Democratising History , livre ebook

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ISSN 3049-5091 (Print)
ISSN 3049-5105 (Online)
Democratising History Modern British History Inside and Out
Edited by
Laura Carter, Freddy Foks and Philip Harling
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First published 2025 by
University of London Press
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© the Authors 2025
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ISBN 9781915249890 (hardback)
ISBN 9781915249906 (paperback)
ISBN 9781915249937 (.epub)
ISBN 9781915249920 (.pdf)
ISBN 9781915249913 (.html)
DOI https:// doi .org /10 .63674 /twqx3656
Cover image: A modern school contrasted with an old school.
Colour lithograph after A. Games, 1942. Issued by A.B.C.A. (Army Bureau of Current Affairs), [1942] (London, E.C.4 : Multi Machine Plates Ltd.). Wellcome Collection. 20281i.
Cover design for University of London Press by Hayley Warnham.
Book design by Nigel French.
Text set by Westchester Publishing Services UK in Meta Serif and Meta, designed by Erik Spiekermann.
Contents List of figures Notes on contributors Introduction: democratising history inside and out Laura Carter and Freddy Foks The outside: grungy business The inside: democracy under construction 1832–1914 1914–39 1939–99 Notes References Interlude A. New challenges: teaching Modern History in a ‘new university’ Iwan Morgan Notes References Part I   Victorian Britain, progress and the wider world 1.   Opium, ‘civilisation’ and the Anglo-Chinese Wars, 1839–60 Philip Harling Notes References 2.   Archibald Alison’s revolution Ben Weinstein Notes References Interlude B. Peter and the special relationship Deborah Cohen , Guy Ortolano and Susan Pedersen Part II   Culture, consumption and democratisation in Britain since the nineteenth century Interlude C. Olden times and changing times: museum interpretation and display in twenty-first-century Britain Rebecca Lyons Notes References 3.   Painting for pleasure: the rise and decline of the amateur artist in Victorian Britain Sally Woodcock The colourman and his amateur customers The undulating amateur art market The amateur/professional interface Women, men, aristocrats, exhibitors Conclusion: accommodating the amateur market Acknowledgements Notes References 4.   Collecting for the nation: the National Art Collections Fund and the gallery-visiting public in interwar Britain Heidi Egginton The rise of the small collector ‘The ambassador of the public’: Sir Robert Witt ‘All Art-Lovers Should Join’ Conclusion Notes References Interlude D. Professionalisation, publishing and policy: Peter Mandler and the Royal Historical Society Margot Finn and Richard Fisher Notes References Part III   ‘Experts’ and their publics in twentieth-century Britain Interlude E. Accountability and double counting in research funding for UK higher education: the case of the Global Challenges Research Fund Ambreena Manji Notes References 5.   Reluctant pioneers: British anthropologists among the natives of modern Japan, circa 1929–30 Chika Tonooka The Seligmans’ significance The Seligmans’ insignificance Conclusion Notes References 6.   An American Mass Observer among the natives: Robert Jackson Alexander in Second World War Britain Lawrence Black Alexander’s army Social observer Political observer Conclusion Notes References Primary sources Secondary sources 7.   Architecture and sociology: Oliver Cox and Mass Observation Otto Saumarez Smith Conclusion Notes References 8.   Re-reading ‘race relations research’: journalism, social science and separateness Christopher Hilliard Race relations research as social science Race relations research as journalism Dark Strangers revisited Notes References Interlude F. The Historical Association, schools and the History curriculum Andrew Stacey-Chapman and Rebecca Sullivan Notes References 9.   ‘Democracy’ and ‘expertise’ in two secondary modern schools in Liverpool, 1930–67 Rosie Germain Creating gender difference in the secondary modern school Teacher expertise on ‘parenting’ Inequality, inclusion and state intervention in early years parenting in English education today Notes References Unpublished primary sources Secondary sources Index
List of figures
0.1    The male occupational structure of England and Wales (percentage of the labour force), 1600–2011. Source: Occupational Structure of Britain Project: testamentary database: parish register database: national censuses: I-CeM: C.H. Lee: UK Dataservice. Reproduced by permission of CAMPOP.
3.1    Professional and amateur artists opening new accounts with Roberson 1820–1939.
3.2    Single-order accounts, by date.
3.3    Roberson’s ‘retail branch’ in temporary accommodation on Piccadilly circa 1904, during the construction of the Ritz Hotel, its eventual location. Author’s collection.
3.4    Mildred Holland’s ceiling paintings in St Mary’s church, Huntingfield, Suffolk. Photo: author.
3.5    Combination pocket sketch book and palette in catalogue dated circa 1899–1906. Author’s collection.
3.6    The ‘belt’ easel in catalogue dated circa 1899–1906. Author’s collection.
7.1    Oliver Cox, Rural Plan, 1939. Architectural Association Archives.
7.2    Anthony Cox and Unit 15, ‘Plan for Faringdon, Berkshire’, 1936.
7.3    Oliver Cox’s 1948 satirical drawing of the ‘revolution’ at Bedford Square. Plan 1, Architectural Students Association Journal (1948), p. 3.
7.4    Fulham Survey cover, showing a map of Strode Road. Reproduced with permission of Curtis Brown Group Ltd, London on behalf of The Trustees of the Mass Observation Archive © The Trustees of the Mass Observation Archive.
7.5    Strode Road elevation in the Fulham Social Survey. Reproduced with permission of Curtis Brown Group Ltd, London on behalf of The Trustees of the Mass Observation Archive © The Trustees of the Mass Observation Archive.
7.6    A mantelpiece in the Fulham Social Survey, with a self-portrait of Cox in the reflection. Reproduced with permission of Curtis Brown Group Ltd, London on behalf of The Trustees of the Mass Observation Archive © The Trustees of the Mass Observation Archive.
7.7    Notes on patterns in the Fulham Social Survey. Reproduced with permission of Curtis Brown Group Ltd, London on behalf of The Trustees of the Mass Observation Archive © The Trustees of the Mass Observation Archive.
7.8    Illustrations of Buildings questionnaire in the Fulham Social Survey. Reproduced with permission of Curtis Brown Group Ltd, London on behalf of The Trustees of the Mass Observation Archive © The Trustees of the Mass Observation Archive.
Notes on contributors
Lawrence Black teaches History at the University of York. Peter Mandler supervised Lawrence’s doctoral research between 1995 and 1999, which was later published as The Political Culture of the Left in Affluent Britain, 1951–64: Old Labour, New Britain? (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003).
Laura Carter is an historian of modern Britain whose work focuses on histories of education, gender and social change. She currently teaches British History at Universit é Paris Cit é in Paris, France. Her first book, Histories of Everyday Life: The Making of Popular Social History in Britain, 1918–1979 (Oxford University Press, 2021) was nominated for the Royal Historical Society Whitfield Book Prize in 2022. This book was based on her PhD thesis, which was supervised by Professor Peter Mandler.
Deborah Cohen is the Richard W. Leopold Professor of History at Northwestern University. Her most recent book is Last Call at the Hotel Imperial (Random House/William Collins, 2022). She and Peter Mandler co-wrote ‘ The History Manifesto : A Critique’ ( American Historical Review , April 2015).
Heidi Egginton has been curator of political collections and archives of art and artists at the National Library of Scotland since 2019. She co-edited Precarious Professionals: Gender, Identities and Social Change in Modern Britain with Zo ë Thomas (Royal Historical Society in association