Science, Utility and British Naval Technology, 1793–1815

Science, Utility and British Naval Technology, 1793–1815
Author: Roger Morriss
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 406
Release: 2020-10-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000203735

During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, the technology employed by the British navy changed not just the material resources of the British navy but the culture and performance of the royal dockyards. This book examines the role of the Inspector General of Naval Works, an Admiralty office occupied by Samuel Bentham between 1796 and 1807, which initiated a range of changes in dockyard technology by the construction of experimental vessels, the introduction of non-recoil armament, the reconstruction of Portsmouth yard, and the introduction of steam-powered engines to pump water, drive mass-production machinery and reprocess copper sheathing. While primarily about the technology, this book also examines the complementary changes in the industrial culture of the dockyards. For it was that change in culture which permitted the dockyards at the end of the Wars to maintain a fleet of unprecedented size and engage in warfare both with the United States of America and with Napoleonic Europe.

The Bentham Brothers and Russia

The Bentham Brothers and Russia
Author: Roger Bartlett
Publisher: UCL Press
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2022-09-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 1800082371

The jurist and philosopher, Jeremy Bentham, and his lesser-known brother, Samuel, equally talented but as a naval architect, engineer and inventor, had a long love affair with Russia. Jeremy hoped to assist Empress Catherine II with her legislative projects. Samuel went to St Petersburg to seek his fortune in 1780 and came back with the rank of Brigadier-General and the idea, famously publicised by Jeremy, of the Inspection-House or Panopticon. The Bentham Brothers and Russia chronicles the brothers’ later involvement with the Russian Empire, when Jeremy focused his legislative hopes on Catherine’s grandson Emperor Alexander I (ruled 1801-25) and Samuel found a unique opportunity in 1806 to build a Panopticon in St Petersburg – the only panoptical building ever built by the Benthams themselves. Setting the Benthams’ projects within an in-depth portrayal of the Russian context, Roger Bartlett illuminates an important facet of their later careers and offers insight into their world view and way of thought. He also contributes towards the history of legal codification in Russia, which reached a significant peak in 1830, and towards the demythologising of the Panopticon, made notorious by Michel Foucault: the St Petersburg building, still relatively unknown, is described here in detail on the basis of archival sources. The Benthams’ interactions with Russia under Alexander I constituted a remarkable episode in Anglo-Russian relations; this book fills a significant gap in their history.

Convoys

Convoys
Author: Roger Knight
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 425
Release: 2022-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0300246978

The first account of Britain's convoys during the Napoleonic Wars--showing how the protection of trade played a decisive role in victory During the Napoleonic Wars thousands of merchant ships crisscrossed narrow seas and wide oceans, protected by Britain's warships. These were wars of attrition and raw materials had to reach their shores continuously: timber and hemp from the Baltic, sulfur from Sicily, and saltpeter from Bengal. Britain's fate rested on the strength of its economy--and convoys played a vital role in securing victory. Leading naval historian Roger Knight examines how convoys ensured the protection of trade and transport of troops, allowing Britain to take the upper hand. Detailing the many hardships these ships faced, from the shortage of seaman to the vicissitudes of the weather, Knight sheds light on the innovation and seamanship skills that made convoys such an invaluable tool in Britain's arsenal. The convoy system laid the foundation for Britain's narrow victory over Napoleon and his allies in 1815 and, in doing so, established its naval and mercantile power at sea for a hundred years.

Provincial Police Reform in Early Victorian England

Provincial Police Reform in Early Victorian England
Author: Roger Swift
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 164
Release: 2021-04-21
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000378837

The establishment of ‘new police’ forces in early Victorian England has long attracted historical enquiry and debate, albeit with a general focus on London and the urban-industrial communities of the Midlands and the North. This original study contributes to the debate by examining the nature and process of police reform, the changing relationship between the police and the public, and their impact on crime in Cambridge, a medium-sized county town with a rural hinterland. It argues that the experience of Cambridge was unique, for the Corporation shared co-jurisdiction of policing arrangements with the University, and this fractious relationship, as well as political rivalries between Liberals and Tories, impeded the reform process, although the force was certified efficient in 1856. Case studies of the careers of individual policemen and of the crimes and criminals they encountered shed additional light on the darker side of life in early Victorian Cambridge and present a different and more nuanced picture of provincial police reform during a seminal period in police history than either the traditional Whig or early revisionist Marxist interpretations implied. As such, it will support undergraduate courses in local, social, and criminal justice history during the Victorian period.

Great Britain, the Dominions and the Transformation of the British Empire, 1907–1931

Great Britain, the Dominions and the Transformation of the British Empire, 1907–1931
Author: Jaroslav Valkoun
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 344
Release: 2021-02-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000342948

The relations of Great Britain and its Dominions significantly influenced the development of the British Empire in the late 19th and the first third of the 20th century. The mutual attitude to the constitutional issues that Dominion and British leaders have continually discussed at Colonial and Imperial Conferences respectively was one of the main aspects forming the links between the mother country and the autonomous overseas territories. This volume therefore focuses on the key period when the importance of the Dominions not only increased within the Empire itself, but also in the sphere of the international relations, and the Dominions gained the opportunity to influence the forming of the Imperial foreign policy. During the first third of the 20th century, the British Empire gradually transformed into the British Commonwealth of Nations, in which the importance of Dominions excelled. The work is based on the study of unreleased sources from British archives, a large number of published documents and extensive relevant literature.

