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Monarchs

Iain Mclean

in What's Wrong with the British Constitution?

Purpose of a head of state. Executive and non‐executive heads of state in some democratic constitutions. Australian constitutional crisis 1975. Sir David Smith fails to wake the Queen's Private ... More

Purpose of a head of state. Executive and non‐executive heads of state in some democratic constitutions. Australian constitutional crisis 1975. Sir David Smith fails to wake the Queen's Private Secretary. Argument for monarchy: certainty. Arguments against: democracy; quality of head of state. The Hanoverian dynasty as UK heads of state. How to elect a head of state?. What would happen to the Royal Prerogative in a democracy. The George V—Asquith exchange of letters in autumn 1913.Less

Why Should We Be Beggars with the Ballot in Our Hand?

Iain Mclean and Jennifer Nou

in What's Wrong with the British Constitution?

1909 Budget and Lords' veto. Land tax. Lloyd George's strategy: partial success 1909 and failure 1914. What the Permanent Secretary was up to. Parliament Act 1911 and royal vetoes. Temporary ... More

1909 Budget and Lords' veto. Land tax. Lloyd George's strategy: partial success 1909 and failure 1914. What the Permanent Secretary was up to. Parliament Act 1911 and royal vetoes. Temporary expansion in number of veto players.Less

The Curious Incident of the Guns in the Night Time

Iain Mclean and Tom Lubbock

in What's Wrong with the British Constitution?

The Government of Ireland Bill and the Ulster Protestant revolt 1912–14. Bonar Law, Dicey, the Unionist Party, and illegal activity. Curragh ‘mutiny’ 1914. Larne gunrunning 1914.

Democratic Radio

David Goodman

in Radio's Civic Ambition: American Broadcasting and Democracy in the 1930s

Democratic radio in the 1930s encompassed far more than Franklin Delano Roosevelt's famed Fireside Chats. Advocates of democratic radio were stimulated by the contemporary ideals of Deweyan ... More

Democratic radio in the 1930s encompassed far more than Franklin Delano Roosevelt's famed Fireside Chats. Advocates of democratic radio were stimulated by the contemporary ideals of Deweyan progressive education to imagine uses of radio that would facilitate development of critical individual opinion. Radio forum programs hoped to create an audience that was rational, discursive, open to persuasion, critical, wedded to the process of truth seeking rather than to any particular beliefs – and above all willing to change its mind. These qualities were to be stimulated by listening to the forum programs, but also by engaging in discussion of them after broadcast, perhaps in an organized radio listening group. The chapter discusses NBC's University of Chicago Round Table and George V. Denny Jr.'s America's Town Meeting of the Air on NBC, with its self-conscious attempt to revive the spirit of the New England town meeting on national radio.Less

British royals at home with the empire

Charles V. Reed

in Royal tourists, colonial subjects and the making of a British world, 1860-1911

Chapter one examines the conceptual space between the projection of Queen Victoria as a symbol of empire and nineteenth-century royals often ambivalent attitude toward the empire and, particularly, ... More

Chapter one examines the conceptual space between the projection of Queen Victoria as a symbol of empire and nineteenth-century royals often ambivalent attitude toward the empire and, particularly, the royal tours. It also describes the experiences of royal tourists of empire between the first royal tours of 1860 and the coronation durbar of 1911. Using correspondence to, from, and about travelling royals – including two future kings – the chapter examines Victorian and Edwardian royals’ encounters with the empire from their daily routines to their participation in Mughal-inspired durbars with Indian princes.Less

Best Laid Plans? Lloyd George and the Drink Question

Robert Duncan

in Pubs and Patriots: The Drink Crisis in Britain during World War One

This chapter aims to detail the gathering crescendo for some form of action to be taken on the drink issue. As the war progressed, its pressures had increasing repercussions on the home front. The ... More

