, and the Special Relationship

When the USA launched a military intervention in Grenada inOctober 1983 it was against the wishes of its closest ally,Britain, who felt deliberately misled as to Washington's intentions.As a former British colony and member of the Commonwealth, withthe Queen as Head of State, Grenada remained of interest toBritain. This article will provide a detailed analysis of Anglo-Grenadianrelations and the events and contacts between the USA and Britainduring and after the 1983 crisis and assess the role of the‘special relationship’ in shaping Britain's reactionto the intervention. I conclude that the conventional wisdomthat Britain was ‘in the dark’ about what was happeningis not entirely accurate. ^*The views expressed in this article represent those of theauthor alone.     

The Canadian Rebellion,the American South,and Slavery

ABSTRACT

In the past few decades, thanks in large part to the work of several historians that appears in my edited collection, Revolutions Across Borders: Jacksonian America and the Canadian Rebellion (2019), there is a growing trend to consider the Canadian Rebellion within an American historical and historiographical context. Despite this exciting new research, most studies on the Rebellion and the United States continue to focus on the northern borderland. However, the Canadian Rebellion was a significant event that gained attention all over the United States, including the American South. Similar to the North, the American South was also invested in the outcome of the Rebellion. This was due to one reason: slavery. By specifically focusing on the American South and, more importantly, its influence on American foreign policy during the period, I want to encourage historians to take a more definitive stance; that slavery—just like the Panic of 1837, the Anglo-American rapprochement of thepost-War-of-1812 period, or the fear of British retaliation—played a major role in the United States Government’s official opposition to the Rebellion.     

Social Democracy as a Way of Life: Fellowship and the Socialist Union, 1951-9

This articles considers the political cultural of the SocialistUnion (1951–9), and influential ethical socialist groupin the 1950s' Labour Party. Specifically, it discusses its uniqueintellectual influences and the legacy of its (somewhat different)previous manifestation as the Socialist Vanguard Group (1929–50).Emphasis is placed on the importance of the notion of fellowshipto the politics of this tradition and how this shaped a distinctpolitical and moral identity. Whilst it has been largely overlookedby historians, the Union had a considerable impact on Britishsocialism in the 1950s, through its journal, Socialist Commentary,and through leading members like Allan Flanders and Rita Hinden. ^* Special thanks are due to those former Unionists who sharedtheir experiences with me: Jay Blumler, Annemarie Flanders,and especially, Rene Saran. Thanks also to Peter Alexander,Nina Fishman, John Kelly, Peter Mandler, Mark Minion, Nick Tiratsoo,Hugh Wilford, and Leo Zeilig who read previous drafts of thispiece and to those participants in seminars at the Instituteof Historical Research who have commented on it. I am gratefulto George Bain for allowing me access to his papers at Warwick.     

'You Cannot Hate the Bastard Who is Trying to Kill You...'Combat and Ideology in the British Army in the War Against Germany, 1939-45

During the Second World War the British Army faced a difficulttask when it tried to transform recruits who were mostly peace-lovingcivilians, into men prepared to kill. This article examineshow it went about doing so and how front-line soldiers respondedto the demand that they kill their German (and Italian) oppositenumbers. It also analyses the extent to which front-line soldiersin the British Army retained a sense of a shared common humanitywith their enemies that transended the political divisions ofthe war. It does so by analysing the ways in which they treatedtheir enemies when they were completely at their mercy, eitheras prisoners of war or as civilians in occupied territory. ¹N.McCallum, Journey with a Pistol (London,1959), 105.     

'Christ's Kingdom in Scotland': Scottish Presbyterianism, Social Reform, and the Edwardian Crisis

This article examines the response of Scottish Presbyterianreformers to the socioeconomic and political dimensions of the‘Edwardian Crisis’. For such individuals the circumstancesof the early twentieth century, despite the undoubted difficultiesthey posed, offered the opportunity to bring about a modernversion of the ‘godly commonwealth’, with the principalmeans of realizing this being Christianized social reform. Thearticle focuses on how the ‘social problem’ wasanalysed; the challenge of socialism; the solutions offered;and the ultimate fate of the ‘social gospel’ ¹I am grateful to the British Academy for a Research and TravelExpenses Grant which enabled me to visit Scottish archives andlibraries; and to my colleagues David Nash and Paul O'Flinnand this journal's editors and anonymous referees for theirconstructive comments on earlier drafts. The quote is from JohnW. Gulland MP, Christ's Kingdom in Scotland or the Social Missionof the United Free Church (Edinburgh, 1906).     

