The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 is one of the most important pieces of social legislation ever enacted. Its principles and the workhouse system dominated attitudes to welfare provision for the next 80 years. This new Seminar Study explores the changing ideas to poverty over this period and assesses current debates on Victorian attitudes to the poor. David Englander reviews the old system of poor relief; he considers how the New Poor Law was enacted and received and looks at how...

The British constitution is regarded as unique among the constitutions of the world. What are the main characteristics of Britain's peculiar constitutional arrangements? How has the British constitution altered in response to the changing nature of its state - from England, to Britain, to the United Kingdom? What impact has the UK's developing relations with the European Union caused? These are some of the questions that Martin Loughlin addresses in this Very Short Introduction. As a const...

Ranging from the middle of the eighteenth through to the end of the nineteenth century, Crime and Society in England, 1750–1900 explores the developments in policing, the courts and the penal system as England became increasingly industrialised and urbanised. Through a consideration of the difficulty of defining crime, the book presents criminal behaviour as being intrinsically tied to historical context and uses this theory as the basis for its examination of crime within English...

Covers the momentous reforms in the British electoral system during the period from the Great Reform Act of 1832 to 1918 when women were given the vote. The study charts the series of Reform Acts right through the period, involving rather more attention to those important changes in the 1880s which are often underplayed.

As a practising barrister, the Rt. Hon. Lord Justice Sedley wrote widely on legal and non-legal matters, and continued to do so after becoming a judge in 1992. This anthology contains classic articles, previously unpublished essays and lecture transcripts. To each, he has added reflections on what has transpired since or an explanation of the British legal and political context that originally prompted it. Covering the history, engineering and architecture of the justice system, their comm...

A Social History of Women in Ireland is an important and overdue book that explores the role and status of women in Ireland from 1870 until 1970, looking at politics, sociology, marriage patterns, religion, education and work among other topics. It provides a vital missing piece in the jigsaw of modern Irish history. Using a combination of primary research and published works, A Social History of Women in Ireland explores the role and status of women in Ireland. It examines lifestyle optio...

The Politics of the Common Law offers a critical introduction to the legal system of England and Wales. Unlike other conventional accounts, this revised and updated second edition presents a coherent argument, organised around the central claim that contemporary postcolonial common law must be understood as an articulation of human rights and open justice.The book examines the impact of the European Convention and European Union law on the structures and ideologies of the ...

Parliamentary Reform 1785–1928 surveys the dynamically changing role of the British Parliament from the pre-reformed Parliament through:the 1832 Great Reform ActChartismthe campaign for working class suffrageCatholic emancipationthe long struggle for the granting of female suffrage.Beginning with a wide survey of the origins and nature of Parliament, the author offers a detailed context for the campaigns for its ...

The Industrial Revolution had a profound and lasting effect on socioeconomic and cultural conditions in Britain.The Birth of Industrial Britain examines the impact of early industrialisation on British society in the century before 1850, coinciding with Britains transition from a late pre-industrial economy to one based on industrialisation and urbanisation.This fully revised and updated second edition provides a comprehensive range of pedagogical material to suppo...

This second volume of John Rule's major two-volume portrait of Georgian England is a comprehensive and authoritative survey of eighteenth-century society, incorporating the exciting new research findings of recent years. It deals in turn with the upper class, `middling sort' and lower orders; with popular education, religion and culture; with standards of living in town and country; and with crime, punishment and protest. The book, which is as rich and varied as the age it explores, ends w...

Over the long eighteenth century English governance was transformed by large adjustments to the legal instruments and processes of power. This book documents and analyzes these shifts and focuses upon the changing relations between legal authority and the English people.

Chartism is an essential introduction to the movement, and examines the controversial debates surrounding the topic. As well as providing a concise period background, the author includes discussion of:* the Chartists' economic, legislative and political goals* patterns of regional and local support* reasons for the Chartist decline* the success of Chartism in the light of its goals and its influence over the Poor Law, Corn Laws, trade unions and factory...