London Press Research Articles

Children's Experiences of Welfare in Modern Britain ed. by Siân Pooley and Jonathan Taylor

Reviewed by: Children's Experiences of Welfare in Modern Britain ed. by Siân Pooley and Jonathan Taylor Lorraine McEvoy Children's Experiences of Welfare in Modern Britain. Edited by Siân Pooley and Jonathan Taylor. London: University of London Press, 2021. xvi + 285 pp. Cloth £40.00. Also distributed by the University of Chicago Press, Cloth $55.00. Siân Pooley and Jonathan Taylor's thoughtfully edited collection is the result of a workshop on "Children's Experiences of Welfare" that was held at the University of Oxford in 2020. Delivering on the title's promise to place children's perspectives front and center, Children's Experiences of Welfare in Modern Britain brings together ten chapters, each of which clearly contributes to the overall argument that "the young were integral to the making, interpretation, delivery and impact of welfare services, and that their involvement has left a distinctive imprint on the shape of welfare in modern Britain" (1). The chapters, which deal with a wide range of case studies (the first four begin in the nineteenth century and the remaining six in the twentieth), locate children's experiences through a multiplicity of sources created by children themselves and by welfare providers. A strength of the collection is the diverse modes of welfare provision considered—including institutions, family and peer networks, schools, hospitals, emigration programs, and more—and the success with which the chapters situate their findings within broader contexts and historiographical debates. [End Page 446] Pooley and Taylor's introduction makes a convincing argument for the relevance of the volume, clearly delineating the insights and innovations it provides into histories of welfare, childhood, and modern Britain. The volume is guided by "three conceptual foundations": an approach to children's encounters with welfare that, "[r]ather than telling the story of a single institution or policy . . . seeks to understand the experience of mobility, instability, uncertainty—and sometimes power—that emerged from being the nexus of multiple inconsistent investments"; a contention that the significance of human relationships to welfare can be better understood by examining children's experiences; and the assertion that individual experiences and qualitative, longitudinal evidence should be used alongside more quantitative and adult provider–determined measures of progress and impact (2–3). The chapters are arranged chronologically in order to challenge familiar accounts of welfare history that tell tales of linear progress and to argue that "children became less able to shape the expanded mid-twentieth-century welfare services from which they were assumed to benefit" (21). Notwithstanding the range of subjects, the collection is pleasantly cohesive due to editorial clarity of purpose and the way chapters cross-reference each other, interweaving common themes to enrich conceptualizations of children as more than passive recipients and to highlight their roles in shaping welfare provision. The focus on children's voices, which are woven throughout the collection, is compelling, and the volume is a welcome addition to discussions concerning children's agency. The collected chapters present a "spectrum of everyday responses to welfare provision" and highlight the various ways that children exercised agency through resistance, expression, rebellion, compliance, negotiation, play and even silence (13). While Gordon Lynch's chapter on postwar child migrants to Australia highlights instances where children's agency was constrained, Rebecca Swartz illustrates how "young people lived on a continuum between powerful and powerless" (48) as part of the Children's Friends Societies colonial emigration schemes, and Laura Tisdall explores how students understood their own agency, or lack thereof, in their relationships with adults and educational hierarchies. Chapters by Gillian Lamb on the backgrounds of children who experienced institutional welfare, Pooley on working-class children's letters in local newspaper columns, Taylor on children's views of postwar Britain and its welfare services, and Valerie Wright on children's play in Glasgow's high-rise estates in the 1960s and 1970s challenge national government-centered narratives and highlight the importance of local authorities, social, familial and communal networks in children's experiences and perceptions of welfare. At the same [End Page 447] time, Caroline Rusterholz emphasizes the benefits of age-based analyses, arguing that controversies restricted younger teenagers' access to sexual welfare services, thus complicating the "common...

Review: How Sherlock Pulled the Trick: Spiritualism and the Pseudoscientific Method, by Brian McCuskey

Review: <i>How Sherlock Pulled the Trick: Spiritualism and the Pseudoscientific Method</i>, by Brian McCuskey

“Well Paid for a Woman”: Gloria Hardman's 50-Year Career in Computing

In 1964, Gloria Nel (née Webb) arrived in England and began her 50-year career in computing at IBM in London (1964-1966). She continued as a programmer at the London Press Exchange (1966–1968), and then in the U.S. at MIT (1968–1969), followed by time as a self-employed educator (1979–1982), at Shore Country Day School (1982–1984), Choate Rosemary Hall (1984–1989), IBM in Milford Connecticut (1989–1993), and Yale University (1994–2014). Her life in computing started in the era of punch cards and ended in the era of smart phones.

Christopher Phillips. Civilian Specialists at War: Britain's Transport Experts and the First World War. New Historical Perspectives. London: University of London Press, 2020. Pp. 444. $65.00 (cloth).

