Conservative Party Agents in Second World War Britain

The Second World War placed great pressures on the machineryand personnel of all political parties. Conservatives formedthe view that their own machine had been especially hard hitby the challenges of the war years, and that this was a majorreason for the party's 1945 general election defeat. A supposeddecline in the number of full-time, salaried constituency agentswas a key component of this narrative of decline. This articleinvestigates what happened to the Conservative agency in wartime,using an unusually wide range of sources, including those ofaround a hundred constituency associations. It shows that thenumber of agents did fall as a result of the war, but that associationsoften worked hard to keep their agents, or to mitigate the effectsof their departure. It also explains the failure of headquarters'wartime efforts to reform the agency and centralize the employmentof agents. Although the party's relative organizational declinedid have significant emotional and practical consequences forit in 1945, Conservatives tended, post hoc, to overstate theextent of their wartime organizational collapse, in part becauseit allowed them to avoid damaging recriminations about the realreasons for their defeat. Ultimately, though, the war's effects,while significant, were essentially transient. Constituencycontrol of agents remained, and a professional standard wasmaintained. The Conservatives emerged from the war with an agencythat was different in detail from, but recognizably similarin form to, that which had predated the war.     

An Illustration of the Use of an Atypicality Index in Provenancing British Stone Axes

An atypicality index has been used to compare the chemical compositions of 11 British prehistoric implements (axes and axe‐hammers, and a mace) with previously suggested and likely sources in South Wales (Group XIII spotted dolerite from the Carnmenyn area, and Group VIII rhyolite from Carnalw). Atypicality indices together with mineralogy indicate that only two out of six supposed Group XIII implements are likely to be Group XIII, and only one of the five rhyolite implements is likely to originate from Carnalw. These results provide statistical support for earlier provenancing of seven of the implements, and provide the first geochemical source information for four implements. The results illustrate the usefulness of the atypicality index in archaeology, and support the idea that Groups XIII and VIII comprise a larger variety of chemical types than previously thought. Further work is now needed to determine how prevalent this variety is within these implement groups.     

Timothy Pont's map of Shetland

The Dialect and Place‐Names of Shetland. Two Popular Lectures. By Jakob Jakobsen, Doctor of Philosophy, University of Copenhagen. Lerwick: T. and J. Manson, 1897.

Three Years in Savage Africa. By Lionel Dècle. With an Introduction by H. M. Stanley, M.P. With 100 Illustrations and five Maps, from original Photographs, Sketches, and Surveys by the Author. London: Methuen and Co., 1898. Pp. 503. Two Appendices and Index. 21s.

Hindu Manners, Customs, and Ceremonies. By the Abbe J. A. Dubois. Translated from the Author's later French ms. and edited by Henry K. Beau‐champ. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1897.

L'Algérie. Par Maurice Wahl, Docteur ès lettres, Inspecteur‐Général honoraire de l'Instruction publique aux Colonies. 3^ème édition, revue et augmentée. Paris: Félix Alcan, 1897. Pp. 442. Price 5 Frs.

L'Italie: Géographique, Ethnologique, Historique, Administrative, Economique, Beligieuse, Littéraire, Artistique, Scientifique, etc. Paris: Larousse, 1897. Pp. 608. Price 5 fr.

The Pioneers of the Klondyke: being an Account of two years’ Police Service on the Yukon. Narrated by M. H. E. Hayne, N.C.O. of the N‐W. Mounted Police, and recorded by H. West Taylor. London: Sampson Low, Marston, and Co., 1897. Pp. xii + 184. Price 3s. 6d.

The Gold Fields of the Klondike. Fortune‐Seekers’ Guide to the Yukon Begion of Alaska and British America. By John W. Leonard. London: T. Fisher Unwin, N.D. Pp. 216. Price 2s. 6d.

Imperial Defence. By Lieut.‐Col. Sir George S. Clarke, K.C.M.G., F.E.S. London: The Imperial Press, Limited, N.D. Pp. xv + 251. Price 5s. net.