Cultural Nationalism,Anti-Americanism,and the Federal Defense of the Canadian Football League

ABSTRACT

During the 1960s nationalism flourished in Canada as did American influence, both cultural and economically, as well as separatist sentiment in Quebec. The Canadian federal government became more interventionist to combat threats to Canadian sovereignty: internal threats from Quebec and external threats from the United States. The federal government used sport as a nation-building tool and eventually acted to protect the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a display of resistance to Americanization and in an attempt to unite French and English. Canadian football had become a symbol of the nation and therefore could be used by the government in a symbolic way to resist cultural imperialism and promote national unity. On two occasions the federal government acted to ensure the CFL preserved its Canadian identity; first, to prevent Canadian-based football teams from joining an American professional football league, and second, to prevent American-based teams from joining the CFL. John Munro was the key Canadian politician who formulated policy to protect Canadian football.     

Diplomatic compromises between the United States and Japan during the Nanjing Massacre

ABSTRACT

During its assault on Nanjing, the Japanese Army bombarded and sank the USS Panay, an American gunship, straining the relations between Japan and the United States. During the Nanjing Massacre, to ease tensions with the United States, Japan allowed the staff of the American embassy in Nanjing to make an early return to the city. While investigating allegations that Japanese troops had trespassed on American property and kidnapped and raped a Chinese woman, the American diplomat John M. Allison was struck in the face by a Japanese soldier. The U.S. government exerted pressure on Japan over what was referred to as the “Allison Incident”: under orders from Tokyo, the Japanese occupying force in Nanjing apologized to Allison and placed the officers and soldiers involved in the incident under court-martial. The incident was thereby resolved. However, amidst the furor of the “Allison Incident,” the Chinese woman who had been assaulted was forgotten by both the American and Japanese governments as well as by public opinion. The Japanese soldiers were placed under court-martial not for raping the Chinese woman, but rather for striking an American diplomat. The U.S. government received a great many reports on the atrocities committed by the Japanese Army, but in policy and deed, the American response was limited to safeguarding its national interests in China.     

The Cross or the Double-Cross: Roman Catholicism,Anti-Communism,and the Political Theology of Venerable Fulton J. Sheen

The Venerable and Most Reverend Fulton J. Sheen was an advocate of American Catholic patriotism and opponent to the spread of totalitarianism, especially communism. He grounded the two positions in what I call the “ecclesial foundation” in which he defined American citizenship in terms of membership in religious institutions. In Sheen's view, religious institutions provided the ultimate, spiritual ends for humankind. Therefore, the American government had to protect, above all, religious liberties at home and abroad. Totalitarian regimes, which Sheen believed sought to replace spiritual with material ends of the state, violently deprived their subjects of religious liberty and, therefore, embodied the spirit of the anti-Christ. Only the Vatican had the spiritual and moral authority to identify this spirit, and—especially after the Second World War—only America had the military and economic power to confront it. Ironically, this argument was an appropriation of the old Nativist arguments against the Vatican itself. The Nativist argument was that religious liberty of Protestant churches was the source for political authority of the American state to use against the absolute, arbitrary, foreign dictator in Rome. Sheen's appropriation and redeployment of the old narrative persuaded millions of Americans to oppose totalitarian ideologies and view, after centuries of distrust, American Catholics as loyal citizens.     

American Presbyterians,Freedmen's Missions,and the Nile Valley: Missionary History,Racial Orders,and Church Politics on the World Stage

In the second half of the nineteenth century, American Presbyterian “home” and “foreign” missions developed parallel and mutually reinforcing policies towards freed slaves in Egypt, Sudan, and the U.S.A. as well as towards Egypt's indigenous Christians, the Copts. Yet the racial ideologies and social hierarchies of these three countries reflected distinct historical trajectories of migration and conquest. In the Nile Valley, American missionaries struggled to understand, address, and sometimes revise Egyptian and Sudanese social hierarchies, which they found alternately idiosyncratic or unjust. This essay conjectures that these interactions, in the long run, induced the Nile Valley missionaries to confront the lingering injustices and incongruities in American social hierarchies, particularly in the mid‐ to late twentieth century. In this way, the “foreign” mission experience had a backflow for missionaries and their church by raising questions about American racial orders and by strengthening a commitment to civil rights and social justice agendas.     

