bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Chapter 2 Lost Hopes and Expensive Failures, c. 1670-1750
Authors: Jackson Gordon
Published: January 2019

For almost a century English whaling was a dismal affair conducted on a level akin to an Englishman with a thimble emptying the same tun as a Dutchman with a bucket: the latter's good fortune was the former's despair. Nothing, it seemed, could generate the kind of success enjoyed in the Netherlands or guarantee the profits required to revive the trade. The most notable thing, perhaps, was the want of English interest in the Arctic during the Commercial Revolution of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries as merchants turned their attention to the East and West Indies and to North America, where more profitable outlets for investment were found. Most of the raw materials required in England could be obtained from Europe or America, and whale oil was, after all, only one of many such materials. It could be obtained so easily and so cheaply that there was little incentive for Englishmen to trouble themselves with re-learning the Arctic trade when there were so many other things to divert them....
Chapter 4 The Boom in the Northern Fishery, 1783-c. 1808
Authors: Jackson Gordon
Published: January 2019

However humiliating for the politicians and soldiers, the peace of 1783 was the signal for an immense expansion of the British economy and a consequent rise in the demand for all manner of raw materials. So far as the oil trade was concerned, the peace terms removed at a stroke the most damaging competitors. "We are surprised," said John Adams, the America minister in London, "that you prefer darkness and consequent robberies, burglaries and murders in your streets, to the receiving, as a remittance, our spermaceti oil."...
Chapter 8 The End of the Northern Fishery in the Late Nineteenth Century
Authors: Jackson Gordon
Published: January 2019

With the run-down of both Northern and Southern fisheries, the second half of the nineteenth century experienced the same sort of marking-time as had occurred in the late seventeenth century. As a consequence the period is relatively unimportant compared with the great exertions before 1840 and the vast expansion after 1900, and it is only necessary here to outline the main lines of development. None of them led on to the modern industry, and important though British whaling may have been to individual persons and places, it had already departed from the mainstream of whaling and was sailing up a backwater as dangerous and ruinous as any in Baffin Bay. No amount of incentive, capital investment, technical advance or human bravery could save the Arctic trade, but it fought its painful death-struggle for three-quarters of a century, periodically encouraged by remissions that eased the pressure and sometimes brought a measure of prosperity....
Chapter 9 New Whaling Techniques
Authors: Jackson Gordon
Published: January 2019

In the middle of the nineteenth century the British whaling trade had been overtaken by an entrepreneurial and technical paralysis that was barely hidden by the continuing activity in Scotland. Faced with difficulties on both the demand and supply side, the industry prepared itself for its supposedly inevitably doom. Here, as elsewhere, modern scholars might detect not so much a realistic acceptance of fate as a diminution of the enterprise and initiative that had created the trade in the first place. Capitalists were leaving the trade; young whalermen were no longer entering it. A huge fund of bravery and skill was resting on its laurels, its only answer to changing conditions being to push both bravery and skill beyond the limits of physical endurance. This very doggedness of the last whalermen has earned them a fine reputation; but as businessmen they were ultimately a failure. They lacked the resilience and ability to change that was essential for survival. They did not seek out and exploit new opportunities. Above all, in their determination to press traditional whaling to its limits, they consistently ignored the most significant developments that were to lead to modern whaling. The sad irony is that despite the sacrifice in fortunes and fingers, there were more whales off the coast of Scotland than there were off the coast of Greenland. But the Scotsmen could not catch them, and, apart from unsuccessful experiments by Peterhead men in the 1840s, made no serious attempt to do so....
Chapter 12 Expanding Fleets and the New Fishing Grounds, 1919-1920
Authors: Jackson Gordon
Published: January 2019

British whaling in the interwar period cannot be understood, or adequately described, in terms solely of national production or national consumption. The continuation of Anglo-Norwegian rivalry ensured the international nature of the industry, in which the desire to maximise profits under a system of very free competition led to most complicated investment decisions based on factors that were very largely beyond the control of the British firms, or indeed, of any firm. There had always been international competition in whaling, but never before had individual firms produced so much, or had so much capital at stake. The balancing of supply and demand in the producers' favour was by no means easy, and, as with other primary producers, whaler-owners were already moving dangerously close to over-production. At the same time the acceleration of technical change during the war ensured an international market for oil among soap and margarine producers, with the result that purely national needs had little effect on prices. Although British firms served their domestic market more than any other, the returns on their effort might be determined by marginal production in Norway or government purchasing policy in Germany. On the production side it will be necessary from time to time to set British whaling in the context of total whaling activity as recorded in the ...
Russell and Company to Lithgows Limited, 1874-1945
Authors: Johnman Lewis , Murphy Hugh
Published: January 2019