With Nature and a Camera: being the Adventures and Observations of a Field Naturalist and an Animal Photographer. By Richard Kearton, F.Z.S., Author of British Birds’ Nests; Birds’ Nests, Eggs, and Egg‐collecting, etc. Illustrated by 180 Pictures from Photographs, by Cherry Kearton. 8vo. London, Paris, and Melbourne: Cassell and Co., Lim., 1897. Pp. xvi + 368.

La Face de la Tern (Das Antlitz der Erde). Par Ed. Suess. Traduit avec l'autorisation de l'auteur et annoté sous la direction de Emmanuel de Margerie avec une préface par Marcel Bertrand, de l'Académie des Sciences, Professeur à l'École nationale supérieure des Mines. Tome I^r, avec 2 cartes en couleur et 122 figures dont 76 exécutées spécialement pour l'édition française. Paris: Armand Colin et C^ie., 1897. Pp. 835 + xv.

Anthropologische Studien über die Urbewohner Brasiliens, vornehmlich der Staaten Matto Grosso, Goyaz, und Amazonas (Purus‐Gebiet). Nach eigenen Aufnahmen und Beobachtungen in den Jahren 1887 bis 1889, von Dr. Paul Ehrenreich, Berlin. Mit zahlreichen Abbildungen und Tafeln. Braunschweig: Druck und Verlag von Friedrich Vieweg und Sohn, 1897. Pp. 165. Bibliography and 30 plates, 96 in text and 9 plates of vertex curves. Price 25 M.

Kleinasiens’ Naturschätze, Seine wichtigsten Tiere, Kulturpftanzen und Mineral‐schätze. Von Karl Kannenberg. Berlin: Bornträger, 1897. Pp. xii + 278. Price M. 14.

Thessalien und Epirus: Reisen und Forschungen im nördlichen Oriechenland. Von Dr. Alfred Philippson. Berlin: W. H. Kühle, 1897.

North America. Vol. I.—Canada and Newfoundland. By Samuel Edward Dawson, Litt.D. (Laval), F.R.S.C. Stanford's Compendium of Geography and Travel (new issue). London: Edward Stanford, 1897. Pp. xxiv + 719. Price 15s.

Geografia Commercial de la America del Sur. Por Carlos B. Cisneros y Romulo E. Garcia. Entregas 1 y 2. Lima: Imprenta de la Escuela de Ingerieros, 1897. Pp. 100.

Egypt. Handbook for Travellers. Edited by Karl Baedeker. 4th Eemodelled Edition. Leipsic: Karl Baedeker, 1898. Pp. cciv + 395. Price 15 M.

Spain and Portugal. Handbook for Travellers. By Karl Baedeker. Leipsic: Karl Baedeker, 1898. Pp. lxxxvi + 618. Price 16 M.

Ceylon. Von Emil Schmidt (Leipzig). Mit 39 Bildern und 1 Karte. Berlin: Schall und Grund, 1897. Pp. 323 + viii.

A. Hartleben's Kleines Statistisches Taschenbuch über alle Lander der Erde. Nach den neuesten Angaben bearbeitet von Professor Dr. Friedeich Umlauft. Wien, Pest, Leipzig: A. Hartleben's Verlag, 1898. Pp. 98.

Verhandlungen des Zwölften Deutschen Geographentages zu Jena, 1897. Heraus‐gegeben von dem ständigen Geschäftsführer des Centralausschusses des Deutschen Geographentages, Georg Kollm, Hauptmann, a.d. Berlin: Verlag von Dietrich Reimer (Ernst Vohsen), 1897. Pp. lviii + 252.     

