Documents in Modern History – serie

The creation of Britain’s welfare state in 1948 was an event of major international importance. Designed to provide a concise introduction to the evolution of both the structure of the welfare state and attitudes towards it. Concentrates on five core services: health care, education, social security, the personal social services and housing. For each service it examines the original vision, the attempts to implement this vision, the resulting complexities and controversies and, above all, the impact on individual ‘customers'. A wide range of documentary evidence is used, including published and unpublished government sources, political memoirs, newspaper exposés and personal testimony.

Birth controlled analyses the world of selective reproduction – the politics of who gets to legitimately reproduce the future – through a cross-cultural analysis of three modes of ‘controlling’ birth: contraception, reproductive violence and repro-genetic technologies. It argues that as fertility rates decline worldwide, the fervour to control fertility, and fertile bodies, does not dissipate; what evolves is the preferred mode of control. Although new technologies like those that assist conception or allow genetic selection may appear to be an antithesis of other violent versions of population control, this book demonstrates that both are part of the same continuum. All population control policies target and vilify women (Black women in particular), and coerce them into subjecting their bodies to state and medical surveillance; Birth controlled argues that assisted reproductive technologies and repro-genetic technologies employ a similar and stratified burden of blame and responsibility based on gender, race, class and caste. To empirically and historically ground the analysis, the book includes contributions from two postcolonial nations, South Africa and India, examining interactions between the history of colonialism and the economics of neoliberal markets and their influence on the technologies and politics of selective reproduction.The book provides a critical, interdisciplinary and cutting-edge dialogue around the interconnected issues that shape reproductive politics in an ostensibly ‘post-population control’ era. The contributions draw on a breadth of disciplines ranging from gender studies, sociology, medical anthropology, politics and science and technology studies to theology, public health and epidemiology, facilitating an interdisciplinary dialogue around the interconnected modes of controlling birth and practices of neo-eugenics.

Over a half-century after the death of Roosevelt the debate on his presidency and the New Deal remains vibrant, for in many ways he created the modern presidency and he remains a giant of American political history. This book, specifically designed for sixth-form and undergraduate use, serves as an essential introduction to his domestic policy during his tenure from the struggles of the Depression to the outbreak of the Second World War.Incorporating archival discoveries at the Roosevelt Presidential Library, this documentary collection focuses on the debates and controversies surrounding the implementation and practice of New Deal policies. It highlights the meanings, flaws and outcomes of Roosevelt's attempts to refashion American society.With an extensive contextualising introduction, the book reproduces extracts from a variety of sources including Government records, public addresses and speeches and the private papers of Roosevelt and some of his closest associates.

Women in the 1770s had few rights, especially if married: they could not vote, make a contract, sue or be sued in their own names. They were barred from higher education and their earnings or incomes belonged to their husbands who could beat them and declare them insane. Two centuries later, many rights had been secured: full enfranchisement in 1928, widening opportunities in education and employment and, in theory at least, equal pay and an end to sexual discrimination. This remarkable collection of documents offers readers access to a range of primary materials covering the major themes of women’s experience: their position in law, marriage and the family, education, work, politics, sexuality and health. Each chapter contains a timeline and an introduction laying out the main issues. Featuring the work of familiar and lesser-known writers and activists, it also gives insight into the women who took part examining their motivation and the background from which they came. In this way it gives voice to the experience of the ‘ordinary’ woman and provides a vivid sense of what it meant to be a woman. The book is an invaluable record for all those interested in women’s lives over the last two hundred years and will be essential reading for researchers, teachers and students.

Women in the 1770s had few rights, especially if married: they could not vote, make a contract, sue or be sued in their own names. They were barred from higher education and their earnings or incomes belonged to their husbands who could beat them and declare them insane. Two centuries later, many rights had been secured: full enfranchisement in 1928, widening opportunities in education and employment and, in theory at least, equal pay and an end to sexual discrimination. This remarkable collection of documents offers readers access to a range of primary materials covering the major themes of women’s experience: their position in law, marriage and the family, education, work, politics, sexuality and health. Each chapter contains a timeline and an introduction laying out the main issues. Featuring the work of familiar and lesser-known writers and activists, it also gives insight into the women who took part examining their motivation and the background from which they came. In this way it gives voice to the experience of the ‘ordinary’ woman and provides a vivid sense of what it meant to be a woman. The book is an invaluable record for all those interested in women’s lives over the last two hundred years and will be essential reading for researchers, teachers and students.