This chapter outlines the founding of Russell and Company, which would later become Lithgows Limited, from its origins in 1874 through to the end of the Second World War. It documents the company’s major accomplishments, business developments, finances, ownerships, and technical developments throughout the period before the postwar expansion. Topics considered include the acquisition of rivals; the ‘labour question’; the shipbuilding conference and James Lithgow’s involvement with it; the warship market; the Scottish steel industry; and the demands of the Second World War.
Nationalisation to Privatisation, 1977-1984
Authors: Johnman Lewis , Murphy Hugh
Published: January 2019

This chapter tracks the movement of Scott Lithgows from nationalisation to privatisation between 1977 and 1984. It follows the company’s losses and industrial distresses; the move into the British Shipbuilders (BS) Offshire Division; the effect of Scott Lithgows on employment levels in Port Glasgow; and the Scottish Affairs Committee Report that investigated the potential economic and social impact of Scott Lithgows closures. It introduces and examines the Trafalgar House company - owners of the Cunard line, the Daily Express, and supporters the Conservative Party - and documents their takeover of Scott Lithgows and motives for doing so. It concludes with the completion of privatisation in 1984, following a takeover deal that included no compulsory redundancies, and various financial rewards for employees. It notes that optimism surrounding the takeover was high, due to the belief that a better system of management would prevent shipyard closures.
The Rescue of the Third Class on the Titanic
Authors: Gleicher David
Published: January 2019

This work seeks to understand why a disproportionately large number of third class passengers, particularly women and children, died during the sinking of the Titanic in relation to the first and second classes. It examines the gender, class, social, and cultural factors that influenced this disparity. It aims to uncover both why and how five hundred and thirty one third class passengers died on the night of April 14th 1912. A key area of focus is the difficult relationship between the ship’s authorities and the men of the third class, and the extent to which this determined the fate of passengers during the rescue efforts. The introduction asks ‘Who were the third class passengers?’ and uses ethnic and economic backgrounds to suggest the third class belonged to the ‘Old Immigration’ wave of migrants, rather than the contemporary ‘New Immigration’ of the first and second. The first chapter concerns the exclusion of third class narratives in the ‘popular story’ of the Titanic. Chapters two through seven determine the whereabouts of the third class during every stage of evacuation, and flags the discrepancies in testimonies from both the British and American inquiries. Chapter eight provides a conclusion, which claims the ‘popular story’ includes a great many falsehoods with regard to the third class - including their treatment by crew, their behaviours, and their survival rates. The first appendix tables nationalities into regions; the second outlines the twenty routes to the lifeboats, as testified by one of the Titanic design architects; and the third provides deck plans for every level of the ship.
Unregulated Sealing in the Falkland Islands
Authors: Dickinson A.B.
Published: January 2019

This chapter explores the unregulated sealing practices that took place in the Falkland Islands. It discusses the intermingling of political and economic conditions of the sealing and whaling industries, plus expansion of whale oil trade to include seal oil and the oil of any viable creature of the sea. It follows the American and British interests in Falkland seal products and the development of trade between the two nations. It also examines the growth of the market, details the significant voyages of the period, and keeps the political and wartime activities of North and South Atlantic nations at the forefront of the discussion. The chapter concludes in 1820, with severely depleted seal stocks in the Falklands area leading to governmental efforts of regulation in attempt to address sealers who ignored depleting seal stocks in favour of the fortune the trade provided.
Anglo-American Policymaking, 1819-1834
Authors: Hunter Mark C.
Published: January 2019

This chapter explores Anglo-American policy-making between 1891 and 1834, with a particular focus on policies concerning piracy, privateering, and slavery. It examines British policy concerning the Gulf of Mexico and territories under Spanish control; American policy regarding piracy and privateering; the effect of the Monroe Doctrine on international relations - as it declared the Americas as part of the US economic and strategic sphere, and warned European colonisers from interfering with South America; Monroe’s eventual compromise; slave trade policies; and the 1819 Anti-Slave Trade Act. American and British policy-making differed in many of these regards, particularly concerning slavery, but it concludes that they continued to maintain a co-operative relationship as it furthered their own economic interests to do so.
Naval Relations and the Suppression of Piracy and Slaving, 1820-1830
Authors: Hunter Mark C.
Published: January 2019

This chapter provides a further analysis of naval relations, piracy restrictions and the suppression of slavery between 1820 and 1830. It continues to document the anti-piracy stance of the US Navy during the increase and decline of piracy in the early 1820s. It also documents the British anti-piracy efforts, and discusses their perceived lacklustre effort as reported by US media outlets. It examines colonisation in detail, including the actions of the American Colonization Society on the West African coast, and the presence of the Royal Navy in West Africa. It concludes by stating that the Anglo-American relationship was heavily strained in this period due to conflicting attitudes toward slavery, yet despite tensions, they remained co-operative while combatting piracy.
The US Navy and West Africa, 1843-1857
Authors: Hunter Mark C.
Published: January 2019

