152 research outputs found

    ‘Againste the Invasion and Incourse of Scottes in tyme of warre’: An examination of motivations behind fortified building in Northumberland, 1296-1415

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    Scholarship in recent decades has characterized fortification, beginning in the fourteenth century, as declining in defensibility and erected largely for comfort and status. Most literature on the subject, however, leaves out the border counties of England or dismisses them as not fitting into their narrative, without further investigation. In Northumberland, as with the other border counties, the Anglo-Scottish Wars of Independence and subsequent period of border conflict created a culture of fortification in the north which was largely different from that in the rest of the country both in scale and style. Frequent Scottish raiding into Northumberland created a reactive pattern of building, with fortification cropping up along invasion routes shortly after incursions took place. By analysing the patterns of raiding during the fourteenth century, this thesis argues for a concrete link between the Anglo-Scottish border conflict and the high level of fortification within Northumberland. While other typical uses for these sites, including the judicial and administrative, do apply, none of these can explain the high number of fortifications built in Northumberland between 1296 and 1415 relative to other counties in England. Nor can Northumberland’s density of castles be attributed to the county’s reputation for supposed lawlessness: there is little evidence that crime rates in the fourteenth century were any higher in the county, nor was the judicial system any weaker there, than anywhere else in the country for the period. Of the sites themselves, the vast majority were free-standing tower houses, a new form of fortification within England, and one that only became prevalent in the English borders from the early fourteenth century. These towers offered a more affordable alternative for lesser members of the gentry to protect their lands against the threat of raiding, and they proved successful enough that they were used prevalently in Ireland in the fifteenth century, and similar towers were erected widely in Scotland in the sixteenth century. Both in-person investigations of the sites, and archaeological research showed that these tower houses were typically built with at least two external defences, thick walls, narrow windows, and seldom with windows on the ground floor, generally placing the need for defence above a comfortable interior space in their construction. Both the historical and archaeological examination of these sites reveal strong links between their construction and border conflict. Significantly, nearly no obvious defensive weaknesses are present in any of the sites surveyed, portraying the image of a county still very much in need of practical fortification, and not one whose defensibility is in decline

    Transatlantic Perceptions of Reform: The Impact of America on the Second Reform Act

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    This PhD thesis explores the influence of America on British debates about franchise reform leading up to the passage of the Second Reform Act in 1867. It explores British public discourse surrounding reform between 1832 and 1867 through analysis of travel literature, newspapers, periodicals, quarterlies, political texts by public intellectuals, election speeches, speeches from working-class reform demonstrations, and records of parliamentary debates. The thesis sets out to understand the ways in which British perceptions of America after 1832 shaped British debates over political reform that culminated in 1867 with the Second Reform Act. Throughout, it considers how British political commentators adapted the ways in which they utilised the example of the United States to suit different target audiences, with different elements of American democracy featuring in their analysis depending on where these debates took place. Examining how the United States featured in these different facets of British reform discourse, the thesis offers insights into British political ideas and political culture in the 1860s generally, and into the Reform Act of 1867 more specifically, including how Conservative fears about Americanisation in the 1860s represented an early opportunity for the Conservative Party to wrest control of the language of patriotism from the Liberal party, as well as how Liberal divisions over the political relevance of America foreshadowed debates about the caucusization of liberal politics that came to prominence in the late 1870s. Unlike other modern European democracies and the ancient democratic republics of Greece and Rome, America was understood by many to share the same Anglo-Saxon heritage as Britain. British political commentators believed that the earliest interpreters of the U.S. Constitution had been guided by British precedents and political traditions. American politics were seen to have inherited broadly similar understandings as those in Britain. However, the reform debates of the 1860s took place in the light of a brutal Civil War, a Presidential assassination, the suspension of civil liberties and a shift towards economic protectionism. In taking account of these significant developments, this thesis concludes that America played an important role in shaping the public debate over political reform during the 1860s and that references to the United States formed a key – and hitherto underappreciated – element of the language of public discourse about reform in this period

