Tom Wright, ‘The Politics of Inarticulacy: Oracy, Education, and Mid-Victorian Reform’ (20 nov.)

Jeudi 20 novembre 2025 à  17h : Tom Wright (university of Sussex), ‘The Politics of Inarticulacy: Oracy, Education, and Mid-Victorian Reform’

Maison de la Recherche de Sorbonne Université (28 rue Serpente, Paris 6e, M° Odéon ou Saint-Michel), salle S001.

This paper examines the intellectual history of inarticulacy and its role in shaping ideas of citizenship in nineteenth-century Britain. Between the Reform Act of 1832 and the Education Act of 1870, political thinkers and reformers repeatedly framed the “inarticulate” working class as morally and intellectually unfit for participation in public life. I analyse how this idea developed across political speeches, educational reports, and literary and journalistic sources. I then offset these elite claims about working-class inarticulacy with debates within the Chartist and wider labour movements over the moral and political value of speaking and listening. By reconstructing this debate, the paper makes a claim for oracy – a modern educational term for ‘speaking and listening’- as a neglected but valuable lens for historians of ideas, education, politics and citizenship. I show how ideas about working class inarticulacy still impact the neglect of ‘voice’ in British state education and reflect on how the age of generative AI is bringing oracy to the forefront of modern pedagogy.

Ali Hatapçı, “Geographies of Science in Victorian England: Natural History in the Midlands” (19 oct.)

Jeudi 19 octobre à 17h, salle S001 :

Ali Hatapci  (Université de Bourgogne) : “Geographies of Science in Victorian England: Natural History in the Midlands”

Characterised by a strong amateur tradition, scientific research in nineteenth-century Britain depended largely on voluntary associations. Although London boasted the majority of Britain’s most esteemed scientific institutions, the provinces also cultivated thriving scientific communities. Organising lectures, soirées, establishing museums, and publishing; literary and philosophical, natural history societies and clubs across the country helped shape urban culture, as well as produce new knowledge. This paper will examine the organisation and practice of natural history in the provinces by focusing on the English Midlands. Encompassing twelve historic counties in central England, the Midlands offers a rare chance to study the spatial organisation of science on various scales: town, county, region. By looking into the activities, geographical perceptions, self-assigned duties of the scientific societies, this paper will explore science and sociability in the provinces in the latter half of the century.

 

Ali Hatapçı is a senior lecturer in British history at Université Bourgogne Europe, with research interests in the history of science, periodicals, and life in the provinces. His publications include articles on English county Floras, the Gardeners’ Chronicle, digital illustration archives, and the popularisation of mycology (to appear).

Programme 2025-2026

Le séminaire a lieu le jeudi de 17h à 18h30, à la Maison de la Recherche, 28 rue Serpente, Paris 6e.

9 octobre 2025 à 17h, salle S002 : Chloé Luneau : « La question nationale dans les mobilisations gaies et lesbiennes dans les deux Irlande (années 1970-1980) » ; Lucas Privet (doctorant ENS Ulm – Sorbonne Université) : « “Home Colonization” et “Land Plan” : quelle place pour l’Irlande dans le projet chartiste de mise en culture des terres en friche ? » ; et Caroline Seyer (doctorante à l’université Paris-Cité) : « Maternité lesbienne et santé des femmes : Penser l’intime ou le politique au sein des lieux militants britanniques, 1970-1990 »

 23 octobre à 17h, salle S001 :  Ali Hatapci  (Université de Bourgogne) : “Geographies of Science in Victorian England: Natural History in the Midlands”

 6 novembre à 17h, salle S001 : Rory Naismith (Cambridge) : ‘Anglo-Saxon London’

 20 novembre à 17h, salle S002 :  Tom Wright (Sussex), ‘The Politics of Oracy and Mid-Victorian Voting Reform” 

 4 décembre à 17h, salle S001 : Antti Taipale (Helsinki), “Perspectives on religion as a tool of war in the English Civil War”

 18 décembre à 17h, salle S001:  Oscar Webber (London School of Economics), autour de son livre Negotiating relief and freedom:  Responses to disaster in the British Caribbean, 1812-1907 (Manchester University Press, 2023)

 29 janvier 2026 à 17h, salle D421 : Richard Whatmore (St Andrews), “Free states and fanaticism

 12 février à 17h, salle D421: Ann Thomson (émérite IUE-Florence), “Countering Islamophobia and Catholicism in Grub Street: Joseph Morgan, an early 18th C cultural go-between”

 26 février à 17h, salle D421 : Laure Piguet (Fribourg / Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin) : « Enquêter sur sa condition. Fabrication et usages des savoirs par les prisonniers londoniens au XVIIIe siècle »

 12 mars à 17h, salle D421: Juliette Desportes (Highlands), “Resistance to Improvement in the Highlands and Islands, 1750-1820”

 26 mars à 17h, salle D421: Claire Schiano-Locurcio (Montpellier), « Des religieuses en exil : survie et essor du catholicisme anglais aux XVII et XVIII siècles »