This chapter analyses American naval policies concerning West Africa between 1843 and 1857, in contrast to the previous chapter concerning the Royal Navy. In particular it explores the US West African Squadron, noting the motivation to protect American commerce and resist British interference with US vessels. It paints a complex picture of the period, analysing the attack on Berriby; the Mexican-American War; the legal issues that plagued the US Army; the US Navy’s commercial goals; the American approach to the Slave Trade; and the dominance of the Royal Navy in the region. It draws the same conclusion as the previous chapter, namely that Britain and the US grew further mistrustful of one another due to their conflicting agendas regarding their commercial interests in West Africa.
Trade, Migration and Urban Networks, c. 1640-1940: An Introduction
Authors: Jarvis Adrian , Lee Robert
Published: January 2019

This chapter introduces the major themes of the journal, namely, the way merchants built their businesses through trade networks that encompassed migration and port demographics. It outlines the activities of merchants and their approaches to risk reduction that subsequent chapters explore. In summary, these commercial risks included maritime insurance and ‘bottomry’; piracy; war; fire - a particular risk due to steam fire pump technology; port safety - including the threat of disease; and fraud. It outlines the various methods by which maritime merchants judged their business contacts trustworthy. Networks - religious, ethnic, personal, familial, were all ways in which a merchant could judge trustworthiness, though this system was not immune to failure, as further chapters demonstrate.
The Crewing of British Coastal Colliers, 1870-1914
Authors: Armstrong John
Published: January 2019

This chapter explores the employment conditions on British coastal ships between 1870 and 1914, focussing on the modern and industrial screw collier fleet on the east coast, which previous studies have traditionally overlooked. It uses data from British government censuses of seamen taken during the period and employment data from eighty Crew Agreements. In detail it discusses wage rates; methods of payment; recruitment stipulations; methods of maintaining crew morale; the hierarchy of promotion; and the way crew members expressed dissatisfaction with working conditions - such as through desertion. It determines that screw colliers received regular work, long-term employment opportunities, reasonable wages, and less hazardous employment conditions than other maritime career paths such as long-distance voyagers, and was thus a popular role.
Rough Waters: American Involvement with the Mediterranean in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: An Introduction
Authors: Marzagalli Silvia , Sofka James R. , McCusker John J.
Published: January 2019

In his path-breaking study of the sixteenth-century Mediterranean world, Fernand Braudel identified the “invasion” by Atlantic ships and merchants as one of the major, long-lasting events in the history of the Mediterranean Sea in early modern times.2 According to Braudel, the arrival of English, Flemish and French Atlantic vessels and their captains began discretely in the early sixteenth century as a result of an increased Mediterranean demand for cheap transport services. Within a few decades, however, northern Europeans evolved from a complementary to a commanding position in the region. Atlantic shipping and trade came to dominate the most lucrative Mediterranean trades, and the Atlantic powers steadily imposed their rules and politics on Mediterranean countries, progressively subordinating the region to Atlantic interests. Their ...
Relations between North America and the Italian Peninsula, 1763-1799: Tuscany, Genoa and Naples
Authors: Codignola Luca
Published: January 2019

This chapter explores the late eighteenth century relationship between North America and the states of the Italian Peninsula, in attempt to challenge the notion of a homogenous Atlantic world. It reveals a myriad of complex networks - commercial, political, and familial - that facilitated trade between Tuscany, Genoa, Naples, British North America, and the United States. It examines these networks primarily through the cod trade, but also considers wheat, tobacco, sugar, and others. It follows case studies of prominent traders, including Filippo Mazzei; Anton Francesco Salucci; Nicola Filicchi; and Stefano Ceronio, and concludes that, despite popular scholarly opinion garnered from factors such as the failure of diplomacy between the nations, trade between the United States and Italy before 1815 was consistently strong and bolstered through business and familial networks.
American Shipping into the Mediterranean during the French Wars: A First Approach
Authors: Marzagalli Silvia
Published: January 2019

This chapter examines American consular records in order to understand the priorities of the United States and the configuration of American shipping within the Mediterranean during the French Revolutionary Wars. It explores the establishment of American consulates; the increase in American diplomatic and military presence; the increase in American trade due to the demand for neutral transport during wars; the presence of American ships in Mediterranean ports; and the emergent patterns in American shipping. It discovers that American trade in the Mediterranean was a profitable enough enterprise to justify the Tripolitanian War, but further research into American economic affairs is needed to better understand the long-term American interest in Mediterranean affairs.
Consuls and Consiglieri: United States Relations with the Italian States, 1790-1815
Authors: Antonucci Anthony J.
Published: January 2019