This chapter aims to detail the gathering crescendo for some form of action to be taken on the drink issue. As the war progressed, its pressures had increasing repercussions on the home front. The expenditure of shells and arms on an unprecedented scale increased pressure on Britain’s industrial infrastructure. Adjusting to this demand for military hardware was a difficult task and the type of war being fought accentuated the problem. Britain’s factories, whilst simultaneously having to deal with a large amount of its experienced workforce joining the army, could not cope with demand. Blame had to be placed somewhere, so it is unsurprising that the industrial working class bore the brunt of accusations regarding degenerate behaviour. During this period Lloyd George and King George V spoke about how important the drink issue was to the war effort. In an important speech Lloyd George criticised workers’ drinking habits and his actions suggest that he wanted a ‘national conversation’ to occur on the issue. This was the period during which the ‘severity’ of the drink problem was finally realised by society.Less

Eclipse of an Era

Mushirul Hasan

in A Moral Reckoning: Muslim Intellectuals in Nineteenth-Century Delhi

This chapter describes the grandeur of British rule in India under whose bright light, the older order was eclipsed. The last decades of the nineteenth century saw India witness many vivid ... More

This chapter describes the grandeur of British rule in India under whose bright light, the older order was eclipsed. The last decades of the nineteenth century saw India witness many vivid expressions of imperial grandeur, pageantry, and power (1887, 1903). In 1911, George V (1865–1936) was crowned king of England and Emperor of India. His Durbar in Delhi brought princely India and British India together in feudal pageantry which also saw the subordination of Indians. The chapter describes how C F Andrews witnessed the Durbar while Nazir Ahmad, who died on May 3, 1912, would have heard some people raising the cry ‘God Save the King Emperor’ in Shajahanabad's lanes and by-lanes. Muhammad Zakaullah died two years earlier, and so was not able to witness the curtain being drawn on another phase in India's turbulent history.Less

The Kaiser in Limbo

William A. Schabas

in The Trial of the Kaiser

The Kaiser did not seem overly concerned about trial and there is no evidence he made any preparations for his defence. With Dutch Government approval, he bought a permanent residence in Doorn, near ... More

The Kaiser did not seem overly concerned about trial and there is no evidence he made any preparations for his defence. With Dutch Government approval, he bought a permanent residence in Doorn, near Utrecht, and proceeded to renovate the place.r The Pope took the initiative to campaign against trial of the Kaiser, and European royalty joined in a variety of initiatives to protect their ‘cousin’. Dutch public opinion appeared to harden in favour of refusing any surrender of the Kaiser. Then, at the end of the year, incriminating documents known as the Kautsky papers were published in Germany showing the Kaiser’s belligerence during the fateful weeks of July 1914.Less

Postscript and conclusion

Charles V. Reed

in Royal tourists, colonial subjects and the making of a British world, 1860-1911

The final chapter examines the royal tour through the lens of the 1911 coronation durbar and its aftermath. It argues that the durbar represented both the political and cultural pinnacle of the ... More

The final chapter examines the royal tour through the lens of the 1911 coronation durbar and its aftermath. It argues that the durbar represented both the political and cultural pinnacle of the ritual apparatus developed during the second half of the nineteenth century, but also the ways in which it was unravelling in the years before the First World War. It also demonstrated how imperial culture was made by complex modes of reception and appropriation, how ideas about empire, citizenship, and identity were forged in encounters and experiences ‘on the ground’, as it were, and how colonial knowledge was always imperfect and partial.Less

Inventing Empire in Twentieth-Century India and Britain

Helen Watanabe-O'Kelly

in Projecting Imperial Power: New Nineteenth Century Emperors and the Public Sphere

It was in the twentieth century, during the reign of Queen Victoria’s three successors, the King-Emperors Edward VII, George V, and George VI, that the concept of imperial India, Britain’s most ... More

It was in the twentieth century, during the reign of Queen Victoria’s three successors, the King-Emperors Edward VII, George V, and George VI, that the concept of imperial India, Britain’s most important colony, was invented and promoted by means of architecture, ceremonial, and a new capital city. This chapter discusses the Victoria Memorial Hall, the Gateway of India, the building of New Delhi and the 1903 Durbar. George V’s Coronation Durbar of 1911 was accompanied in London by the Festival of Empire, the Pageant of London, and the Masque Imperial. Between the wars, the British Empire Exhibition and the Pageant of Empire of 1924 were designed to convince the British of the imperial project.Less