The American Civil Rights Movement: A documentary history collects in a single, brief volume, documents reflecting key aspects of the Civil Rights Movement: the voices of social activists (and opponents), the legal struggle in the courts, and governmental responses to civil rights issues – public statements, executive orders, legislation.The book is a deliberate attempt to address the shortcomings of capsule histories of the Movement, histories that neglect to describe the range of public and private institutions, organizations, and individuals that contributed to – and hindered – its accomplishments. The introductory essays, providing narrative or analytical background, combined with the range of documents presented, allows the book to serve as an excellent supplement to textbook treatments of modern U.S. history, African American history, and/or the Civil Rights Movement. The book includes over 100 documents – personal narratives, court decisions, news reports, letters, legislation – that provide the reader with insights into the philosophies, strategies, personalities of the Movement.

Annika Mombauer's essential source reader translates, cross-references and annotates a vast range of international diplomatic and military documents on the origins of the First World War. It collects together documents which are newly discovered or were not previously available in English, drawn from a broad range of sources and countries into a single, indispensible text for students and scholars alike.The volume includes a detailed scholarly introduction which analyses the most controversial issues in the debate on the origins of the War and provides a comprehensive overview of the history of document collections on the war’s origins. The documents cover the period 1911–14, with particular emphasis on the July Crisis and immediate outbreak of war. Thoroughly cross-referenced and annotated, these fascinating sources are presented with authoritative commentary, enabling readers to make connections between the documents to illuminate how the decisions for war were taken, and why.This will be an invaluable resource for anyone studying or teaching the origins of the First World War.

Annika Mombauer's essential source reader translates, cross-references and annotates a vast range of international diplomatic and military documents on the origins of the First World War. It collects together documents which are newly discovered or were not previously available in English, drawn from a broad range of sources and countries into a single, indispensible text for students and scholars alike.The volume includes a detailed scholarly introduction which analyses the most controversial issues in the debate on the origins of the War and provides a comprehensive overview of the history of document collections on the war’s origins. The documents cover the period 1911–14, with particular emphasis on the July Crisis and immediate outbreak of war. Thoroughly cross-referenced and annotated, these fascinating sources are presented with authoritative commentary, enabling readers to make connections between the documents to illuminate how the decisions for war were taken, and why.This will be an invaluable resource for anyone studying or teaching the origins of the First World War.

This is the first English language source reader that deals with post-war (West) Germany. The sources, which include official Allied and German documents, parliamentary debates, contemporary newspapers articles, diaries and a large number of previously unpublished archival materials, allow for the first time a source-based study of post-war Germany for non-German speakers.The sources allow an assessment of the changes of Allied policy in the immediate post-war years which led to the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany; explain the country’s role in the intensifying Cold War; and encourage a re-evaluation of the ‘economic miracle’ and whether the Federal Republic signified a ‘new start’ for Germany or a ‘restoration’ of the old social forces and patterns. The book will be of great benefit to students of German post-war history at all levels. It offers a unique opportunity for teachers and lecturers to go well beyond the traditional sources explaining German History and the Cold War.

This is the first English language source reader that deals with post-war (West) Germany. The sources, which include official Allied and German documents, parliamentary debates, contemporary newspapers articles, diaries and a large number of previously unpublished archival materials, allow for the first time a source-based study of post-war Germany for non-German speakers.The sources allow an assessment of the changes of Allied policy in the immediate post-war years which led to the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany; explain the country’s role in the intensifying Cold War; and encourage a re-evaluation of the ‘economic miracle’ and whether the Federal Republic signified a ‘new start’ for Germany or a ‘restoration’ of the old social forces and patterns. The book will be of great benefit to students of German post-war history at all levels. It offers a unique opportunity for teachers and lecturers to go well beyond the traditional sources explaining German History and the Cold War.

Wide-ranging and richly researched, this is the first sourcebook to reconstruct the tumultuous history of the Communist Party of Great Britain. Drawing together over one hundred and fifty documents—including party statements, press releases, published correspondence, reviews, poems, cartoons and articles—it presents a detailed portrait of the party, its abiding concerns and its many contradictions from the 1920s to the 1980s. It samples voices from the full spectrum of the party’s diverse personnel, from longstanding party leaders (Harry Pollitt, Rajani Palme Dutt), to prominent twentieth-century British intellectuals (E. P. Thompson, Eric Hobsbawm), to significant cultural figures (Jack Lindsay, Alan Bush, A.L. Lloyd). Balanced, comprehensive and framed by Callaghan and Harker’s detailed introductions, British Communism: A documentary history is not only a valuable addition to the historiography of Communism, but to the study of twentieth-century Britain.