This chapter further explores the trade relationship between the United States and Italy during the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars by examining the role of American consuls in the complex web of trade relationships between them. It investigates American consular records in attempt to determine how central their role was, and studies the way this role adapted over time. It provides case studies of the consulates of Livorno, Naples, and Sicily by analysing consul activity such as requests for military intervention against French authorities; negotiation tactics used to broker peace with monarchs and authority figures; connections made with local merchants; and the promotion of commerce. It concludes that despite the complexity of the role and the frequent changes to regime and personnel, American consuls established and developed political, social, and economic networks between America and Italy that benefitted American trade tremendously.
Old and New Republics: Diplomatic Relations between the Republic of Genoa and the United States of America
Authors: Castagneto Pierangelo
Published: January 2019

This chapter continues to explore the efforts of American consuls in the Mediterranean, and focuses on the diplomatic relationship between the United States and the Republic of Genoa in the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries. It charts the diplomatic efforts of Giuseppe Ravara during the 1790s, through to American-born consul Peter Kuhn Jr in 1805, tracing the successes and difficulties made by consuls in Genoa as the trade network with America increased in scope. It concludes that trade between Genoa and America grew rapidly between 1790 and 1820 in large part due to the efforts of the consuls, and that before being annexed by the Kingdom of Sardinia, Genoa profited economically from a special trade relationship with America.
“From the Halls of Montezuma, to the Shores of Tripoli:” Antoine Zuchet and the First Barbary War, 1801-1805
Authors: Enthoven Victor
Published: January 2019

This chapter presents an English-language translation of Antoine Zuchet’s correspondence with the Dutch Republic during the Tripolitanian War between America and Tripoli (The First Barbary War). Zuchet was a Representative of the Dutch Republic, originally from Livorno and living in Tripoli during the war. His detailed account serves as a counter-balance to the records from the American Navy which reflect a certain level of nationalist bias. Zuchet’s account as a neutral party displays sympathy for American hostages; remarks on poor, naive, and incoherent choices made by American naval officers and diplomats; and condemns Tripolitanian leader Yusuf Karamanli as a tyrant.
Slavery as Social Mobility? Western Slaves in Late Eighteenth Century Algiers
Authors: Sears Christine E.
Published: January 2019

This chapter explores the relationship between American merchants and diplomats and Barbary corsairs in the late-eighteenth century, by offering a case study of two American prisoners who managed to escape slavery and go on to become American consuls. Captain Richard O’Brien and Seaman James L. Cathcart used the connections they established during enslavement and the knowledge they gained of North Africa to expand their networks and gain their consul positions in an unusual but successful manner. It determines that both men managed to utilise their skillsets and networks they developed during enslavement as means of career advancement, and held positions normally reserved for non-sailors with relative success.
The Thames and Recreation, 1815-1840
Authors: Armstrong John , Williams David M.
Published: January 2019

This chapter continues to explore the role of the early steamboat in modern recreation, by studying the development of leisure activity on the river Thames between 1815 and 1840. By examining newspaper advertisements for steamboat services it further cements the marketable benefits of steam over sail, such as non-reliance on wind power. It discovers many examples of working class access to steamboat services, and explores the surge in steamboat companies during the period to find that passenger traffic was the second-most utilised steamboat service. It traces the development of technology and how that reduced travel time and made day trips possible. It examines sporting events, naval displays, and other activities steamboats became involved with, while considering how steamboat travel was marketed to people, including as a ‘healthy mode of recreation’ due to the fresh air on the water. Finally, it determines the risks involved aboard passenger boats, including the potential for violence amongst them. It concludes by asserting that the steamboat had a tremendous impact on Londoners, and as prices lowered and popularity increased, lower classes began to share the same opportunities for leisure enjoyed by the upper classes.
Technological Advance and Innovation: The Diffusion of the Early Steamship in the United Kingdom, 1812-1834
Authors: Armstrong John , Williams David M.
Published: January 2019

This chapter examines the process of diffusion of early steamship technology across the United Kingdom between the commencement of commercial services in 1812 through to 1834. It aims to demonstrate that diffusion of steamship services was both rapid and nationwide, and seeks to explain why this was. The basis for the statistics of tonnage, number, ownership and construction of vessels come from a variety of sources, in particular the British Parliamentary papers. In analysing tonnage rates, numbers of steam vessels, port activity, the development of steamship services such as mail and post, and the varied uses of steamships between coast and canal, it discovers that diffusion of the steamship was not only rapid by the standards of its own industry, but rapid within the context of pre-1900 technological advancement.
“A New and Very Modern Business:” The Traffic and Operations of the Early Steamship
Authors: Armstrong John , Williams David M.
Published: January 2019