Readying the Case for Trial

William A. Schabas

in The Trial of the Kaiser

Lloyd George’s offer to host the trial in England was accepted by the Council of Four. But when the Prime Minister told Parliament that it would take place in London, King George V, who was the ... More

Lloyd George’s offer to host the trial in England was accepted by the Council of Four. But when the Prime Minister told Parliament that it would take place in London, King George V, who was the cousin of Kaiser Wilhelm II, objected strenuously. The Powers did not meet to plan the trial and organise the prosecution, although the British assigned a government lawyer to prepare a brief and to instruct two barristers. Completed in December 1919, the brief was amateurish and incomplete, reflecting either a lack of will to proceed with the trial or else a self-confidence that establishing guilt would be a simple matter. It was almost exclusively based upon published sources in the public domain.Less

The Aga Khan

James C. Nicholson

in Never Say Die: A Kentucky Colt, the Epsom Derby, and the Rise of the Modern Thoroughbred Industry

The fourth chapter introduces Sultan Mohammed Shah, the third Aga Khan and spiritual leader of millions of Ismaili Muslims. The chapter begins with a brief history of the Aga Khans’ historical ties ... More

The fourth chapter introduces Sultan Mohammed Shah, the third Aga Khan and spiritual leader of millions of Ismaili Muslims. The chapter begins with a brief history of the Aga Khans’ historical ties to the Prophet Mohammed and then provides a description of the third Aga Khan’s life and career as a political and religious leader, diplomat, and businessman. The chapter concludes with an explanation of the Aga Khan’s entrance into European aristocratic society, where he interacted with British royals such as Queen Victoria and Kings Edward VII and George V, and his reintroduction to the sport of horse racing, which he had loved as a child in India.Less

Détente

B. R. Nanda

in Gokhale: The Indian Moderates and the British Raj

This chapter considers Gokhale’s policy of general conciliation. Sir Charles Hardinge, an Under-Secretary in the British Foreign Office, succeeded Minto as viceroy. He came to India at a time when, ... More

This chapter considers Gokhale’s policy of general conciliation. Sir Charles Hardinge, an Under-Secretary in the British Foreign Office, succeeded Minto as viceroy. He came to India at a time when, exhausted by the humiliations of the Curzon regime and the deferred hopes and the final frustrations of the Minto–Morley reforms, the politically conscious classes were longing for a breathing space. Gokhale himself favoured a moratorium on political controversies for a few years. He wanted to concentrate on constructive programmes in which officials and non-officials, Hindus and Muslims, Europeans and Indians could cooperate. A political truce at this time was especially welcome to the new viceroy because of the proposed visit and coronation of George V towards the end of 1911.Less

The Americans Come to Listen, August–September 1940

William T. Johnsen

in The Origins of the Grand Alliance: Anglo-American Military Collaboration from the Panay Incident to Pearl Harbor

The chapter initially outlines how the fall of France affected not only the European balance of power but also global U.S. national security interests. The narrative describes British efforts to ... More

The chapter initially outlines how the fall of France affected not only the European balance of power but also global U.S. national security interests. The narrative describes British efforts to obtain war supplies to replace those abandoned in France as well as Churchill’s pleas for immediate U.S. aid. The account explores changes in U.S. war planning to accommodate these geostrategic upheavals, including Roosevelt’s decision to provide aid to Britain. Before fully committing U.S. materiel support, Roosevelt needed to ascertain whether Britain would survive long enough to make good use of equipment desperately needed for the possible mobilization of U.S. Armed Forces. The chapter offers a detailed description and analysis of the U.S. mission ofthree senior U.S. officers whom Roosevelt dispatched to assess the odds of Britain’s near-term and long-term survival. The U.S. mission concluded that Britain would survive and that the United States eventually would be drawn into the war.Less