Book-hunters and Book-huntresses: Gender and Cultures of Antiquarian Book Collecting in Britain,c. 1880–1900

The late-nineteenth century saw private book collecting gain a renewed respectability and cultural cachet as a leisure pursuit for the upper- and middle classes. This paper examines representations of collectors in the literature belonging to a new genre of writing which emerged for the ‘book-hunter’: a late-Victorian variant of the book-collecting passion which could encompass aesthetes and antiquarians as well as aspiring amateurs of more moderate means. It will show how, during the 1880s and 1890s, this particular type of collecting practice was used rhetorically in a range of printed material to venerate ‘gentlemanly’ book-buying, in contrast to feminine forms of engagement with old books in particular. In spite of women's comparative lack of advantage in the market for antiquarian editions, however, I argue that such a critique would not have been articulated so forcefully had women not been taking a determined interest in rare books. Evidence from central London booksellers during this period suggests that a variety of women were making antiquarian collections of their own. Male bibliophiles who denigrated female book-buyers in the periodical press were attempting to partially invent a homosocial tradition of collecting in order to distance their own pursuit from what they saw as the more emasculating elements of modern consumerism. This was a response not just to developments in contemporary print culture, but also to the growing appreciation of second-hand goods of all kinds among affluent female consumers with aesthetic and literary tastes shaped independently of male judgments.     

The People of Northern England and Attitudes Towards the Scots, 1639–1651: ‘The Lamb and the Dragon Cannot be Reconciled’.

Abstract

During the late eighteenth and first part of the nineteenth century, certain moors and fields in south Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire were repeatedly used as sites for meetings, demonstrations, and other political gatherings. Historians have recently indicated how rituals, symbols, and texts helped to shape the political culture of radical societies and trade unions in this period. This article argues that the semirural landscape was another, perhaps more enduring, layer to this culture. Luddites, strikers, radicals, and Chartists employed particular sites, not just as venues for political activity, but also as an essential part of the symbol and ritual of protest. Mass meetings on moors and fields were spectacles: liminal spaces where free speech could be expressed and radical histories could be formed. Yet everyday life also influenced the nature of moorland protests. The daily uses and perceptions of landscape could be as significant in shaping inhabitants' political outlooks as occasional set-piece demonstrations. Demonstrations on moors reflected popular defiance of restrictions on public space and wider awareness of the effects of industrialization upon use of the land and communications.     

On Cathars,Albigenses, and good men of Languedoc: [Journal of Medieval History, 2001, 27(2) 181–195]

This essay proposes a re-evaluation of how Cathars, Albigenses, and the heresy of the good men are studied. It argues that some commonplace notions about the Cathars, virtually unaltered for over a hundred years, are far from settled — especially when inquisition records from Languedoc are taken into account. This historiography rests upon an intellectualist and idealist bias, that, in the end, unwittingly restricts the historical imagination. This essay, by looking at some implications of this methodological tendency, suggests how the history of the Cathars, Albigenses, and the good men might be rethought.     

Canadiana Abroad: The Department of External Affairs' Book Presentation Programmes, 1949–1963

This article examines one aspect of Canada's early cultural diplomacy. During the late 1940s, the Department of External Affairs frequently received requests for Canadian books from foreign libraries. At the same time, many officials were eager to promote Canadian culture abroad. The Annual Book Presentation Programme was inaugurated with the intention of creating “repositories of Canadiana” which might stimulate interest in Canada among foreign readers. Although the budget for the program was always modest, over the years the department's book gifts did fulfill their aim, creating a basis for the later growth of Canadian studies in universities abroad.