The Function of Age and the History of Women's Work: The Career of an Australian Teacher, 1907–1947

In this paper, we consider what it might mean to hold age as an analytic lens in historical research on women workers, in particular women teachers. Our study serves as a springboard for further discussion about what these new narratives might look like, and what they might reveal, or, moreover, what work they might do. In constructing an account of a woman physical educationist whose work traversed the first half of the twentieth century, we show how age could be seen to be functioning in the institutional spaces of South Australian education. While we do not suggest that specific details of this account are representative of women's work in education, let alone women's work more broadly, we do argue that it draws together and brings to the surface a range of general discourses that serve as a context for how we understand the ways women inhabited and shaped their work. Our account serves as an illustration of what happens to narratives when age is on the agenda, suggesting a more sustained interrogation of how a historical sense of women's positioning in work is deepened by a serious sensitivity to the ‘age function’. This is a necessary and, we feel, timely gesture, because of the way that the category of age in women's historical studies–where the interaction among discourses such as professionalism, education, feminism, citizenship and sexuality is considered–is little more than an absent presence, at best lying in the background, obscured from view and yet always demanding its own appearance.     

The distribution and provenance of archaeological obsidian in central and eastern Europe

The sources of archaeological obsidian in central and eastern Europe are briefly described and analyses of 48 samples from 10 of these sources in northeast Hungary and southeast Slovakia are reported. Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis was used to determine 16 trace elements and two major elements. Principal Components Analysis supported by Discriminant Analysis showed seven analytical groups in these data. A total of 270 pieces of archaeological obsidian were assigned by Discriminant Analysis to three of the Carpathian source groups defined, the remaining four source groups not being represented in the archaeological record. The three source groups used are: (1) Szöllöske and Málá Toron?a in Slovakia (designated group Carpathian 1); (2) Csepegö Forrás, Tolcsva area, Olaszliszka and Erdöbénye in Hungary (Carpathian 2a); and (3) Erdöbénye (Carpathian 2b). Carpathian 2a and 2b type obsidians are both found at the re-deposited source of Erdöbénye. Carpathian obsidian was used most widely in Hungary, Slovakia and Romania, and also reached south to the Danube in Yugoslavia, west to Moravia, Austria and to the Adriatic near Trieste, and north to Poland. Carpathian 2a obsidian was used in the Aurignacian period, Carpathian 1 in the Gravettian and Mesolithic, and Carpathian 1, 2a and 2b in the Neolithic, when Carpathian 1 predominated and obsidian use was at its most intensive. Only Carpathian I type has been identified in the Copper and Bronze Ages. There is no evidence at present for any overlap between the Carpathian obsidian distribution and the distributions of the Near Eastern or Aegean sources, but there is an overlap with Mediterranean obsidian at the Neolithic site of Grotta Tartaruga in northeast Italy where Liparian and Carpathian 1 material were identified. The distribution of obsidian from the Carpathian sources is considered in terms of linear supply routes. Based on limited available evidence the supply zone is significantly smaller and the rate of fall-off with distance slightly lower than that reported for Near Eastern obsidians.     

The distribution and sources of archaeological pitchstone in Britain

Pitchstone is a glassy volcanic rock, distinguishable from obsidian by having a higher water content. It forms lava flows and minor intrusions at several centres within the British Tertiary Volcanic Province (BTVP) in the west of Scotland and Ireland. Pitchstone artifacts and waste pieces have been recorded from 101 archaeological localities in Scotland and northern England, ranging in time from possibly Mesolithic to Bronze Age. To characterize the sources, 17 pitchstone samples from 11 sources within the BTVP were analysed for major elements by energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF), and for trace elements by instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA). 28 pitchstone pieces from 22 archaeological sites were analysed, mainly non-destructively, by INAA and interpreted as having originated from Arran sources. The Arran sources are divided into four petrographic types; the Corrygills, Tormore, Glen Shurig and Glen Cloy Types. Petrographic study of 15 archaeological samples indicated that three were of Corrygills type and two were of Tormore type. The remainder were less confidently attributed to the petrographic types distinguished. Arran pitchstone is found as far as 300 km from the Arran sources, at the chambered tomb of Ord North in Highland.