THEMATIC REVIEW

M. Jeanne Peterson, Family, Love, and Work in the Lives of Victorian Gentlewomen Norma Clarke, Ambitious Heights: Writing, Friendship, Love - The Jewsbury Sisters, Felicia Hemans, and Jane Welsh Carlyle Mary Lyndon Shanley, Feminism, Marriage, and the Law in Victorian England, 1850–1895 Carol Dyhouse, Feminism and the Family in England, 1880–1939     

The Genesis of the 1906 Trades Disputes Act: Liberalism, Trade Unions, and the Law

The Trades Disputes Act of 1906 occupies an important positionin the history of trade unionism, industrial relations, andlabour politics. Far less attention has been devoted to itsplace in the development of Liberal politics. Historians ofliberalism tend to portray the act as an uninteresting reversionto the pre-Taff Vale position and symptomatic merely of theparty's desire to placate labour. This article suggests thatexisting accounts of the Act's genesis place insufficient emphasison its Liberal origins and that arguments about trade unionlaw provide important insights into the character of the partyand its creed. The argument is in three parts. The first considersthe constraints on liberal legislators. The second investigatesthe meaning of the debates surrounding the Act's passage. Itrestores the Act to its proper intellectual context by recoveringthe variety of views about trade union law present in Edwardianliberalism. The last section uses these arguments to demonstrateboth the resilience of radicalism within the party and the emergenceof a novel social democratic progressivism. Only thus, it isclaimed, is it possible to understand the passage and meaningof the Act. * A number of people have helped in the preparation of thisarticle. I would like to thank David Armutage, Eugeruo Biagiru,Elizabeth Emens, Jon Lawrence, Nomi Levy, Alastair Reid, EmmaRothschild, Lisa Tiersen and Philip Waller I benefited greatlyfrom the comments of the anonymous referees and the assistanceof the editors of Twentieth Century British History. I owe aspecial debt of gratitude to David Cannadine, Peter Clarke andVictoria de Grazia.     

Gustaf Dalman, Anti-Semitism, and the Language of Jesus Debate

The theory that Jesus of Nazareth spoke and taught exclusively in Aramaic rather than Hebrew achieved its present dominant position just over a century ago due largely to the labour of Gustaf Dalman. His primary motivation was not the recovery of the historical Jesus, however, but to support his deep commitment to the Protestant movement to convert Jews. This movement did not escape the impact of escalating anti-Semitism in society, intensified by rapid progress towards German national unification. One Christian response to anti-Semitism was to "extract" Jesus from Judaism by contrasting him with "Jewish" attitudes and values held by Jewish spiritual authorities. Dalman's contribution was to extract Jesus from the ethnically exclusive Hebrew language by insisting that he spoke only the more widely used lingua franca of the region, Aramaic. By overstating his case and going beyond the evidence, Dalman revealed his indebtedness to the anti-Semitic spirit of his age.     

Devolution and national identity: the rules of English (dis)engagement

ABSTRACT. In this article I consider why the expected English backlash to the asymmetric UK devolution settlement has not yet materialised. Using a corpus of conversational interviews, I discuss the various ways in which people in England currently understand the relationship between national identity and political entitlement. I conclude that English political quiescence, far from constituting an enigma, is comprehensible in the light of the fact that members of the general public do not usually base their assessments of political legitimacy on calculations of English national self‐interest defined in contrast to Scotland. Rather, political issues tend to be judged with reference to principles of equity and procedural justice. English identity is rarely considered legitimate grounds for political voice. Rather, people are inclined to demonstrate a concern to balance the recognition of Scottish rights to national self‐determination, with a display of public reason, civility and civic responsibility understood to be normatively incumbent upon the English majority.     

The Evangelical Alliance, Religious Liberty, and the Evangelical Conscience in Nineteenth-Century Britain

This article explores the difficulties nineteenth-century British evangelical ecumenists faced as they attempted to develop distinctive practical initiatives that could commend widespread support across the denominational spectrum. In particular, it focuses on the nascent Evangelical Alliance's growing concern to promote religious liberty overseas. By following the debates within the Alliance about the need to pursue religious liberty and attending to the obstacles preventing such a course of action this article suggests the need to distinguish between a qualified agenda committed to securing religious rights (religious liberty) and a broader agenda committed to securing political rights (religious equality). By favouring the former, the Evangelical Alliance succeeded in developing a distinctively pan-evangelical initiative that commended relatively widespread support. Thus evangelical concern for religious liberty must be distinguished from the distinctively Nonconformist promotion of religious equality.     

ON BEING OUTSIDE 'THE PROJECT'

For feminists, it is moral and political, rather than scientific discussion that has served as the paradigm - though a problematic one - of rational discourse.
Sandra Harding (1986: 251)