The Nature of Decision-making in the Post-war New Towns Policy: The Case of Basildon, c. 1945-70

The nature of post-war economic and urban planning has beencontroversial. This article examines the problem through a ‘grass-roots’study of the establishment and the early social history of Basildon,a representative example of post-war new towns. What views didthe various sections of the central state, local governmentand residents hold towards the new towns policy? The articleconsiders the relation between the new town Development Corporationand governmental departments, local government and tenants.This case study indicates that the plural and complex natureof decision-making based on informal and voluntary negotiationsmade the new towns policy inconsistent, and suggests that residents'voices were excluded from the process of decision-making. ^* suge{at}ier.hit-u.ac.jp     

'Very Peculiar Circumstances': Walter Runciman and the National Government, 1931-3

Walter Runciman's role in the crisis of 1931 and its aftermathis not as well known as those of his Liberal contemporaries,Samuel and Simon. It was, however, at least as important indetermining the outcome. Runciman was not a member of the firstNational Cabinet of August 1931, but he reluctantly acceptedthe Board of Trade, on flattering terms, in November. Highlyregarded by MacDonald, he developed an effective working andpersonal relationship with Neville Chamberlain, and togetherthey shaped the government's tariff policy. It was a compromisethat ensured the long-term survival of the National Governmentand defined the fiscal policy that would replace free trade.Runciman remained convinced throughout his years in office thathe was remaining true to Liberal principles—using tariffbargaining to reduce the general level of tariffs—andthat the national crisis and the changing economic climate justifiedhis compromise with the Conservatives. ¹ I am grateful to my colleagues, Professor Bill Luckin andDr Gaynor Johnson, and to Dr David Dutton, for their commentswhile this article was being written. The quotation in the titleis from Lord Shuttleworth to Runciman, 18 November 1935, RuncimanPapers, Robinson Library, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.WR221     

The power of the “Stockpile”: American aid and China’s Wartime everyday

ABSTRACT

This article argues that American and British narratives about the existence of a “stockpile” of Chinese goods had a powerful impact on US-China relations, China’s war effort, and China’s wartime everyday. Focusing on both the material and discursive construction of the so-called stockpile in the early 1940s, the work seeks to deconstruct a powerful symbol that was long used by both British and American officials (particularly in the US War Department) to delegitimize the Nationalist government’s war effort against Japan. Drawing on sources collected at archives in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Taiwan, the article seeks to rethink many commonly held assumptions about American aid and to reveal the powerful influence that the symbolic presence of the stockpile had in shaping Sino-American relations in the wartime period and beyond.     

‘One Chief Letter Office at New-York’: Packet Ships,Imperial Administration,and the Geography of the American Post, 1692–1783

ABSTRACT

The postal system in the American colonies is an understudied arm of the first British Empire. Although outside the main institutions of colonial administration, the post office followed the overall periodisation of imperial affairs, as America waxed and waned in London’s attention. This directly shaped the geography of the post office, because American officials focused on the post’s ability to connect American towns, while British officials emphasised the transatlantic connection of the postal packet ships. The packets, however, were not as important to transatlantic communications as they imagined, which led the American officials to resist when London wanted to make New York City the headquarters of the American post.     

Adulteration and Food Law, 1899-1939

Contemporary concerns about food safety and regulation haveimportant historical antecedents in the Victorian debate aboutfood adulteration which led to the 1875 Sale of Food and DrugsAct, the basis of British food law until 1955. This articlereconsiders the optimistic historiographical view of the Victorianfood legislation, emphasizing its limited impact on the generalprocess of food production and distribution before the SecondWorld War. In the 1930s adulteration was still a significantcommercial ploy. The analysis centres on State-business relations,drawing comparative perspectives from the manner in which bigfood companies shaped the regulatory framework in the USA. InBritain the government assumed a limited regulatory role, persuadedin the 1920s and 1930s that market forces and the commitmentof large producers to quality and scientific research were betterguarantees of safety than statutory legislation. But this wasa risky strategy: big producers were only responsible for aminority of overall output, and the State made no effort toexamine wider manufacturing conditions. ^*This article has been written with the assistance of a grantfrom the Leverhulme Trust.     

The Supreme Court Argument that Saved the Union: Richard Henry Dana, Jr., and the Prize Cases

On January 1, 1863, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, claiming constitutional authority to do so “as a fit and necessary war measure.” The epic struggle between North and South had been raging for nearly two years. There were over a million soldiers under arms. At Antietam there had been more than 20,000 casualties in the bloodiest single day of battle in American history. ¹ But was it, in point of law, a war?