Restoration Leeds and the Aldermen of the Corporation, 1661–1700

Abstract

In the 1945 General Election, the Conservative Party under the leadership of Winston Churchill was defeated in a largely unexpected Labour landslide. The former Prime Minister's son, Randolph Churchill, MP for Preston since 1940, also lost his seat, but by a swing much lower than the national average. This was hardly due to his performance as a constituency MP. He was largely absent on military service. His ability to antagonise his own constituency workers was no help to his cause. He did have the advantage of name recognition and a heroic war record, but these were hardly decisive factors. It is argued here that his comparatively strong electoral performance was due to his adoption of the cause of social reform combined with his ability to campaign in a flamboyant manner that appealed to electors, which suggests that a very different result might have been possible if his approach had been taken up nationally by the Conservative Party.     

Accounting for Research: a Critical Assessment of English Heritage's Research Strategy and Agenda 2005–2010

Abstract

Social scientists and anthropologists have recently critiqued the proliferation of accountability practices, such as auditing and the creation of strategic documents, in a variety of working contexts across the globe. While practitioners in archaeology and the historic environment sector more broadly have been involved for some time in generating and implementing such documents and practices, there has been little direct discussion of why these came about or what roles they actually perform. This article addresses this omission by forefronting the recent English Heritage research strategy and Agenda 2005–2010 as objects for critical review. As well as assessing these documents in detail, it provides a broader consideration of the role of strategic practices such as these in archaeological research. While the documents under consideration are essentially English in scope, many of the points that are raised in relation to them have resonance at a wider, global scale.     

Life in a “Cathedral of Consumption’: Corporate and Personal Material Culture Recovered from a Cellar at the Robert Sayle Department Store in Cambridge, England, ca. 1913–21

An early twentieth-century assemblage dating to ca. 1913–21 associated with staff that worked for and lived in the associated hostel of the Robert Sayle department store in Cambridge, England, contained a mixture of material that was supplied by the business for communal activities and personal items. The contrast between these two types of material allows the relationship between the business and its staff to be explored. The assemblage is also considered in terms of the class, gender and age composition of the hostel population and the concept of resistance.     

The emergence of a Presbyterian evangelical: a religious and social history of Isaac Nelson's pastorate at First Comber Presbyterian Church, 1838–42

The Revd Isaac Nelson was one of the most controversial figures in nineteenth-century Ulster Presbyterianism, who achieved transatlantic recognition for his involvement with anti-slavery and later became notorious for his advocacy of Irish Home Rule. Owing to his opposition to the 1859 revival, Nelson has been castigated by both fundamentalists and moderate evangelicals as the enemy of vital religion. This view has been disseminated in popular mythologies of the Ulster awakening, especially in the works of Ian Paisley and John T. Carson. An objective examination of Nelson's public career, however, does not support this conclusion. This essay seeks to substantiate the claim that Nelson was an evangelical by considering his early experience as minister of First Comber Presbyterian Church. By means of a micro-history case study, it also usefully illuminates our understanding as to how the dominance of evangelicalism within Ulster Presbyterianism was experienced at a local level. Accordingly, the essay also considers Nelson's role in disputes with Episcopalians and Unitarians during this early part of his career as well as his early involvement in ecclesiastical politics.     

Regional planning of R&D and science–technology interactions in Andalucia: a bibliometric analysis of patent documents

Andalucia is a southern European LFR (less‐favoured region) with a high degree of self‐government that has allowed it to design its own R&D policies that complement those implemented throughout Spain and the European Union (EU). Recently the Regional Government passed the Third Andalucian Research Plan 2000–2003, an R&D planning instrument that, as has become customary in previous Plans, attributes considerable budgetary weight to the scientific aspects of the science–technology–industry system (Andalucia allocates more of its own resources to promoting research than any other region in Spain). This paper provides deeper insight into the role played by science in driving the technological development of Andalucia, one of the LFRs of the EU. The aim was to answer five fundamental questions: How is basic science utilized by industry in Andalucia? Which sectors are the most dynamic in the employment of scientific know‐how? Which scientific fields are most in demand by industry? Which types of institution utilize scientific knowledge most profusely? What delay is there in incorporating science into technology? The methodology that has been applied for investigating the links between science and technology is based on scientific citations in patent documents (NPC). The results in this article provide relevant information about the interconnection of scientific and technological systems and thus constitute a good point of reference for the development of future R&D plans.     

The Metropolis Local Management Act and the archaeology of sanitary reform in the London Borough of Lambeth 1856–86

Abstract

The passing of the Metropolis Local Management Act in 1855 and the creation of an empowered body, the Metropolitan Board of Works, can be seen as the first statutory attempt to reform London at a municipal level during the Victorian period. This paper explores whether the subsequent programme of sanitary improvement conducted by the Board of Works and London's vestries over the next 30 years, together with managed rubbish collection, can be detected in the archaeological record by using the extensive excavations in north Lambeth as an example of practices that occurred across London. It also demonstrates the strength and distinctiveness of historical archaeology in being able to examine disposal processes that otherwise remain largely mute in the written sources.     

The Secrets of a long life: The Dutch firm of covens & mortier (1685–1866) and their copper plates

Abstract

Commercial map publishing firms between the mid‐sixteenth and mid‐nineteenth centuries needed to prolong the life of their copper plates for as long as possible. In order to avoid the costs of engraving new plates, the famous Dutch publishing house of Covens & Mortier of Amsterdam (1685–1866) amended existing plates for topographical and politico‐administrative changes, engraving errors, imprint alterations and marks resulting from general wear. Not only were the plates altered, but the printed maps themselves were sometimes also modified: a new title cartouche might be pasted on or a date or part of the text scratched away. In these ways the map publishing firm was a master of creative solutions as regards both the re‐use of old copper plates and the ‘renewal’ of old printed maps.     

Politics at the Local–Global Intersection: Meanings of Bentuhua and Transnational Feminism in China

This article examines contemporary Chinese feminism’s processes of “connecting with the international tracks” as well as bentuhua (indigenisation), arguing that these processes are inseparable from both domestic and international power relations and thus asserting the need for a critical perspective on bentuhua. An “institutional-discursive” focus on both political and cultural contexts reveals that the usage of bentuhua can be literally and metaphorically spatial in quality, as well as regarded as a resource that is part of the grammar of social transformation in China. Neoliberal globalisation promotes a “project”-oriented approach to feminist activism that has benefits and costs. Transnationalism can be a source of resistance to the continued authoritarian party-state, as well as to homogenising effects of nationalist tendencies. Thus, from a theoretical standpoint it is useful to comprehend contemporary Chinese feminist thought from the understanding that the local and the global are inextricably interconnected.