Lord Dufferin, Ireland and the British Empire, c. 1820–1900

Lord Dufferin, Ireland and the British Empire, c. 1820–1900
Author: Annie Tindley
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2021-03-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 1351255266

This book explores the life and career of Frederick Temple Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava (1826–1902). Dufferin was a landowner in Ulster, an urbane diplomat, literary sensation, courtier, politician, colonial governor, collector, son, husband and father. The book draws on episodes from Dufferin’s career to link the landowning and aristocratic culture he was born into with his experience of governing across the British Empire, in Canada, Egypt, Syria and India. This book argues that there was a defined conception of aristocratic governance and purpose that infused the political and imperial world, and was based on two elements: the inheritance and management of a landed estate, and a well-defined sense of ‘rule by the best’. It identifies a particular kind of atmosphere of empire and aristocracy, one that was riven with tensions and angst, as those who saw themselves as the hereditary leaders of Britain and Ireland were challenged by a rising democracy and, in Ireland, by a powerful new definition of what Irishness was. It offers a new perspective on both empire and aristocracy in the nineteenth century, and will appeal to a broad scholarly audience and the wider public.

The Discourse of Repatriation in Britain, 1845-2016

The Discourse of Repatriation in Britain, 1845-2016
Author: Daniel Renshaw
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2021-03-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 0429018657

Examining responses to migration and settlement in Britain from the Irish Famine up to Brexit, The Discourse of Repatriation looks at how concepts of removal evolved in this period, and the varied protagonists who have articulated these ideas in different contexts. Analysing the relationship between discourse and action, Renshaw explores how ideas and language originating on the peripheries of debate on migration and belonging can permeate the mainstream and transform both discussion and policy. The book sheds light both on how the migrant ‘other’ has been viewed in Britain, historically and contemporaneously, and more broadly how the relationship between state, press, and populace has developed from the early Victorian period onwards. It identifies key junctures where the concept of the removal of ‘othered’ groups has crossed over from the rhetorical to the actual, and considers why this was the case. Based on extensive original archival research, the book reassesses modern British history through the lens of the most polarised attitudes to immigration and demographic change. This book will be of use to readers with an interest in migration, diaspora, the development of populism and political extremes, and more broadly the history of modern Britain.

The Casino and Society in Britain

The Casino and Society in Britain
Author: Seamus Murphy
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 229
Release: 2020-11-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 0429845006

This book is a study of the British casino industry and how it has been shaped by criminality, prohibition, regulation and liberalization since the beginning of the First World War. The reader will gain a detailed knowledge of the history, culture, identity and participants within the British casino industry, which has, to date, escaped the attention of a dedicated historical and criminological investigation. This monograph fills this gap in inquiry while drawing on primary source material that has not been used previously, including, but not confined to, records in the National Archives relating to the Gaming Board of Great Britain and the Metropolitan Police. In addition to archive material, oral histories, newspapers, published journals and books have been utilised and referenced where appropriate. Envisaged to close a gap in historical research, this book will be of interest to historians, criminologists, regulators, students and individuals interested in gambling, society and cultural history.

The Devil and the Victorians

The Devil and the Victorians
Author: Sarah Bartels
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 237
Release: 2021-03-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000348040

In recent decades, there has been a growing recognition of the significance of the supernatural in a Victorian context. Studies of nineteenth-century spiritualism, occultism, magic, and folklore have highlighted that Victorian England was ridden with spectres and learned magicians. Despite this growing body of scholarship, little historiographical work has addressed the Devil. This book demonstrates the significance of the Devil in a Victorian context, emphasising his pervasiveness and diversity. Drawing on a rich array of primary material, including theological and folkloric works, fiction, newspapers and periodicals, and broadsides and other ephemera, it uses the diabolic to explore the Victorians' complex and ambivalent relationship with the supernatural. Both the Devil and hell were theologically contested during the nineteenth century, with an increasing number of both clergymen and laypeople being discomfited by the thought of eternal hellfire. Nevertheless, the Devil continued to play a role in the majority of English denominations, as well as in folklore, spiritualism, occultism, popular culture, literature, and theatre. The Devil and the Victorians will appeal to readers interested in nineteenth-century English cultural and religious history, as well as the darker side of the supernatural.

Credit and Power

Credit and Power
Author: Simon Sherratt
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2020-10-27
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1000214087

This book reveals the surprising role that credit, money created ex nihilo by financiers, played in raising the British government’s war loans between 1793 and 1815. Using often overlooked contemporary objections to the National Debt a startling paradox is revealed as it is shown how the government’s ostensible creditors had, in fact, very little "real" money to lend and were instead often reliant for their own solvency upon the very government they were lending to. By following the careers of unsuccessful loan-contractors, who went bankrupt lending to the government, to the triumphant career of the House of Rothschild; who successfully "exported" the British system of war-financing abroad with the coming of peace, the symbiotic relationship that existed between the British government and their ostensible creditors is revealed. Also highlighted is the power granted to the (technically bankrupt) Bank of England over credit and the money supply, an unprecedented and highly influential development that filled many contemporaries with horror. This is a tale of bankruptcy, stock market manipulation, bribery and institutional corruption that continues to exert its influence today and will be of interest to anyone interested in government financing, debt and the origins of modern finance.