'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).     

The Reception of Sir Edward Elgar 1918-c.1934: A Reassessment

It is generally believed that the reputation of Sir Edward Elgarexperienced a disastrous reversal of fortune after the GreatWar. This has conventionally been explained by the changingmusical tastes of the public and by a postwar reaction againstthe unappealingly ‘Edwardian’ character of Elgar'smusic. Both claims, I argue, have been exaggerated. Examiningevidence from concert programmes, gramophone record sales, andBBC broadcasts, this article demonstrates that Elgar continuedto enjoy estimable popularity after 1918. The article also considersthe way in which Elgar came to be seen as an archetype of ‘Englishness’and ‘Edwardianism’ in music. With a legacy of virulentattacks on the composer's ‘complacency’ and ‘jingoism’,critical attention by the 1930s had been refocused onto a perceivedrural nostalgia within Elgar's music. This atavism complementedinterwar visions of the Edwardian period as a prelapsarian ‘goldenage’. The implications of these changing perspectiveson Elgar are twofold. They can be seen to have laid the foundationsfor our ‘mature’ understanding of Elgar's life andwork; and they suggest that our views of the interwar reactionagainst the past might require profound and wide-ranging revision. ^*I am grateful to Professor Hugh Cunningham, Dr Peter Martland,and Dr David Turley for their comments on an earlier versionof this article.     

'Unwitting Assets?': British Intellectuals and the Congress for Cultural Freedom

The purpose of this article is to document the activities, inBritain during the 1950s, of the Congress for Cultural Freedom(CCF), a body of anti-communist intellectuals based in Pariswhich received covert subsidies from the Central IntelligenceAgency. Although initially unpopular in Britain, the CCF eventuallywon significant support among the country's literary, political,and academic intellectuals, including most notably the youngLabour politicians known as the Gaitskellites. While suggestingthat the influence of the CCF, and therefore of the CIA, oncold war Britain was greater than has previously been supposed,the article also shows how the behaviour of British intellectualsoften confounded and frustrated the intentions of their secretiveAmerican patrons. ^* I am grateful to Brandon High, David Martin, Jasper Ridley,and Frances Stonor Saunders for their comments on earlier draftsof this article, the research for which was funded in part byMiddlesex University and the Fulbright Commission.     

The One Nation Group: A Tory Approach to Backbench Politics and Organisation, 1950-55

The One Nation Group enjoys a mythic place in the history ofthe postwar Conservative Party. It has often been portrayedas being of extraordinary importance both for its early writings,One Nation (1950) and Change is Our Ally (1954), and for a behind-the-scenesparliamentary influence seen to exceed greatly that which wouldnormally be expected from a private dining group of ConservativeMPs. The group, with its firm association with ‘One Nation’Conservatism, has been seen to be at the fore of modernizingforces in the party in the early postwar years, and to haveplayed a pivotal role in the reshaping of Conservatism in thisperiod. This study examines the group via its publications,minutes of its weekly discussions, memoranda, and correspondence.These provide insight into the nature of backbench Conservatismand shed light upon the dynamics, activities, and beliefs ofa body that swiftly established itself as by far and away themost prestigious and respected of the unofficial Conservativeparliamentary groups. ¹I would like to acknowledge my debt to the following for givingfreely of their time in interview or correspondence for thisstudy: the late the Rt. Hon. the Lord Alport, TD, DL; the Rt.Hon. the Lord Carr of Hadley, FIC; the Rt. Hon. the Lord Gilmourof Craigmillar; the late Sir Gilbert Longden, MBE; and the lateJ. Enoch Powell, MBE; and two other sources who wished to remainanonymous. Stuart Ball, Nicholas Crowson, Dona Diani, and JohnRamsden have all read this article at various stages and offeredhelpful advice and criticism, and I would also like to thankJohn Barnes for advice when this project was in an earlier incarnation.     

The 1948 war veterans and postwar reconstruction in Israel

This article deals with the characteristics of postwar reconstruction in the State of Israel at the end of the 1948 war and during the early 1950s, focusing on the patterns and priorities of reconstruction of society as a whole and the rehabilitation of veteran soldiers in particular. The article addresses the social impact of the rehabilitation of the 1948 war veterans on the emerging Israeli society, including the creation of a social distinction between different sectors undergoing rehabilitation in terms of employment and housing. The article also discusses the social and political protests that accompanied the rehabilitation of the demobilized soldiers who campaigned for recognition and commemoration.     

