"Modest Motoring

Transfers ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 56-75
Author(s):  
Craig Horner
Keyword(s):  
Leisure Activity ◽  
First World War ◽  
The Self ◽  
Mechanical Reliability ◽  
Cultural Model ◽  
World War ◽  
Lower Middle Class ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The First World War ◽  
First World

Automobility in the United Kingdom in the period before the First World War moved from irrelevance and ridicule to a normalized leisure activity. With particular reference to the magazines Punch and Motor, this article argues that this process was hastened by middle- and lower-middle-class consumers' receptivity to the automobile and motorcycle, particularly in the period after 1905 when a tolerable mechanical reliability had been achieved. By buying second-hand, and taking short trips and camping weekends, the self-driving, car-owning “modest motorist“ undermined the formal, club-based network of elite motorists and created their own distinct cultural model.

The Contemporary Commonwealth: A General View

1959 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 204-218
Author(s):  
Zelman Cowen
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
First World War ◽  
The Self ◽  
General View ◽  
World War ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
First World

There is an old adage that beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. It is certain that the beauty, the utility, and the significance of the Commonwealth association appear very differently to its various members. This was true of the pre-war Commonwealth: between the end of the first world war and the beginning of the second there were marked differences of attitude among the members. The central problem was seen as the definition of the relationship between the United Kingdom and what were then described as the self-governing dominions. To South Africa, the Irish Free State, and Canada—in varying degrees—it was important that the relationship should be spelled out in terms which assured, so far as was possible through the medium of statute and the articulation of conventional rules, a status of equality between the United Kingdom and the dominions. To Australia and New Zealand the attempt at such a definition appeared undesirable; quieta non movere seemed to them the counsel of wisdom.

‘The Very Complexion of the Mirror’

2015 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Mhairi Pooler
Keyword(s):  
Henry James ◽  
First World War ◽  
The Self ◽  
World War ◽  
Autobiographical Writing ◽  
Reflective Surface ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Mixed Genre ◽  
The Moment ◽  
First World

The introduction’s title is taken from a quote by Henry James that underlines the book’s focus on the self-theorising artist: the idea that autobiographical writing shows the author’s mirrored reflection as well as an examination of the reflective surface itself. This idea is introduced alongside other key themes of the book, including the concern with genre, especially the mixed genre of ‘creative autobiography’ and how it compares with the Künstlerroman. The choice of authors studied and their interconnections are explained. It is described how each of the works focused on is a response to the moment of its composition – to the new century, to the shock of the First World War, to the experiments in self-expression or to the uncertainty of the interwar years – making Hans Georg Gadamer’s notion of the ‘historical horizon’ important to the study. This discussion dwells on Virginia Woolf’s idea that ‘human character changed’ in 1910.

‘The Cross, naturally’: Decorations in the Belgian Army and their effect on emotions, behaviour and the self, 1914–1918

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 358-383
Author(s):  
Rose Spijkerman
Keyword(s):  
Self Esteem ◽  
First World War ◽  
The Self ◽  
World War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Cross ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
First World

During the First World War, many soldiers in the Belgian Army were endowed with a decoration, in order to inspire, motivate, and reward desirable conduct. The relationship between decorations and the soldier’s self-consciousness, his behaviour and his emotions, is present in every aspect of decorating, as it emphasized his self-esteem, pride, and character. By analysing the material aspects of decorations, the ceremonies surrounding their bestowal, and the textual motivation for doing so, this article explores the functions and effects of decorating, the evaluation of behaviour and self-conscious emotions by both Army Command and soldiers.

Downton Abbey

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Byrne
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
The United States ◽  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
The Past ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Family ◽  
Popular Television ◽  
First World