This chapter explores the impact of the steamship on maritime business and operations. It examines the new requirements necessary for shipbuilders and shipowners to attain, which included meeting greater operating costs; providing fixed schedule services; offering liner services; and handling increases in competition. The analysis makes it apparent that many shipowners combatted these elements, particularly competition, through cooperation and collusion with other shipowners: instigating price-fixing, route-sharing, and pooling with one another. As a result, it proves that the framework of the shipping conference system came into effect several decades earlier than has previously been understood by historians.
Promotion, Speculation and Their Outcome: The “Steamship Mania” of 1824-1825
Authors: Armstrong John , Williams David M.
Published: January 2019

This chapter explores the perceived upswing in steamship ownership in 1824-1825 due to the boom in the stock exchange and the growth of joint-stock ownership schemes. It begins by explaining the expected outcome of the analysis - that joint-stock promotions instigated a ‘steamship mania’ akin to the ‘railway mania’ or the 1840s - was incorrect, and that over the course of research and study the authors discovered that in fact only three companies were formed during this period, two of which later failed. It charts the reasons for the steamship’s desirability, then analyses the boom itself - scale, routes, services, and diffusion. It studies the factors that led to such widespread failure during the period, and concludes that British enthusiasm for the steamship was overly-ambitious and led to losses, but these losses did not stop people from recognising and responding to the steamship as a major innovation.
The American and West Indian Trades
Authors: Davis Ralph
Published: January 2019

This chapter explores trade between Britain, America, and the West Indies during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It identifies the two types of English settlement in America - the plantation colonies and the farm colonies, then details each of their approaches to the shipping trade. It also traces the growth of the sugar and tobacco trades and the shift toward North-West tobacco shipping over London. Other essential developments include the impact of the Navigation Acts on Anglo-American trade; the rise of tobacco smuggling in Liverpool and Glasgow; the effects of crop seasonality on transatlantic trade; and the workings of the transatlantic slave trade, particularly through the port of Liverpool. It includes shipping statistics and contemporary correspondence to provide further detail about the structure of transatlantic trade.
War and the Shipping Industry
Authors: Davis Ralph
Published: January 2019

This chapter considers the financial impact of war on British shipping during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It attempts to discern the number of merchant ship losses during the Anglo-Spanish War, Anglo-French War, Seven Years’ War, and the Dutch Wars by scrutinising Admiralty records of loss estimates. It examines privateering activity; wartime insurance rates; the rise in seafaring wages; naval impressment; the disruption to trade cycles; the hiring of ships by the government; and a contrast of tonnage rates between periods of peace and war to determine the financial cost of war to the shipping industry. It concludes that though war made many demands of the merchant shipping industry, merchants and shipowners knew that successful campaigns would lead to the expansion of a British shipping monopoly, and so deemed war financially worthwhile in the long run.
Was It a Profitable Business?
Authors: Davis Ralph
Published: January 2019

This penultimate chapter attempts to answer whether or not merchant shipping in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was a profitable enterprise. It first quantifies the costs of operating ships, including wages, earnings, and profit, by analysing the account books of shipmasters and various other contemporary sources. It divides running costs into four sections: wages and crew costs; repairs and stores; port charges, pilotage and lighthouse dues; and miscellaneous expenses; and explores each in turn. After determining the cost of operations and of ships themselves, it then considers capital charge rates per annum. It asserts that voyage estimates alone cannot determine the profitability of shipping, and so turns to examine rates of financial ruin; increases in flow of capital into the industry; and the nature of fluctuating returns inherent to long-distance shipping. It concludes that these factors caused profit to vary, but stresses that it was not merely financial gain that led people to a career at sea, but an affection for ships and the appetite for adventure as much as enterprise, which renders financial gain less imperative.
Furness' Shipping Services: Growth by Organic Means in the 1880s
Authors: Boyce Gordon
Published: January 2019

This chapter examines the growth of the Furness Group’s shipping services during the 1880s. It begins with an overview of British foreign trade between 1870 and 1901, citing population growth and rising incomes as reasons for the huge rise in imports. It explores the advantages of British shipping over international competitors, which included the trebling of the merchant fleet, activity in the well-established Baltic trade, and the capacity for steamship construction. It then considers Christopher Furness’ shipping activity from the 1891 establishment of the Furness Group and onwards. By studying the changing composition of Furness’ accessible resources and the economic conditions facing the shipping industry, it determines the specific routes chosen out of the multiple options developing in the expanding global trade. It concludes in the 1890s and states that unlike other shipowning companies in the era, which had begun consolidating ownership but not at a tremendous rate, Furness commanded eighty-four percent of the Furness Group which gave him a debt-free platform and the capacity to support further growth in shipping operations.
Trouble on the Transatlantic Route: The Formation of the IMM and Furness' Response
Authors: Boyce Gordon
Published: January 2019