    'Making an Exhibition of Herself' - Women, Art and Birmingham, 1860-1920

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    This thesis examines the significant contribution of women to Birmingham’s art culture between 1860 and 1920. It studies the activities of more than fifty women and demonstrates the extensive range of their art world experiences with priority given to those who have not previously received sustained scholarly attention. Most of the case study women were artists and their considerable involvement in the key areas of art education, art making, art exhibition and the art market form the basis of the first four chapters. The important contribution of non-artist women is considered for the first time in the fifth chapter on sociability and philanthropy. Birmingham women artists developed their professional art careers via a range of activities such as personal and professional networking, collaborative making, memberships to art societies and international travel. Sometimes their activities conformed to gendered societal expectations and other times challenged them. As award-winning art students, they played a vital role in the prominent reputation of Birmingham’s School of Art. As professional artists, they created art works in a wide variety of media, exhibiting and marketing them extensively to generate sales. This thesis also considers the participation of Birmingham women artists in national and international art worlds. It includes examples of women from outside Birmingham, some of them famous artists, participating in Birmingham’s art world. This examination of women in Birmingham’s art world provides an important new contribution to our knowledge of the history of art education, women’s professional work and social art history of Birmingham

    The place where curses are manufactured : four poets of the Vietnam War

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    The Vietnam War was unique among American wars. To pinpoint its uniqueness, it was necessary to look for a non-American voice that would enable me to articulate its distinctiveness and explore the American character as observed by an Asian. Takeshi Kaiko proved to be most helpful. From his novel, Into a Black Sun, I was able to establish a working pair of 'bookends' from which to approach the poetry of Walter McDonald, Bruce Weigl, Basil T. Paquet and Steve Mason. Chapter One is devoted to those seemingly mismatched 'bookends,' Walt Whitman and General William C. Westmoreland, and their respective anthropocentric and technocentric visions of progress and the peculiarly American concept of the "open road" as they manifest themselves in Vietnam. In Chapter, Two, I analyze the war poems of Walter McDonald. As a pilot, writing primarily about flying, his poetry manifests General Westmoreland's technocentric vision of the 'road' as determined by and manifest through technology. Chapter Three focuses on the poems of Bruce Weigl. The poems analyzed portray the literal and metaphorical descent from the technocentric, 'numbed' distance of aerial warfare to the world of ground warfare, and the initiation of a 'fucking new guy,' who discovers the contours of the self's interior through a set of experiences that lead from from aerial insertion into the jungle to the degradation of burning human feces. Chapter Four, devoted to the thirteen poems of Basil T. Paquet, focuses on the continuation of the descent begun in Chapter Two. In his capacity as a medic, Paquet's entire body of poems details his quotidian tasks which entail tending the maimed, the mortally wounded and the dead. The final chapter deals with Steve Mason's JohnnY's Song, and his depiction of the plight of Vietnam veterans back in "The World" who are still trapped inside the interior landscape of their individual "ghettoes" of the soul created by their war-time experiences

    'Inventions and adventures': the work of the Stevenson engineering firm in Scotland, c. 1830 - c. 1890

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    This thesis examines the work of the nineteenth-century Stevenson civil engineering firm to argue that civil engineering should be approached geographically both because it takes place in and is shaped by particular spaces, but also because the result of such work reshapes space and the relationship between places. Geographers have extensively analysed the ways in which humans have worked to alter environments, but relatively little attention has been paid to engineering as a socially and geographically transformative process, to the technical questions and to the engineering professionals whose work brought about such change. This thesis analyses engineers as social and technical agents of environmental change, rather than viewing their role as the simple implementation of directives developed elsewhere and by others. It combines insights from the history and historical geography of science, environmental history and the history of technology to make a case for the relevance of an historical geography of engineering. The thesis explores these issues through the work of the Stevenson family. The Stevensons were an Edinburgh-based and internationally-renowned firm of engineers who specialised in the construction of coastal infrastructure. The start and end dates of the thesis indicate, broadly, the careers of David and Thomas Stevenson, who jointly managed the family firm under the name D. & T. Stevenson between 1850 and 1886. The empirical basis for this thesis draws upon the detailed analysis of the firm’s archival records: technical publications, project reports, diaries, correspondence, maps, plans and diagrams. The work of the Stevensons—their engineering epistemologies, practices, and professional identities— are examined through four diverse projects undertaken by the firm in the nineteenth century. These projects are: the training of new engineers; surveying and designing improvement works for the rivers Tay and Clyde; the implementation of a coastal sound-based fog signal network; and the failed attempt to expand Wick harbour through the construction of a breakwater. These projects highlight the range of activities undertaken by nineteenth-century engineers and illustrate the ‘making’ of engineers and the work they did by highlighting training and learning, surveying, maintenance, testing, evaluation, repair and the explanation of failure. With reference to these projects and by drawing upon relevant contextual material, the thesis examines the conceptualisation of geographical space and natural forces in engineering, the relationship between science and engineering, the nature of expertise and notions of engineering judgement, and the role of family, legacy and reputation in securing professional credibility and status. This approach challenges older historiographical traditions which portrayed engineers as individual geniuses. The thesis instead understands engineering to be a combination of specialist knowledge and tacit skill and situates engineers within their social and institutional networks of power and authority. In pointing out that some engineering works failed, the thesis challenges the tendency in histories of engineering works to focus on success. It makes the case for an historical geography of engineering as a way of understanding engineering as an activity, a status and as processes which changed human-environment relations