Christopher Phillips. Civilian Specialists at War: Britain's Transport Experts and the First World War. New Historical Perspectives. London: University of London Press, 2020. Pp. 444. $65.00 (cloth). - Volume 61 Issue 3

Antonia Fitzpatrick and John Sabapathy, eds. Individuals and Institutions in Medieval Scholasticism. London: University of London Press, 2020. Pp. 288. $45.00 (paper).

Antonia Fitzpatrick and John Sabapathy, eds. Individuals and Institutions in Medieval Scholasticism. London: University of London Press, 2020. Pp. 288. $45.00 (paper).

Francis, Hilary (ed.) (2020) A Nicaraguan Exceptionalism? Debating the Legacy of the Sandinista Revolution. University of London Press (London, UK), 187 pp. Open Access.

Francis, Hilary (ed.) (2020) A Nicaraguan Exceptionalism? Debating the Legacy of the Sandinista Revolution. University of London Press (London, UK), 187 pp. Open Access.

Universal relation for life-span energy consumption in living organisms: Insights for the origin of aging

Metabolic energy consumption has long been thought to play a major role in the aging process (Pearl, The rate of living. University of London Press, London, 1928). Across species, a gram of tissue expends approximately the same amount of energy during the lifespan on average (Speakman, J Exp Biol 208:1717–1730, 2005). Energy restriction has also been shown to increase the maximum lifespan (McCay et al. J Nutr 10:63–79, 1935) and to retard age-associated changes (Weindruch and Walford, The retardation of aging and disease by dietary restriction. CC Thomas, Springfield, 1988). However, there are significant exceptions to universal energy consumption during the lifespan, mainly found by interclass comparison (Ramsey et al. Free Rad Biol Med 29:946–968, 2000; Atanasov, Trakia J Sci 10(3):1–14, 2012). Here, we present a universal relation that relates lifespan energy consumption to several physiological variables, such as body mass, temperature and the ratio of heart rate to respiratory rate, which have been shown to be valid for sim 300 species representing different classes of living organisms, from unicellular organisms to the largest mammals. This relation has an average scattered pattern restricted to factors of 2, with 95% (2-sigma) of the organisms having departures of less than a factor of pi from the relation, despite the difference of sim 20 orders of magnitude in body mass, reducing any possible interclass variation in the relation to only a geometrical factor. This result can be interpreted as supporting evidence for the existence of an approximately constant total number {mathrm{N}}_{{mathrm{r}}} sim 10^8 of respiration cycles per lifetime for all organisms studied, effectively predetermining the extension of life through the basic energetics of respiration (quantified by {mathrm{t}}_{{mathrm{life}}} = mathrm{N}_mathrm{r}/mathrm{f}_{{mathrm{resp}}}); this is an incentive to conduct future studies on the relation of such a constant number {mathrm{N}}_{mathrm{r}} of cycles per lifetime due to the production rates of free radicals and oxidants or alternative mechanisms, which may yield definite constraints on the origin of aging.

The Grand Tour. A trial of aristocratic manhood

Review of Sarah Goldsmith, Masculinity and danger on the eighteenth-century Grand Tour (London: University of London Press, Institute of Historical Research, 2020, xiii + 272 p., index).

Church and People in Interregnum Britain. Edited by FionaMcCall. University of London Press. 2021. xvi + 290pp. £40.00.

Church and People in Interregnum Britain. Edited by FionaMcCall. University of London Press. 2021. xvi + 290pp. £40.00.

Arise. Power, Strategy and Union Resurgence, by JaneHolgate. Pluto Press London, 2021, 272 pp., ISBN: 9780745344027, £16.99 paperback p/b

Arise. Power, Strategy and Union Resurgence, by JaneHolgate. Pluto Press London, 2021, 272 pp., ISBN: 9780745344027, £16.99 paperback p/b

Editors’ Note

Welcome to our spring 2021 issue of The Agonist: “The Antichrist.” We would like to thank all of our contributing writers and dedicated editorial team. We would also like to express our enormous gratitude to our new publishers, Ibrahim Sirkeci and the Transnational Press London. We look forward to working with you! In this issue our writers present four essays that once again rethink our relationship with Nietzsche’s controversial, later writings. Robert Malka explores the ways in which a story can find its basis in both the self and the world in Nietzsche's works. Gary Shapiro reimagines Nietzsche as a proto-ecologist or prophet of environmentalism. Bradley Kaye mines the strange affinities between Nietzsche and Pelagianism. And finally, Thomas Steinbuch treats us to “Cursing the Curse: Nietzsche on the Machiavellianism of Pity” in the early sections of The Antichrist.

Gibbs, E. (2021). Coal Country: The Meaning and Memory of Deindustrialization in Postwar Scotland. University of London Press.

