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The article focuses on history of popular culture of England. Topics discussed include innovative elements and necessity of distinction of culture's theoretical approaches; definition of culture in terms of historical development; and views of Raymond Williams on different approaches of cultural needs.

In the early eighteenth century, the Duchess of Queensberry arrived at the Bath Assembly wearing a white apron, only to have it torn from her person by a Master of Ceremonies who declared that only a lady's maid would appear dressed so. This article looks at the apron as a garment worn by elite women in eighteenth-century England in order to consider some of the questions raised by this encounter. Aprons were closely linked with the labouring classes in contemporary representation, and elite women wearing them were therefore accused of imitating the dress and behaviours of their inferiors. While emulation from below has received due attention from scholars, this apparent imitation from above remains underexplored. Elite women certainly did masquerade as country girls at times; however, the apron as an item of elite dress was not as transformative as contemporaries feared. Instead, it became subject to expectations and conventions governed by the rhythms of elite everyday life. Though the Duchess of Queensberry became infamous, elite women wearing aprons were most likely to provoke censure when they defied these conventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The premodern past was desired and deployed in a myriad of different ways in sixteenth-century England. The period of the English Reformations produced a generative, complex, and paradoxical range of feelings for the premodern. Many sixteenth-century texts were multiply medievalist, making use of literary figures, generic forms, and cultural phenomena in unexpected ways. Various senses of temporality — understandings of the shapes and nature of cultural time — were often foregrounded. Reformation historiography was often sectarian and combative, but also sought tangible contact with the textual remains of the past. These feelings for the premodern were then unavoidably present in the 1590s but were subject to use in nascent literary forms that were self-consciously avant-garde in different ways. Antiquity and archaism were brought together with a heightened sense of contemporaneity. In prose fiction, the premodern could be used in different forms of scandalously risqué, comic, and autobiographical narratives. In historical poetry produced in the same decade, a new literary mode made poetic capital out of a heightened emotional discourse associated with premodern history and culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Christians’ experiences of anti-Christian prejudice are relatively unexplored in sociological research. This article analyses perceived anti-Christian prejudice reported by Christian adolescents in England. Rich interview data were collected regarding Anglican, Baptist, and Catholic adolescents (N=26) over a five-month period in churches and church youth groups in an English city. The young people reported incidents of anti-Christian name-calling (slurs), bullying, labelling, and aggressive questioning about their faith by non-Christian peers, indicating that anti-Christian prejudice may affect the status of Christians in adolescent peer-group hierarchies. They also perceived formal aspects of schooling to be biased against Christian beliefs and practices. These episodes suggest that, like prejudice against other religious groupings, anti-Christian prejudice has historical negative tropes and stereotypes based upon perceived inferiority. However, unlike other kinds of religious prejudice, the analyses also suggest that anti-Christian prejudice may sometimes be related to philosophical objections to religious beliefs rather than perceived negative racial or ethnic attributes. These findings are discussed with reference to the debate about secularisation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines Newcastle upon Tyne as a case study for the concept of a ‘long eighteenth century’. It is argued that from the late seventeenth century until the 1830s the town, despite some social tensions, demonstrated considerable continuity in terms of its political, social, and economic structure. This gave Newcastle stability and cohesion, but allowed limited economic development and increased prosperity. It became a thriving cultural centre and a ‘polite society’ emerged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on Trinidadian journalist and thinker C. L. R. James and his attitude towards English culture. The author compares the alleged Eurocentrism of James to the views of British-Indian writer V. S. Naipaul. Topics discussed include James’ education on Queen's Royal College (QRC) in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, his love for cricket, and his relations with English literary critic Neville Cardus.

This article reports on some of the research findings of a major, multi-site case study of character formation in young people in England. Religion was not the focus of this research, but emerged as significant in each case study. In particular, the religious and spiritual beliefs and practices of young people were positively connected with their level of community involvement. The research provides evidence that indicates an association between young religious believers and those who are constructively engaged in both their communities as well as being politically minded. The main methods of data collection for this article included semi-structured discussions/interviews together with semi-structured individual and questionnaire surveys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The overseas body provided an interesting and useful site of cultural understanding in early modern England. The marked body in particular was used by observers to address important questions concerning correct bodily deportment and its connection to civility, morality, and religiosity, resulting in an integration of the discourses of foreign and domestic somatic presentation. This study traces the changing English constructions of the marked body in the public discourse of the overseas world published between 1590 and 1660, a period that witnessed important changes in attitudes towards overseas corporeality. It challenges the common assumption that the marked body was an ephemeral and fleeting subject before Cook's Endeavour voyage, illustrating the textured and changing understanding that early modern English commentators displayed when confronted with corporeal alteration in the overseas world. In particular, it explores the reflexive contemplation overseas ornamentation engendered in England during the early years of English colonial endeavor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Irish-born characters and characters whose names indicate Irish descent recur in the television and film work of Liverpool writers Jimmy McGovern and Alan Bleasdale. Their frequently troublesome dramatic presence often marks them as alien or marginal but problematic elements within British society, or suggests a troubled past and characteristic psychic dysfunction. Bleasdale's have been depicted somewhat stereotypically as economically parasitic and anachronistically maintaining outmoded religious beliefs incompatible with the material interests of the working class. By contrast, McGovern has frequently used his 'Irish' characters to engage critically with his own 'Liverpool Irish' Catholicism and as the focal point for his distinctively moral vision of British society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers a range of contrasting narratives about the Irish in Britain that are sometimes overlapping and sometimes contradictory. These narratives reflect the complexity of the Irish immigrant experience itself, from integration to alienation, and help to explain the persistence of cultural stereotypes. The contradictory nature of this experience also helps to understand the ways in which the Irish have contributed to wider popular culture in Britain, especially in the case of the second-generation Irish who came of age in the 1970s and 1980s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