Toward an Understanding of Canada’s International Identity

ABSTRACT

This article examines the construction of Canada’s postwar international identity and how that identity continues to influence Canadian foreign policy, especially with the United States. Furthermore, the article illustrates how changes in Canadian policy necessitated by the Trump Administration may impact Canada’s international identity in the future. The article argues Canadian policy makers have consistently constructed an international identity in opposition to the United States and continue to use the US as a reflective tool in shaping their own policy. The first part of the article briefly examines the concept of state identity outlining both type and role variants and their relevance to foreign policy and this is followed in the second part by a discussion of Canada’s postwar international identity.     

Making Homes by Machine: Images, Ideas and Myths in the Diffusion of Non-Traditional Housing in Britain 1942-54

To understand more fully the widespread—and arguably mistaken—postwaradoption of prefabricated and systems construction, scholarshave sought to place this process in its broader social andpolitical context. In so doing they have located, apparently,a subversion of rational public decision-making, where a widelybelieved mythology was purposefully constructed by self-servinginterests. This erroneously equated non-traditional housingwith modernity and efficiency. This article suggests this tobe a false reading. Undoubtedly a strong tendency existed amongmanufacturers and architectural ideologues to eulogize nontraditionalmethods. However, despite this ubiquitous promotion, key sectorsamong the architectural profession, public sector purchasersand other decision-makers overtly rejected, or remained questioninglysceptical towards, modernistic claims and creeds. Instead, decisionswere largely determined by contemporary necessity, a rationalinterpretation of a broader national interest and the best advicethen available. Importantly, non-traditional performance wasconstantly investigated and largely validated. To speak, therefore,of a determining mythology is to largely misconstrue contemporaryunderstanding. ¹ First presented as a paper to the Fourth International Conferenceon Urban History, Venice. I am also indebted to Ian Inksterand Jeff Hill for their comments on an earlier draft of thisarticle.     

The particular kindness of friends: ex-Fascists,clientage and the transition to democracy in Italy, 1945–1960

This article examines some of the social implications of Italy’s limited purge of the bureaucracy and Fascist political class following the Second World War. Using the postwar personal correspondence of former Fascist government ministers Giuseppe Bottai (1895–1959) and Dino Alfieri (1886–1966), the article analyses the informal networks that promoted the continued influence of these ex-Fascists with high-ranking bureaucrats and other prominent individuals (such as Pope Paul VI and Aldo Moro). Thanks to the long-standing social practice of the raccomandazione, Bottai and Alfieri maintained their Fascist-era connections well into the postwar period, often serving as intermediaries between ‘ordinary Italians’ and governmental, political and cultural elites. Although they no longer held political power, these ex-Fascists represented a class of ‘alternative elites’ unassociated with the democratic values of the new Republic.     

Ghosts,Memory, and the Right to the Divided City: Resisting Amnesia in Beirut City Centre

Violently divided cities are incubators of ethnic conflicts. Under the auspices of postwar reconstruction, these cities are supposedly disciplined into peace through the regeneration of the city centre, including privatization, commercial adaptation and gentrification strategies. Such dynamics render city centre space amnesiac, with no reference to the history of sectarian violence, and exclusivist by limiting public access. Rather than foster peacebuilding, city centre regeneration exposes the dangerous weakness of the neoliberal peace built on accommodating ethnic and socioeconomic divisions. This paper connects Lefebvre's right‐to‐the‐city to non‐sectarian social movements’ struggle to forge participatory democracy in Beirut's city centre. A key aspect of these movements’ activities is to reprogramme memory—cosmopolitan and inclusivist—into the city centre, a project supporting peacebuilding.     

The Ethical Question in Postwar Central America and the Mutilated Good in Rodrigo Rey Rosa’s El Cojo Bueno

This article examines how the novel El cojo bueno (1996) by Guatemalan writer Rodrigo Rey Rosa posits an ethics that reconstellates the motifs and assumptions that have informed the revolutionary and transition-to-peace efforts of Central America. Through a careful reading of the text, I demonstrate how the novel pushes against the limits of the neoliberal ‘culture of peace’ and gives expression to an ethics that is attuned to the complex sociopolitical conditions of the postwar period. More specifically, I show how the novel develops a moral vision that registers but also resists the impunity, violence, and social disaffection that have devastated the region. The novel dramatizes what the moral life has come to mean in postwar Central America, namely, that it is a matter of grappling with the antinomies of freedom and unfreedom, of compassion and cold survivalism, and refusing to rest easy with either option. Ultimately, El cojo bueno marks a key moment when a new conception of ethics begins to take shape in postwar Central American literature.     