Gibbs, E. (2021). Coal Country: The Meaning and Memory of Deindustrialization in Postwar Scotland. University of London Press.

Sam Manning. Cinemas and Cinema-Going in the United Kingdom: Decades of Decline, 1945–65. New Historical Perspectives. London: University of London Press, 2020. Pp. 250. $35.00 (cloth).

Sam Manning. Cinemas and Cinema-Going in the United Kingdom: Decades of Decline, 1945–65. New Historical Perspectives. London: University of London Press, 2020. Pp. 250. $35.00 (cloth). - Volume 60 Issue 3

Caribbean Decolonization - Memory, Migration and (De)Colonisation in the Caribbean and Beyond. Edited by Jack Webb, Rod Westmaas, Maria del Pilar Kaladeen, and William Tantam. London: University of London Press, 2020. Pp. 260. $30.00 paper.

Caribbean Decolonization - Memory, Migration and (De)Colonisation in the Caribbean and Beyond. Edited by Jack Webb, Rod Westmaas, Maria del Pilar Kaladeen, and William Tantam. London: University of London Press, 2020. Pp. 260. $30.00 paper. - Volume 78 Issue 3

Art and the Politics of Anti-racism - Cultures of Anti-Racism in Latin America and the Caribbean. Edited by Peter Wade, James Scorer, and Ignacio Aguiló. London: University of London Press, 2019. Pp. 232. $30.73 paper.

Art and the Politics of Anti-racism - Cultures of Anti-Racism in Latin America and the Caribbean. Edited by Peter Wade, James Scorer, and Ignacio Aguiló. London: University of London Press, 2019. Pp. 232. $30.73 paper. - Volume 78 Issue 3

Giulia Gaimari and Catherine Keen, eds., Ethics, Politics and Justice in Dante. London: University College London Press, 2019. Paper. Pp. xv, 176; 4 black-and-white figures. £17.99. ISBN: 978-1-7873-5227-8. Table of contents available online at https://www.uclpress.co.uk/products/106880.

Giulia Gaimari and Catherine Keen, eds., Ethics, Politics and Justice in Dante. London: University College London Press, 2019. Paper. Pp. xv, 176; 4 black-and-white figures. £17.99. ISBN: 978-1-7873-5227-8. Table of contents available online at https://www.uclpress.co.uk/products/106880.

Elizabeth A. New and Christian Steer , eds. Medieval Londoners: Essays to Mark the Eightieth Birthday of Caroline Barron. IHR Conference Series. London: University of London Press, 2019. Pp. 250. $65.00 (cloth).

Elizabeth A. New and Christian Steer , eds. Medieval Londoners: Essays to Mark the Eightieth Birthday of Caroline Barron. IHR Conference Series. London: University of London Press, 2019. Pp. 250. $65.00 (cloth). - Volume 60 Issue 1

Cultural stereotypes and the reception of Verdi’s operas in Victorian London

ABSTRACT In the period spanning the years 1845–1901, Verdi came to be understood not only as the most influential representative of Italian opera worldwide, but also as the symbol of a musical tradition that was said to be in a constant state of decline. On the other hand, in Victorian London, Italy was still nostalgically portrayed as the country whose very language was music, where the gondolieri chanted the stanzas of Tasso to self-invented tunes, where singing came naturally even to the musically uneducated, and opera-goers cherished their favourite diva to the point of dragging her carriage home and serenading her until sunrise. By exploring the response of the London press to the invasion of Verdi’s works, this article investigates if and to what extent such cultural stereotypes affected the critical reception of Italian opera in Victorian London.

Concerning Patriots, Liberalas, Americanists and Protestants

The title of this paper refers to both the personality and work of the Spaniards who, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, had to abandon their homeland fleeing from the absolutism of King Ferdinand VII (1784–1833), and the inhabitants of the Spanish colonies in the New World, the forerunners of the struggles for independence in their respective countries. Both ended up settling in London, a city that served not only as a refuge but also as a place from which to disseminate their slogans in favour of freedom. Three areas are discussed: the publications of liberal Spanish exiles in London in the early nineteenth century, the interaction between Spanish and (Latin) American exiles and the role of women in this endeavour and in the cause of liberalism in general. The London press shaped this exile journalism and the subsequent liberal journalism in Spain when the extreme censorship from which these exiled journalists had fled was finally lifted. We believe that this global approach offers an original perspective from which to highlight the role of women, with a view to filling the traditional historiographical lacuna in this regard. To this end, we have employed recent relevant literature and primary sources.

Draper, Susana (2018) Mexico 1968. Constellations of Freedom and Democracy, Duke University Press (Durham and London), xvi + 251 pp. $26.95 pbk.

Draper, Susana (2018) Mexico 1968. Constellations of Freedom and Democracy, Duke University Press (Durham and London), xvi + 251 pp. $26.95 pbk.