Certainly the most successful period drama, indeed perhaps the most popular television show, of the 21st century, British series Downton Abbey (2010–2015) has become a force to be reckoned with in popular culture. It borrows the format of popular 1970s series Upstairs Downstairs (ITV), following the lives of a fictional Edwardian family and the servants who look after them in the eponymous house. Season 1 opens in 1912 with the sinking of the Titanic, in which the heir to Downton is lost: the plot then follows the family coming to terms with the arrival of the next in line, a middle-class lawyer with a very different view of life from their own. The next five seasons—there are six in total—follow the inhabitants as they cope with the change the 20th century brings, including the First World War; the woman’s movement, which liberates some of the female characters; and the changes in taxation and society, which make the estate increasingly difficult to maintain and run. The last episode is set in 1925, and a film based on the show is due out in 2019. The series was loved by fans both in the United Kingdom and the United States, but received very mixed critical reception. Critics on the left criticized the show for its glossy and nostalgic view of the past, and of interclass relations, linking its ideology to the politics of its writer, Conservative peer Julian Fellowes. Others praised its positive view of human nature and escapist charm, at a time when austerity was making itself felt in the United Kingdom. Either way, it undoubtedly rekindled viewers’ appetite for period drama on a scale not seen since the 1970s, and has also stirred up debate about the part played by television in representing, accessing, and understanding the past.

scholarly journals Palestine and the Secret Treaties

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 110 ◽  
pp. 109-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Kattan
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Middle East ◽  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Spheres Of Influence ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Arab States ◽  
First World

The Sykes-Picot agreement is the foremost example of Western double-dealing in the Middle East since the discovery of oil. The agreement, formalized in an exchange of notes between the British Foreign Secretary and the French Ambassador to the United Kingdom in London, is named after its principal negotiators Sir Mark Sykes (1879-1919) and Georges-Picot (1870-1951). As one of several overlapping arrangements affecting the postwar settlement in West Asia secretly negotiated during the First World War, the agreement provided for the division of the region into spheres of influence comprised of nominally independent Arab states under the “tutelage” of British and French advisers.

International Science ‘Down Under’: The British Association Meeting in Australia, August 1914, with Special Reference to Related Activities in Adelaide

2002 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 166-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Twidale ◽  
Jennie Bourne
Keyword(s):  
First World War ◽  
British Association ◽  
Australian Government ◽  
World War ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The People ◽  
Home Based ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Association Meeting ◽  
First World

From 8-12 August 1914, the British Association for the Advancement of Science, meeting in Australia, descended on Adelaide. The meeting included delegates from a dozen overseas countries, including many from the United Kingdom. Amongst the visiting geologists were Arthur Philemon Coleman (1852-1939) and William Morris Davis (1850-1934), Rollin Thomas Chamberlin (1881-1948) and John Walter Gregory (1864-1932), Albrecht Penck (1858-1945) and Johannes Walther (1860-1937), Alexander du Toit (1878-1948) and Hartley Travers Ferrar (1879-1932), George William Lamplugh (1859-1926) and Sydney Hugh Reynolds (1867-1949), as well as the home-based T. W. Edgeworth David (1858-1934) and Ernest Willington Skeats (1875-1953). The proceedings created immense public interest and brought science to the people in a way never before achieved in Australia. That the meeting proceeded at all is a tribute to the Australian Government, the Association, and the conference organisers, as well as the participants, for the First World War had been declared only a few days before the meeting. The interactions between the home population and the delegates, and between delegates, provide an enlightening commentary on the values and standards of our world almost a century ago.

Living Through Wartime

2021 ◽  
Vol 88 (3) ◽  
pp. 449-472
Author(s):  
Nicole A. N. M. Van Os
Keyword(s):  
Ottoman Empire ◽  
Social History ◽  
Military History ◽  
First World War ◽  
The Self ◽  
World War ◽  
The Social ◽  
The First World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
First World

Archival sources, but also self-narratives, newspapers, and periodicals, have been im- portant sources for political and military historians of the last two decennia of the Ot- toman Empire in general and the First World War in particular. In recent years, an increasing number of historians have become interested in more than the political and military history of the period. The field has been broadened to include social history. Conventional sources have been reread to get a better understanding of the effects of the War on the social domains and everyday life. Self-narratives have proven to be in- valuable sources for social historians working on the period. These self-narratives were not only produced by the men in charge, but by people from all walks of life: soldiers and civilians, men and women noted down their wartime experiences in their diaries or letters home and in memoirs and autobiographies. In most cases, the self-narratives used by historians were, however, those written by men in which women were objecti- fied. In this paper, the self-narratives of women living in the Ottoman Empire during the First World War are preliminarily explored to give them a voice and turn them into subjects rather than objects.

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