The Politics of Citizenship in 1940s Britain: The British Nationality Act

The article examines the enactment of the British NationalityAct, 1948. The legislation created a legal status—Citizenshipof the UK and Colonies—that included Britons and ‘colonial’British subjects under a single definition of British citizenship,and entrenched their right to enter the UK. Between 1948 and1962, some 500, 000 non-white British subjects entered underthe legislation, despite documented evidence of elite suspicionof non-white Commonwealth migration. The article argues thatthis apparent contradiction can only be understood by examiningthe legislation in the context of past migration patterns andBritain's international position in 1948. The legislation wasonly marginally related to migration; it was rather an attemptto maintain a uniform definition of subjecthood in the faceof Canada's unilateral introduction of its own citizenship,and it was an affirmation of Britain's place as head of a Commonwealthstructure founded on the relationship between the UK and theOld Dominions. ^* For comments on earlier drafts, I owe my thanks to John Dorwin,Katie Goebs, Iain McLean, and Desmond King.     

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     

The Tax Threshold: Policy, Principles, and Poverty

In the absence of an independent poverty standard, postwar Britishgovernments have tended to use current, politically determinedsocial security scales (from Unemployment Assistance in the1930s to Income Support today) as their definition of minimallyadequate income levels, commonly known as an ‘officialpoverty line’. A basic principle of taxation since thedays of Adam Smith, however, has been that incomes below theminimum income required for socially defined necessities shouldbe free of tax. The personal tax allowance which determinesthe income tax-paying threshold thus also provides a practicaldefinition of such an official poverty line. Royal Commissionsand official committees since the nineteenth century have endorsedSmith's principle, but it only acquired major political significanceafter the Second World War when income tax began to affect lowearners, particularly after the 1960s when poverty was ‘rediscovered’in the UK. In spite of this potential coincidence of purpose,a review of evidence and interviews with officials shows thatthere has been no co-ordination of policy between the Treasuryand Inland Revenue responsible for determining the level ofthe tax allowances, and the Social Security ministries responsiblefor the minimum benefit scales. The tax threshold has consequentlycontinued to be determined by considerations of political economyand administration and not by the alleviation of poverty. ^* This paper is part of a larger project on concepts of povertyand need in British income maintenance systems, chiefly the‘Assistance’ schemes which ran from 1934 to 1966.I am grateful to the many people who have helped with the project,regrettably too numerous to name here. I am particularly indebtedto Sir Norman Price and Sir Kenneth Stowe, James Meade, DellaNevitt, and). Leonard Nicholson for information on the tax issues,and want to record my thanks to them and to Fran Bennett, JohnHills, Chris Pond, and Adrian Sinfield, and especially RodneyLowe, as well as participants in seminars at the Universitiesof Edinburgh and Essex, and in Budapest, for their advice onthis paper.     

Corruption,Legal Modernisation and Judicial Practice in Afghanistan

¹1. I am grateful to anonymous ASR reviewers for insightful comments. An earlier preliminary version of this work appeared as ‘Afghanistan: Corruption and injustice in the judicial system’. Further research and fieldwork has been undertaken within the framework of activities of the Fernand Braudel International Fellowship for Experienced Researchers (Paris) and Rechtskulturen Fellowship (Berlin). I discussed some of the ideas illustrated here in a presentation at the Faculty of Law of Humboldt University (Berlin) in January 2013.View all notesAfghanistan’s justice system is currently at a crucial and troubled stage of development that will determine its effectiveness. This article focuses on the phenomenon of corruption inside judicial institutions. By integrating the analysis of narratives of corruption with the observation of judicial practice and a critical approach to the reconstruction process, I argue that in Afghanistan, the phenomenon of corruption can be understood in terms of its “double institutionalisation”, whereby mechanisms of exchange and of compensation, both already affirmed at the level of social practice, find a possibility of reaffirmation (of re-institutionalisation) in the legal system itself. The creation of an economic system that depends on international aid, the consolidation of a state apparatus over-determined by warlordism and foreign influences, and the process of legal modernisation itself all play an important role in the re-institutionalisation and radicalisation of corruption. By taking into consideration this scenario, I adopt an ethnographic perspective to explore some of the effects of corruption on the work of judges and on the access to justice itself.     