    A Multidisciplinary Analysis of Coastal Storms in Western Britain, 1800-2020

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    This multidisciplinary study combines environmental science and environmental history to improve storm understanding in Western Britain from 1800 to 2020. Storms have persistently impacted coastal communities, infrastructure and environments in this region and climate change is predicted to increase storm threats and impacts. A sedimentological study analysed saltmarsh storm impacts in Carmarthen Bay. High magnitude storm surge deposition in 1954, 1977 and 1981 was identified through sedimentological, meteorological and tidal gauge analyses. The results show storm surges irregularly contributed to sustaining saltmarsh elevation suggesting the value of continued research into saltmarsh storm impacts. An archival newspaper analysis produced a comprehensive original storm database from 1800 to 2020. Three environmental history investigations followed. The first investigation analysed a major storm using the concept of storm subcultures. The 1859 Royal Charter Storm and the ensuing developments in storm prediction were analysed. Storm catastrophes were shown to evoke long-term social, political and cultural responses. The event changed storm understanding and prediction with long-term community and governance implications. The analysis highlighted the importance of inclusive decision making and adaptive storm subcultures. The second study employed statistical and qualitative newspaper analyses of written storm representations from 1800 to 1953. Rapidly declining religious storm interpretations and progressively increasing scientific interpretations reflected changing beliefs in Britain. The analysis showed that epistemological change profoundly affected public storm representations and understandings. A contemporary study analysed meteorological, tidal gauge and newspaper data from Storms Ciara and Dennis. While the storms were climate anomalies and the short-term response was effective, shortcomings in long-term climate change-related government policies likely enhanced vulnerability and therefore policy adaptation was recommended. Multidisciplinary research ultimately improves the understanding of the often interconnected community and environmental storm impacts and can inform inclusive and effective response. Further multidisciplinary research can therefore contribute towards enhancing resilience to increasing storm threats

    Pathways

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    This anthology explores possibilities to acknowledge human motion, and traces thereof, as heritage. Today, with the increasing interest in local and sustainable connections, and in bodily and spiritual enhancement, we see a growing use of walking tracks both in landscapes within reach from urban centres and in more remotely located or ‘wild’ areas. The corona pandemic has further propelled these trends. Of course, landscapes that are commonly understood as wilderness or ‘nature’ are in most cases clearly influenced by human actions and movements. While walking trails tend to be regarded as pathways to experience nature and as tools to promote public health, they could also be seen and used as routes to culture and history, indeed as pathways to the past. Based on a Swedish research project with the aim to explore the multiple dimensions of walking, paths and movement, this volume engages and discusses the potential effects of such an expansion of the heritage register

    Defining Security Requirements with the Common Criteria: Applications, Adoptions, and Challenges

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    Advances of emerging Information and Communications Technology (ICT) technologies push the boundaries of what is possible and open up new markets for innovative ICT products and services. The adoption of ICT products and systems with security properties depends on consumers' confidence and markets' trust in the security functionalities and whether the assurance measures applied to these products meet the inherent security requirements. Such confidence and trust are primarily gained through the rigorous development of security requirements, validation criteria, evaluation, and certification. Common Criteria for Information Technology Security Evaluation (often referred to as Common Criteria or CC) is an international standard (ISO/IEC 15408) for cyber security certification. In this paper, we conduct a systematic review of the CC standards and its adoptions. Adoption barriers of the CC are also investigated based on the analysis of current trends in security evaluation. Specifically, we share the experiences and lessons gained through the recent Development of Australian Cyber Criteria Assessment (DACCA) project that promotes the CC among stakeholders in ICT security products related to specification, development, evaluation, certification and approval, procurement, and deployment. Best practices on developing Protection Profiles, recommendations, and future directions for trusted cybersecurity advancement are presented

    Cultural Dynamics of Climate Change and the Environment in Northern America

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    In Cultural Dynamics of Climate Change and the Environment in Northern America academics from various fields such as anthropology, art history, cultural studies, environmental science, history, political science, and sociology explore society–nature interactions in – culturally as well as ecologically – one of the most diverse regions of the world.; Readership: All interested in the cultural dimensions of climate change, and anyone concerned with environmental history, environmental sociology as well as environmental policy in North America
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