French liberal economists share a very surprising reading of Bentham's theory. In this paper, we underline the method according to which these economists understand Bentham's utilitarianism: they consider that utilitarianism deals with 'utility' but disregards justice. Such an interpretation appears when they tried to oppose the 'French school' and 'English school' of economics as well as when they discussed the foundation of property rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the impact of the Tudor religious reforms in the rural upland parish of Kirkby Malhamdale, Craven, in the Yorkshire Dales, from the late medieval period, when it was dominated by the economic power of the monasteries, during the Dissolution and subsequent changes, to 1603. Although early churchwardens' accounts have not survived for the parish, the analysis draws upon a variety of contemporary sources including wills, ecclesiastical documents, manor court rolls and other miscellaneous material, as well as the fabric and structure of the parish church itself. Aspects of worship and ritual in Kirkby Malham, the response to the reforms, and the extent to which conformity in the reformed Church of England was established in the parish by the end of the sixteenth century, are examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article tackles religion and politics as different aspects of a variety of social practices within a common culture. It examines the political and religious climate of English provincial towns with a monastic presence in the period before 1540. It demonstrates the extent to which monastic interests were fused with those of local elites, and argues those elites sought to undercut the process of dissolution and to preserve something of the monastic framework through the unfolding crisis. It challenges the notion of a natural dialectic between traditional religion and provincial politics and uncovers a dynamic of negotiation productive for both constituencies before and after the Dissolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper's subject is the recurrent theme of sacramental hermeneutics in preaching at Paul's Cross, London, in the mid-Tudor period, focussing on John Jewel's famous 'Challenge Sermon' delivered soon after Elizabeth I's accession. Significantly, this sermon sets the terms of disputation between reformers and traditionalists about England's religious identity in the so-called 'Great Controversy' of the 1560s. While Jewel appealed to the Reformers' adherence to the authority of Scripture and the primitive Church, the bulk of the sermon concerns the hermeneutics of sacramental presence, namely, how to interpret rightly the relation between a sacramental sign (signum) and the mystical reality signified (res significata). As the 'Challenge Sermon' is largely an exploration of semiotic principles, we will examine Jewel's theory of signs, its antecedents and its consequences for the definition of England's subsequent religious identity. Considered are implications for 'moral ontology' in its shift away from the assumptions of sacramental culture towards what has been termed a 'culture of persuasion.' Jewel's argument offers a helpful vantage point for examining the issue of the 'Reformation and the disenchantment of the world' and for revisiting the assumptions of revisionist historiography. Finally, we suggest that Jewel's approach provides a means of interpreting the key role of Paul's Cross itself in the public life of the realm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite their significant presence throughout the modern era, Scottish emigrants to England have been neglected as a topic of research. At various times, Scottish in-migration to the north-east of England was greater than any other English region both numerically and proportionately. Its visibility was evident in terms of cultural expression through the myriad organisations established from the 1860s to the 1970s. Scots, and their descendants, made a vital contribution to the economic and political development of the region. This article examines the formation and operation of Scottish ethnic networks. It will explore the wider issue of the nature of Scottish migration to the north-east, the strength of ethnic affiliation within this group and the range of networks used to overcome dislocation or alienation. The central findings draw on a rich variety of sources including the records of local Burns Clubs, St Andrew's Societies and Pipe Bands, supplemented by local press material and oral testimony. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Provides information on the migration in the early modern period of England from Derbyshire to Hallamshire. Use of the apprenticeship registers as an evidence of migration; Impact of these records on the knowledge of how surnames spread across the county boundary; Influence of the Cutler's Company of Hallamshire and the Sheffield cutlery industry in attracting apprentices to migrate.

Provides information on Jacobitism and popular disturbances in Northern England from 1714 to1719. Interpretation of historians on the real meaning of Jacobitism; Arguments of these historians on the correlation of rioting with the actual participation in rebellion; Significance of riots in demonstrating the ability of the local forces of law and order in handling disturbances.

This article discusses the origins of the name of the Cheshire parish of Antrobus in northern England. The author believes that the origins of this town's name can be traced to the Gaelic term an trebthas, which translates to the farm or the dwelling. The likely origins of this place name in the migration of Norse Irish settlers to the region in the tenth century is considered. The evidence in favor of the theory of Norse Irish settlement is framed in terms of the apparent historical openness of this land to settlement in the tenth century.

Explores the true meaning and historical background of Cronton, in Northern England. Geographical description of Cronton; Interpretation of historians on the meaning of Croton; Evidence for any high status community and its historical sites.