This chapter explores the response the Furness Group’s response to J. P Morgan’s acquisition and combination of five major transatlantic passenger lines, including the enormous White Star Line, into a single American based holding company - International Mercantile Marine (IMM). It uses Furness Group records to analyse Furness’ response, which was the intent to create a rival enterprise, and contrasts this with the response of a smaller, Liverpool-based shipowner. It then aims to fill the gaps of previous IMM studies by exploring route-allocation agreements across shipping firms; rail-borne cargo contracts; the position of smaller transatlantic operators; the impact of the merger on American ports; and the emergence of the transatlantic Canadian Pacific Railroad as another powerful competitor. It concludes by asserting that Furness’ plan to create a rival enterprise failed due to a combination of financial overambition, unpopular imperialistic intentions with regard to trade routes, the aggressiveness of the proposal and its failure to gain government support, and ill-will between Furness and his shipowning contemporaries.
The Growth of Shipping Services, 1902-1909
Authors: Boyce Gordon
Published: January 2019

This chapter charts the expansion of the Furness Group from 1902 to 1909 as they responded to the growth of American liner competition and shifting environmental conditions by engaging in other trades and amassing other resources. It analyses trends in trade, freight rates, tonnage, profit; the Furness Group’s profitability between 1900 and 1909; changes in patterns of growth; the North Atlantic trade stalemate between 1902 and 1909; the poor financial performance of Manchester-based liners; the Furness Group’s attempt to develop new liner trades beyond the North Atlantic into the Persian Gulf, South America and Australia; developments in tramp and contract trades; fleet expansion and consolidation; and insurance, salvage, repair, and provisioning interests. It concludes that by changing the composition of the Furness Group’s interests between 1902 and 1909 the company developed new and productive trade interests beyond the North Atlantic and escaped the trade deadlock. They would adjust the direction of services and expansion again in 1910, once the demand for shipping services resurfaced.
Personnel
Authors: Boyce Gordon
Published: January 2019

This chapter examines the role of executives within the Furness Group and the way in which they conducted the Group’s affairs. It seeks to determine the structure of Furness Withy’s personnel in 1919 and the disruptive factors that surrounded it, such as the First World War, and the withdrawal of the Furness family. It uses the structural management theories of Alfred Chandler, Edith Penrose, and Peter Payne to explain how ownership and control of Furness Withy became divorced, yet personal concerns and motivations continued to structure the company’s development. It also explores statements and publications written by Christopher Furness and his associates that illuminate his management strategies and incentives, and the organisational direction within the Group. At the core of the chapter is the question of whether the Group failed to consolidate their interests due to executives failing to implement their knowledge, or due to the administrative complexity surrounding the expansion efforts of the Group. It concludes that as the Furness family withdrew, their dynastic style of management continued to influence the next generation of leadership, a curious but not overtly hindering development.
Introduction
Authors: Wiseman Sam
Published: January 2019

Section One (Regions, Revenants, Reimaginings) contextualises the book’s approach by locating it within recent critical discourse, and emphasising commonalities between Lawrence, Powys, Butts and Woolf – particularly in terms of their powerful attachments to place and strong sense of the past. It notes that the book’s approach to these writers is underpinned, in part, by a sense that canonical understandings of ‘modernism’ can and should be expanded by their work. The common influence of Thomas Hardy (both in terms of style and themes) is also discussed. Section Two (Cosmopolitan and Technological Perspectives) stresses the impact that certain characteristics of the era have upon the four authors’ work, including the growth of urban cosmopolitanism, aerial photography and railway travel. Again, this section also provides critical context, discussing recent examinations of modernism and cosmopolitanism. Section Three provides a chapter overview.
All Boundaries Are Lost: Travel, Fragmentation and Interconnection in Virginia Woolf
Authors: Wiseman Sam
Published: January 2019

Woolf’s childhood was characterised by contrasts between urban and rural, movement and belonging, past and future, domesticity and the outdoor landscape. These influences are evident in her work’s balance between nostalgic reflection and an acceptance of the inexorable transience of human existence and sensation. Woolf is interested in the ways in which new developments in travel and technology can defamiliarise us, and reveal interconnections with other beings. Her attentiveness to the sedimentary layering of the past within rural landscapes is applied to her reimagining of the urban environment; Woolf inverts urban-rural associations, and portrays the metropolitan world as a site within which both fragmentation and interconnection are made explicit. That sense of interconnection also extends to nonhuman animals in Between the Acts (1941). Ultimately, this portrayal of a world in which all experience and activity is part of a ‘work of art’ underlies the theme of unity in Woolf’s final novel; but that theme nonetheless remains balanced by the novel’s exploration of dispersal and fragmentation.
Expanding Modernist Communities
Authors: Wiseman Sam
Published: January 2019