Decolonizing branded peacebuilding: abjected women talk back to the Finnish Women,Peace and Security agenda

This article interrogates the sexual ideology of Finnish peacebuilding, the country's foreign policy brand and the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda by examining the experiences of women ‘written out of history’. Using the method of ‘writing back’ I juxtapose the construction of a gender‐friendly global peacebuilder identity with experiences in Finland after the Lapland War (1944–45) and in post‐conflict Aceh, Indonesia (1976–2005). Although being divided temporarily and geographically, these two contexts form an intimate part of the abjected and invisible part of the Finnish WPS agenda, revealing a number of colonial and violent overtones of postwar reconstruction: economic and political postwar dystopia of Skolt Sámi and neglect of Acehnese women's experiences in branding the peace settlement and its implementation as a success. Jointly they critique and challenge both the gender/women‐friendly peacebuilder identity construction of Finland and locate the sexual ideology of WPS to that of political economy and post‐conflict political, legal and economic reforms. The article illustrates how the Finnish foreign policy brand has constructed the country as a global problem‐solver and peacemaker, drawing on the heteronormative myth of already achieved gender equality on the one hand and, on the other, tamed asexual female subjectivity: the ‘good woman’ as peacebuilder or victim of violence. By drawing attention to violent effects of the global WPS agenda demanding decolonialization, I suggest that the real success of the WPS agenda should be evaluated by those who have been ‘written out’.     

A False Start? British Perspectives on Italy’s Participation in the Early Phases of the European Economic Integration Process: The Case of the OEEC (1948–1952)

Abstract

This article examines how Anglo-Italian relationships unfolded in the aftermath of the Second World War within the framework of the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC). By analysing Italy’s participation in the early stages of the European integration process through the lens of British diplomacy, this contribution aims to shed new light on the international dimension of Rome’s post-1945 political and economic strategies. First, the article considers the main concerns that characterized Italy’s involvement in the OEEC activities between the late 1940s and the early 1950s: the promotion of the circulation of the intra- and extra-European manpower and the liberalization of trade and payments. Second, rather than making a ‘classic’ comparison between the divergent policies – particularly the internal and international economic programmes – that Britain and Italy pursued within the OEEC, this article highlights the extent to which an ‘asymmetry of power’ impacted Italy’s ability to realize its strategies. To conclude, the essay assesses how bilateral and multilateral relationships in the OEEC arena mutually contributed to the shaping of Italy and Britain’s patterns of post-WWII economic reconstruction.     

The Brazilian State Data Bank

Abstract

This study examines metropolitan segmentation in educational attainment during the postwar era. Employing a multilevel analytical approach with U.S. Census data drawn from IPUMS, it finds urban-suburban distinctions shifted and grew in magnitude. While students in central cities enjoyed an educational advantage in 1940, by 1980 it was suburban youth who clearly exhibited higher levels of attainment. Various explanations for these developments are considered as topics for further exploration, including the significance of suburban development in regional economic growth and the changing dynamics of racial inequality in education. Particular attention is devoted to methodological issues in conducting this sort of analysis with these data.     

National Identity and Everyday Cultures in Contemporary France: Re-Constructing Frenchness through ‘Third Kind’ Representations of the Cités (1960–2000)*

This article examines the role played in France by the culture du quotidien (everyday culture) in establishing a more integrated image of the nation and identity. It suggests that since the 1960s, dominant media discourse in France, and artistic representations of the urban periphery, have often perpetuated an image of the cités as menacing spaces detached from the national community and emblematic of France's postmodern crisis. Focusing on everyday cultural creations about the Grand Ensemble in La Courneuve, it argues that the ‘ordinariness’ of the lives these creations convey, along with the residents’ cultural practices and their continuing sense of belonging, effectively treats geography, culture and history in a way that questions the standard externalising discourse about the cités. Despite their limits in terms of circulation, these cultural artefacts of a ‘third kind’ offer images that contribute to challenging the ‘banlieues myth’ and help re-construct a French identity perceived under threat. 1 ?[1] I express my gratitude to Dr Karima Laachir, Professor Kate Ince and Dr Jackie Clarke for their support, comments and advice, while preparing this article. I am also indebted to the challenging and inspiring contributions made by the participants of the ASMCF conference held in Manchester in September 2008. Finally, my thanks go to the inhabitants of La Courneuve who, like Dr Roger Amar, kindly accepted to discuss their views on French contemporary society.