Reaction In Britain Research Articles

Turmoil in the Capital: British Publication Alarmed the Hamidian Regime

During the early years of Abdülhamid II’s reign, there were several attempts to reinstate ex-Sultan Murad V to the throne. One of these was the initiative of Ali Suâvi, which has come to be known as the Çırağan Incident. Although the Ottoman press had to be very circumspect in reporting Suâvi’s attempt and its aftermath, the British newspaper of the Ottoman Empire, The Levant Herald, was instead able to carry the news about the incident for several days by framing its reportage in pro-government terms. The situation changed, however, when a letter from a reader praising Ali Suâvi and supporting the claim of Murad V to the throne was published by the paper and spurred the Sublime Porte into action. Although the authorship of the letter remains unknown, it is doubtful that it was actually written by an average reader of the paper; some sources instead point to Cleanthi Scalieri, the Master of the Prodoos Masonic Lodge. After publication, the proprietor of The Levant Herald, Edgar Whitaker, took refuge in the British Embassy, resulting in the confiscation of the printing house and the remaining copies of the newspaper on the order of the Sublime Porte. Whitaker protested that he had informed the Marshal of the Palace, Said Pasha, regarding the letter’s contents, and that he was now the subject of death threats and harassment; Said Pasha responded by denying any knowledge of the matter. The dismissal and exile of Said Pasha brought only further tension. The British Foreign Ministry claiming that the Sublime Porte had acted beyond its jurisdiction according to the capitulations. In the midst of negotiations between the British and Ottoman governments over the transfer of Cyprus, the furor over the letter and the newspaper provoked major discussion in the European press, and caused negative public reaction in Britain towards the actions of the Ottoman government. This article focuses on the anonymous letter published in The Levant Herald, and examines the course of these developments primarily through their representation in the British press.

Jokio skirtumo? „Jautrių“ tekstų vertimas

[full article, abstract in English; abstract in Lithuanian]
 Just like ideas of ‘equivalence’, the concept of ‘sameness’ in translation is not a neutral, univocal one: its interpretation can shift both diachronically and synchronically, with a variety of factors, be they individual or collective, influencing the outcome. This paper intends to investigate a specific example from one author’s work in translation with a view to highlighting the role played by social norms and ideological beliefs in the production and reception of translated texts. Rosamond Lehmann (1901–1990) was an English writer, close to the Bloomsbury Set and author of several popular, critically acclaimed novels. However, her ‘scandalous’ narratives – including extra-marital affairs, gay and lesbian characters and abortion – perhaps rather predictably, provoked some strong reactions in Britain. Although all her books were translated with great success in France, it is perhaps surprising that four of her novels were published in Italy during the years of the Fascist regime. This paper outlines the French and Italian versions of The Weather in the Streets, published in 1936 and 1938 respectively, within their historical context.

Linking Moralisation and Class Identity: The Role of Ressentiment and Respectability in the Social Reaction to ‘Chavs’

This paper aims to link two fields of research which have come to form separate lines of inquiry: the sociology of moralisation and studies on class identity. Expanding on recent papers by Young (2009 , 2011 ) and others, the paper argues that the concepts of ressentiment and respectability can be used to connect moralisation processes and the formation of class identities. This is explored through a case study of the social reaction in Britain to white working-class youths labelled ‘chavs’. It is demonstrated that chavs are constructed through moralising discourses and practices, which have some elements of a moral panic. Moreover, moralisation is performative in constructing class identities: chavs have been cast as a ‘non-respectable’ white working-class ‘folk devil’ against whom ‘respectable’ middle-class and working-class people distinguish and identify themselves as morally righteous. Moralising social reactions are here to an important extent triggered by feelings of ressentiment. This is a dialectical process where respectability and ressentiment are tied, not only to the social control of certain non-respectable working-class others, but also to the moral self-governance of the moralisers.

The Decision to Hire German Troops in the War of American Independence: Reactions in Britain and North America, 1774–1776

In the 1770s and 1780s as many as 40,000 German soldiers were hired to defend British imperial interests on four continents. The vast majority—at least 30,000—saw service in America. This article focuses on British and American public reactions to the plan in the period between 1774, when rumors about the intended use of foreign troops first emerged, and the summer of 1776, after the first contingents of German troops had arrived in North America but before military encounters with the colonists had taken place. In Britain, the reliance on forces from outside the empire in a conflict believed to be about British liberties provoked strong opposition. Critics used the hire of “barbarians” as evidence of a sinister plot to deprive Englishmen of their liberties. In America, news of the plan to hire Germans gave radicals an effective tool in their efforts to unite the colonists against the British. An analysis of these public debates sheds light on conflicting perceptions of Britishness and “foreignness” during the Revolutionary period.

‘In Defiance of the Highest Principles of Justice, Principles of Righteousness’: The Indenturing of the Bechuana Rebels and the Ideals of Empire, 1897–1900

This article explores the controversy around the suppression of the Langeberg Rebellion and subsequent punitive indenture of the ‘Bechuana rebels’, a serious episode of colonial violence which, like many others, has been forgotten. In recovering this episode, I argue that such controversies were crisis points in wider attitudes towards empire and colonial relationships. The article focuses on what the debate reveals about the articulation of four imperial ‘principles’ that those challenging the punishment argued had been undermined: ‘freedom’, ‘protection’, ‘civilisation’ and ‘justice’. By comparing reactions in Britain and southern Africa, I demonstrate that these values, evoked as if universally understood, were configured in ways that spoke to the specificities of different colonial sites and that their meanings differed, even within what may be described as ‘humanitarian’ networks, across places of Empire. I argue that violent episodes, such as the Bechuanaland controversy, created ruptures that exposed these discrepancies and contradictions.