The conclusion revisits the threads of this book’s argument, emphasising both the commonalities and differences between the four authors in question. It contextualises these authors within ongoing debates regarding the legacies of modernism, and argues that they call for the central role of place and nonhuman life in what we understand as the ‘community’ of the period. They also draw our attention to the desirability of an expanded understanding of what modernism entails, incorporating broader ideas of innovation and experimentation, and challenging the idea of modernism as a purely metropolitan movement. Finally, the conclusion draws some links between the four authors under consideration and more recent writings by authors such as Iain Sinclair and W.G. Sebald, as well as movements such as psychogeography.
The ‘Open Door’: Metaphor and Promoting the Barnardo Brand
Authors: Ash Susan
Published: January 2019

This chapter introduces Barnardo’s use of metaphor, employing conceptual metaphor theory to explain how comparing an organization to an ‘open door’ inculcated the values of Christian hospitality in the public perception of Barnardo’s work: particularly inclusivity and unconditionality. It argues that the ‘open door’ metaphor worked to characterize Barnardo’s values and institutional processes in putative opposition to the state mechanisms dealing with destitute children, most notably the workhouse ‘solution’ that operated unproductively to demean children rather than train up new ‘citizens’. It draws on Derrida’s work on hospitality, as well as George Simmel and Martin Heidegger on liminality and dwelling. The chapter analyses a range of Barnardo’s recursive ‘hospitable’ practices, such as the annual teas and suppers for ‘waifs’ and ‘factory girls’. Such events doubled as charity mechanisms and promotional manoeuvres, since subsequent celebratory reports circulated in media around the world. It concludes by discussing how the ‘open door’ metaphor operates as a form of condensed narrative regarding Barnardo’s practice of child reform.
Narrative: Raising Affect, Raising Funds
Authors: Ash Susan
Published: January 2019

This chapter uses Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan’s work on narrative to explore how Barnardo deployed the basic elements of narrative (story, plot, character, as well as figurative modes) in advertising and other innovative fundraising schemes as a form of direct appeal to raise both affect and funds. These practices operated in direct opposition to a general evangelical mandate against asking for money specifically while acting as a mechanism for making meaning in the public arena related to a range of concepts significant to Dr Barnardo’s work and brand, including: ideas of childhood, emigration, citizenship, labour, hospitality and Christian love. The chapter examines Barnardo’s experience as a writer and as a ragged School educator to demonstrate how his practices took charity work into the realm of entrepreneurialism and business, since narrative often functioned as advertising. The chapter explores how Barnardo developed a persuasive form of institutional vignette to stimulate public support. It concludes by examining how Barnardo used narrative to create highly successful, innovative incentive schemes to increase wide spread donations globally, drawing of affect and sympathy.
The ‘Queen’s Shades’ and a ‘Gothicized’ London
Authors: Ash Susan
Published: January 2019

This chapter explores how Barnardo uses the Gothic narrative mode as a central mechanism to raise affect and thus engage potential supporters. The discussion draws on Jamieson Ridenhour’s work on the Gothicised cityscape to explore how Barnardo’s London reflects societal anxieties related to the past and the potential degeneration of British citizenry. It focuses on Barnardo’s treatment of one site in London, ‘The Queen’s Shades’ a site formed by mounds of detritus at the old Billingsgate Fish Market, first in a novel Barnardo wrote and serialized in his juvenile periodicals, and secondly in a supposedly non-fictional account for adults which narrativized the beginnings of his work in the 1860s. Both raise crucial questions about thresholds and liminality, about borders between inside/outside, animate and inanimate, indeed, between human and not-human. The chapter argues that Barnardo uses the Gothic in the child’s narrative to excite and engage interest while eliciting fear and shame in the adult version. Ultimately, ‘The Queen’s Shades’ operates as a powerful Gothic trope in which human sensations, corporal bodies and architectural detritus merge to reflect societal fears regarding the stability of the wider English social body.
‘Panoramas’ and ‘Living Pictures’: Dr Barnardo’s Annual Meetings
Authors: Ash Susan
Published: January 2019

This chapter analyses how Barnardo created spectacle from the massed exhibition of child bodies in the annual general meetings and fêtes held in Barnardo’s homes and in high-profile public venues such as the Royal Albert Hall. It focuses on spectacle as integral to the philanthropic agenda, such as scale, the boundaries between the real and performed, and the capacity to ‘move’ an audience in a context of amplified emotionality. Barnardo used spectacle to create capital and to represent social change to his supporters. The close relation of spectacle with disaster is crucial; the orchestrated spectacles conveyed both the underlying potential for, and the spectator’s vulnerability to, unleashed catastrophe should they choose not to contribute. Although Barnardo repudiated theatre and associated performance, he nevertheless devised spectacles that presented his brand in highly positive terms as another form of coherent narrative about child reform in the nineteenth century, and the organization’s social welfare work into the twenty-first century.
Afterword
Authors: Ash Susan
Published: January 2019

