This collection presents research on the 1939 confrontation between the police, fascists and anti-fascists in London's Jewish neighbourhood, and its impact on British society. The collection includes chapters on the political, social and cultural history of Cable Street, looking at the diversity of Jewish responses in London and Manchester, fascist perceptions and representations of Cable Street, the role of gender and the cultural memory of the Battle of Cable Street.
An East End Legacy is a memorial volume for William J Fishman, whose seminal works on the East End of London in the late nineteenth century have served as a vital starting point for much of the later work on the various complex web of relations in that quarter of the capital. A variety of leading scholars utilise the insight of Fishman’s work to present a wide range of insights into the historical characters and events of the East End. The book’s themes include local politics; anti-alienism, anti-Semitism and war; and culture and society. In pursuing these topics, the volume examines in great depth the social, political, religious and cultural changes that have taken place in the area over the past 120 years, many of which remain both significant and relevant. In addition, it illustrates East London’s links with other parts of the world including Europe and America and those territories "beyond the oceans." This book will prove valuable reading for researchers and readers interested in Victorian and twentieth century British history, politics and culture.
The establishment of democracy on both sides of the Atlantic has not been a smooth evolution towards an idealized presumed endpoint. Far from it, democratization has been marked by setbacks and victories, a process often referred to as ‘contested democracy’. In view of recent mobilizations such as the Arab Spring and the Occupy movement, in which new technologies have played a key role, there is a need for a renewed analysis of the long-term evolution of US and UK political systems. Using new areas of research, this book argues that the ideals and the practices of Anglo-American democracy can be best understood by studying diverse forms of participation, which go beyond classical expressions of contestation and dissent such as voting. The authors analyze political parties, social movements, communications and social media, governance, cultural diversity, identity politics, public-private actors and social cohesion to illustrate how the structure and context of popular participation play a significant role in whether, and when, citizens ́ efforts have any meaningful impact on those who exercise political power. In doing so, the authors take crucial steps towards understanding how a vigorous public sphere and popular sovereignty can be made to work in today’s global environment. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of political science, British and US history, democracy, political participation, governance, social movements and politics.
Historians, political scientists, cultural scholars, and journalists offer new views of the 1936 clash between police, fascists, and anti-fascists in London's Jewish neighborhood. Among their concerns are the diversity of Jewish responses, government reactions, fascist perception and representations, the role of gender, and the shifting cultural memory. Also included is Simon Blumanfeld's play The Battle of Cable Street and excerpts from its sequel. Distributed by ISBS. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- List of figures -- List of plates -- Acknowledgements -- 1 Critical practice as reconciliation -- 2 Changing hands: ethical stewardship of collections -- 3 'Temple swapping': hybridity and social justice -- 4 Platforms: negotiating and renegotiating the terms of democracy -- 5 Reconciliation and the discursive museum -- Bibliography -- Index
This book is the first to outline the history of the tactic of ‘no platforming’ at British universities since the 1970s, looking at more than four decades of student protest against racist and fascist figures on campus. The tactic of ‘no platforming’ has been used at British universities and colleges since the National Union of Students adopted the policy in the mid-1970s. The author traces the origins of the tactic from the militant anti-fascism of the 1930s–1940s and looks at how it has developed since the 1970s, being applied to various targets over the last 40 years, including sexists, homophobes, right-wing politicians and Islamic fundamentalists. This book provides a historical intervention in the current debates over the alleged free speech ‘crisis’ perceived to be plaguing universities in Britain, as well as North America and Australasia. No Platform: A History of Anti-Fascism, Universities and the Limits of Free Speech is for academics and students, as well as the general reader, interested in modern British history, politics and higher education. Readers interested in contemporary debates over freedom of speech and academic freedom will also have much to discover in this book.
In Countering Contemporary Antisemitism in Britain, Sarah Cardaun presents a thorough scholarly analysis of responses to present-day antisemitism in the UK. Examining discourses and practical measures adopted by the British government, parliamentary groups, and non-governmental organisations, the book provides a comprehensive overview of different approaches to addressing anti-Jewish prejudice in Britain. It offers a critical perspective on universalistic interpretations which have traditionally characterised responses towards it in various fields, such as Holocaust remembrance and education. Against this background, the study highlights the importance of organisations with a more specific focus on counteracting hostility towards Jews, and the role civil society can play in the fight against the new antisemitism. Overall, this book makes a significant contribution to the academic debate on contemporary antisemitism and to the vital but neglected question of how today’s resurgent anti-Jewish prejudice may be tackled in practice.
The history of crime and punishment is an important, yet under-resourced area of criminology and criminal justice. This valuable book provides concise but robust definitions of key terms and concepts, going well beyond a simple explanation of the word or theme. Offering a succinct approach to the vocabulary and terminology of historical and contemporary approaches to crime and punishment, it includes entries from expert contributors in a user-friendly A-Z format with clear direction to related entries and further reading. Including explanations of terms ranging from 'garrotting' to The Bow Street Runners, baby farming to juvenile delinquency, this easily accessible text will be ideal for the reader to draw on across the variety of modules and studies relating to the topic.
Following the publication of Ghost Town (2005), a complex, globally conscious genealogy of millennial Manhattan, McGrath’s transnational status as an English author resident in New York, his pointed manipulation of British and American contexts, and his clear apprehension of imperial legacies have all come into sharper focus. By bringing together readings cognizant of this transnational and historical sensitivity with those that build on existing studies of McGrath’s engagements with the gothic and madness, Patrick McGrath and his Worlds sheds new light on an author whose imagined realities reflect the anxieties, pathologies, and power dynamics of our contemporary world order. McGrath’s fiction has been noted as parodic (The Grotesque, 1989), psychologically disturbing (Spider, 1990), and darkly sexual (Asylum, 1996). Throughout, his corpus is characterized by a preoccupation with madness and its institutions and by a nuanced relationship to the gothic. With its international range of contributors, and including a new interview with McGrath himself, this book opens up hitherto underexplored theoretical perspectives on the key concerns of McGrath’s ouevre, moving conversations around McGrath’s work decisively forward. Offering the first sustained exploration of his fiction’s transnational and world-historical dimensions, Patrick McGrath and his Worlds seeks to situate, reflect upon, and interrogate McGrath’s role as a key voice in Anglophone letters in our millennial global moment.
Few causes before or since have inspired such passion, determination and sacrifice than the Spanish Civil War (1936-9). This book explores the many ways in which Scots responded to the war in Spain, covering the activists and humanitarians who raised funds and awareness at home, as well as the hundreds of Scots who journeyed to Spain to fight as part of the International Brigades. Their stories reflect much larger narratives of the rise of European fascism, the networks and cultures of international communism and the wider modern phenomenon of transnational foreign fighters.Scots and the Spanish Civil War is a groundbreaking study of Scottish involvement in one of the 20th century's most famous and divisive conflicts, drawing on newly-declassified government documents and international archives in Spain and beyond. As well as shedding new light on Scottish politics in the 1930s, Fraser Raeburn argues that this case study - part of the largest wave of foreign war volunteering in the 20th century - can help us understand other such mobilisations, past and present.