Edmund Burke, the Atlantic American war and the 'poor Jews at St. Eustatius'. Empire and the law of nations

This essay is devoted to a relatively minor episode in Edmund Burke’s parliamentary career and political speculation involving the rights of war and international law in the final years of the American War of Independence. The starting point for Burke’s consideration of these questions was the affair of St. Eustatius, that is to say Britain’s conquest in 1781 of the Dutch West-Indian island early in the “fourth Anglo-Dutch War” of 1780-1784. The harsh treatment of the Dutch colony’s cosmopolitan community by the commanding officers of the British Navy and Army provoked a series of reactions in Britain and the colonies. The essay starts by outlining the identity of St. Eustatius with its economic, demographic and social features, its peculiar role in the eighteenth-century West Indies and its emblematic meaning in the historical literature of the Enlightenment as a symbol of the virtues of commerce and of economic liberty. It goes on to analyse the facts of the military conquest in 1781 and the ensuing occupation realized by Admiral George Rodney and Major-General John Vaughan, particularly as this affected the “poor Jews at St. Eustatius” (as Burke himself qualified them in his second speech on 4 December 1781), with the subsequent reactions of the Dutch and especially the British Atlantic world. We then examine Edmund Burke’s reasons for taking up this affair, including the political and ideological motives and the sources of arguments he used in the two parliamentary speeches he made on the topic during 1781, relating this to Burke’s ideas on international relations and imperial government during the 1770s and 1780s. We end by pointing to cultural links between Burke’s positions and a wider political, commercial and civic culture emerging in the British Atlantic world which reflected some of the most typical European Enlightenment values and ideological commitments.

Politicians, Elections and Catastrophe: The General Election of 1847

Over the last decade, much new research has appeared on the subject of the Great Irish Famine but, remarkably, a major political event during the famine – the 1847 general election – has received virtually no mention. Recent work on politics in this period has tended to concentrate on political reaction in Britain rather than Ireland. The aim of this article is to examine the response of Irish politicians to the famine during the general election of 1847. The main source has been the political addresses and nomination speeches of most of the 140 candidates. The evidence from this material shows that, although the famine was an important matter in many constituencies, it was not the dominant issue countrywide. Various proposals to deal with the famine emerged, but there was an absence of agreed, practical measures to deal with immediate problems. The parties in Ireland failed to create a common platform to challenge the government over its efforts. Ideological constraints played an important part in these failures. The general election of 1847 represents a lost opportunity to tackle some of the effects of the famine.

When can the European Union restrict trade on grounds of public health?

The reaction in Britain to the European Union ban on the world-wide export of British beef has highlighted a lack of awareness of the role of European law in restricting trade on grounds of public health. This paper seeks to bring the legal arguments underlying such action to a wider public health audience by exploring the basis for such action in general and for the ban on British beef in particular. In European law, the obstruction of intra-community trade on grounds of public health is extremely limited although, in the case of British beef, there seems little doubt that it is lawful. In contrast, the stated basis for the ban to other countries is more questionable, although it may be acceptable to the European Court because of the objectives it seeks to achieve.

Beyond the pale? British reactions to Nazi anti‐Semitism, 1933–39

The reactions of the British people to the persecution of the Jews in Nazi Europe have received scant attention. The little that has been written has stressed the sympathy generated by the atrocities at the cost of disguising the complexity of the responses that emerged before 1939. In contrast this article suggests that anti‐Semitism of a liberal and conservative variety helped to shape reactions in Britain. Moreover it argues that liberal attitudes towards Jews determined both refugee policy and the treatment of refugees in Britain and ultimately caused government and public alike to misinterpret the full horror and significance of the holocaust.

Civil Protest in Northern Ireland

Conflict means in Northern Ireland include 'civil protest'-nonviolent, extra-parliamentary action of which civil disobedience is a key form. The chief actors using civil protest have been the Protestant Ultras and civil rights partisans who in 1967-69 departed from traditional issues to stress regime performance and community relations. Ultra civil protest stimulated the civil rights movement, decelerated Unionist Government reforms, and aided the minority's disenchantment with gradu alism. Civil protest by the civil rights movement helped to extend some liberties, restructure admin istration, publicize sectarianism and repressive laws, and mobilize parochials. Unachieved have been an end to emergency legislation, the building of social trust, and mass adoption of nonviolent dissent. Basic questions of nationalism and im perialism emerged in 1970-71 when violence prevailed over civil means following Ultra violence which provoked the revival of the IRA. Ultra and civil rights protest contributed to the province's loss of autonomy to the central regime before it suspended the Unionist regime in May 1972, and to both conventional and creative reactions in Britain and the Irish Republic. Minority (Irish Catholic) civil protest resurfaced in August 1971 with internment of suspected revolutionaries, and Ultra civil protest surged with direct British rule. Regardless of who practices civil protest in Ulster, its presence may serve to demythologize the assumption that violence is endemic in Irish con flict and to offer an alternative between political violence and unwilling obedience.