The Afterword reiterates how Barnardo orchestrated metaphors, narratives and spectacles to circulate his desired public meanings on a grand scale in the Victorian era. This section speculates that Barnardo used a form of identity construction normally associated with the 20th century, synthetic personalization, which Norman Fairclough argues works to create social spaces that link separate individuals who aren’t present, but nevertheless appear to communicate, simulating the bonds of friendship, loyalty and family. That is, Barnardo used mass media to constitute and perform his identity as the ‘Father’ of the world’s largest and most Christian ‘family’, creating the context for his supporters to feel as if each were individually a significant, contributing member of the Barnardo family. Thus, by using the technologies available to him as a Victorian, Barnardo converted the chaotic work of reform and charity into the perception of a unified, institutional identity and community. His use of metaphor, narrative and spectacle offers fertile ground for further scholarly investigation into a wide range of studies, including the history of marketing and production as well as philanthropy and child reform.
Rwanda Genocide Stories
Authors: Hitchcott Nicki
Published: January 2019

This book provides an in-depth analysis of fictional responses written in response to the Rwandan genocide of 1994. Through the course of the book, the reader is taken on a journey from the events leading up to the genocide, the horrific massacres that were carried out against the Tutsi population, and finally to modern-day Rwanda, where the country comes to terms with a brutal episode in its recent past. Nicki Hitchcott focuses her analytic study on a group of African authors, including Rwandans, who were brought together as part of the Rwanda: écrire par devoir de mémoire initiative in 1998 to write a variety of works to commemorate and reflect on the genocide. Hitchcott organises her analysis of each imagined work in to the context of tourists, witnesses, survivors, victims and perpetrators, whilst carefully examining the effects that an author’s positionality has on their response to the genocide. In addition to this, Hitchcott calls in to question the ethical issues raised when writing fiction based on the genocide, and how the reader becomes implicated by studying the works of fiction based on it. Above all, this work serves as a testimony to the range and diversity of genocide fiction written by African authors, and how the works they have produced enables a country to move forward.
Introduction
Authors: Hitchcott Nicki
Published: January 2019

In this introductory chapter, Hitchcott provides the reader with the ‘master narrative’, a thorough contextual overview of the events surrounding the genocide that are essential to the reader’s understanding. Hitchcott also explores the effect, or lack thereof, of the genocide on the West as it was being shown on television screens across the globe. Hitchcott establishes that, unlike the Rwandan government, her subsequent analysis will not be an attempt to reduce the genocide to one singular narrative, as this is impossible due to the breadth of experiences. Instead, her work is an analysis and comparison of the works of the ‘Ecrire par devoir de mémoire’ group and Rwandan-authored fiction in an attempt to shift the Eurocentric lens that has been used to examine the narratives of the genocide to date.
Witnesses
Authors: Hitchcott Nicki
Published: January 2019

In chapter three, Hitchcott analyses the variety of implications that arise when transposing witness accounts of the genocide in to works of fiction. There is a focus on the ethical problems, such as dealing with a story that has been deemed untellable, as well as practical issues such as the difficult search for first-hand testimonials. Hitchcott also provides an in-depth analysis of the themes, characters and symbols presented in genocide fiction, particularly the narrators who serve as witnesses in the narrative. The relationship between the event and author and the text and reader are closely examined, with an emphasis on the distances that exist between each party. Hitchcott further emphasises the responsibility of the reader to act as a witness and how there exists an ethical responsibility to empathise and be unsettled.
Perpetrators
Authors: Hitchcott Nicki
Published: January 2019

In chapter six, Hitchcott analyses the representation of those who participated in the genocide in fictional works, with a particular focus on the question of judgement, both moral and legal. Hitchcott establishes that fiction achieves an exploration in to the complexities of humanity’s failings that result in genocide, and that the narratives attempt to achieve understanding and acceptance by placing the acts of the perpetrators in to imagined circumstances. As a result, Hitchcott suggests that readers find themselves in a place of moral ambivalence in relation to the perpetrators as they are introduced to who they were as individuals. Hitchcott also dedicates attention to the analysis of how writers of genocide fiction have ultimately challenged the widely held views that the genocide was the result of a tribal conflict or ‘African barbarity’.
Anthologizing the Union française
Authors: Bush Ruth
Published: January 2019

This chapter is the first in the ‘Institutions’ section of the study, and considers the relative positions and strategies of selected editors who added literary voices concerning the Union française to their catalogues in the late 1940s. Editors included in Bush’s discussion are Paul Flamand at Le Seuil, Charles Fasquelle of Éditions Fasquelle, Charles-André Julien at Presses universitaires de France, and Guy Lévis Mano. Each assessment provides the opportunity to contemplate how anthologies and edited collections engaged with the politically volatile context of the Union française in a period marked by a sustained sense of both guilt and hope.