 9 avril à 17h, salle D421: Vic Clarke (Leeds), “’Reviewing Radical Literature in the Chartist Press (1840s)”

7 mai à 17h, salle D421 : Ole Birk Laursen (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science), ‘Exile has its privileges’: the Indian revolutionary movement in Europe, 1905–1918″ 

Fabienne Moine, “Donner une voix aux silencieux de l’histoire : écrits d’indigents dans les institutions de secours (Angleterre, 1840-1900)” (22 mai)

Jeudi 22 mai à 17h : Fabienne Moine (IMAGER, UPEC): ‘« Donner une voix aux silencieux de l’histoire : écrits d’indigents dans les institutions de secours (Angleterre, 1840-1900)’.

Résumé : La grande majorité de la documentation sur les workhouses ou les casual wards au XIXe siècle émane des instances du pouvoir. Mais il existe un certain nombre de sources produites par les indigents eux-mêmes. Ces sources sont certes limitées en nombre, mais elles font l’objet de recherches récentes comme les autobiographies ou les lettres de plainte. Cette présentation porte sur un autre type d’écrit produit depuis les institutions sociales : les poèmes qui sont relativement nombreux et peuvent être considérés, avec leurs spécificités, à la fois comme un véritable sous-genre poétique, comme une forme autobiographique et comme une autre source de l’histoire des institutions sociales. Il s’agira d’examiner les raisons qui ont poussé certains indigents à choisir le genre poétique et d’analyser la manière dont les institutions, tout en imposant leurs systèmes de règles, ont encouragé la production d’une forme de « workhouse poetry » et la construction du « workhouse poet ». L’objectif de cette présentation est de mettre en évidence la complexité des réponses des indigents et une certaine capacité à agir face au pouvoir institutionnel. En explorant cette pratique de l’écrit assez largement répandue au sein des workhouses, il s’agit de complexifier notre vision de l’inhumanité de ces institutions sociales. 

Fabienne Moine est professeure de civilisation britannique à l’UPEC. Ses recherches concernent les pratiques sociales et culturelles des classes populaires à l’époque victorienne. Ses travaux récents portent sur la poésie populaire produite au sein des institutions de secours victoriennes, comme les workhouses ou les asiles.

Emma MacLeod (University of Stirling) : «  A British conversation about the French Revolution: the Wodrow-Kenrick Correspondence, 1789–1797 » (15 mai)

Jeudi 15 mai 2025 à 17h à la Maison de la Recherche (28 rue Serpente, Paris 6e), salle D421

Emma MacLeod (University of Stirling) :  «  A British conversation about the French Revolution: the Wodrow-Kenrick Correspondence, 1789–1797 » 

This paper emerges from a study of the long and rich correspondence between Rev. James Wodrow (1730–1810) of Ayrshire, Scotland, and his great friend Samuel Kenrick (1727–1811) a banker in Bewdley, near Birmingham. They had become friends as students at Glasgow University in the 1740s and began corresponding soon after Kenrick graduated, a habit that continued for the rest of their lives. The Wodrow-Kenrick Correspondence, 1750–1810 is co-edited by Martin Fitzpatrick, Emma Macleod and Anthony Page. Volume 1: 1750–1783 (Oxford University Press, 2020) and Volume 2: 1784–1790 (OUP, 2024) will be followed by volumes 3: 1791–1797 and 4: 1798–1810.

     In this paper I will discuss their conversation about the French Revolution which forms such a major proportion of the letters written between 1791 and 1797. Like the opinions of many other British people on the Revolution in France, their ideas, while formed by their existing political convictions, were to some extent fluid over these years, as events developed both in France and in Britain. Because this is such a substantial bilateral correspondence, however, we can, unusually, see how their opinions were also shaped by their debate between themselves and by their reading and discussion of a large number of the most seminal British publications on the French Revolution and the war. The paper is therefore located at the intersection of political history, cultural history, book history and the history of friendship.

Emma Macleod is a senior lecturer in History at the University of Stirling, Scotland. She has published A War of Ideas: British Attitudes to the Wars Against Revolutionary France, 1792–1802 (1998) and British Visions of America, 1775–1820: Republican Realities (2013); and she has co-edited Political Trials in an Age of Revolutions: Britain and the North Atlantic, 1793–1848 (2019), with Michael T. Davis and Gordon Pentland. She co-edited the Scottish Historical Review 2018–2023.

Simeon Koole: ‘Lines of Force: Bodies, Tides, and the Scales of Global History in London’s Docklands, c.1870-1928’ (10 avril)

Jeudi 10 avril à 17h : Simeon Koole (Bristol): ‘Lines of Force: Bodies, Tides, and the Scales of Global History in London’s Docklands, c.1870-1928’.

 

Abstract : This paper examines changes in the bodies and environment of labourers carrying timber imported into London’s docks to provide a history of global capitalism from the ground up. Moving between London and Sweden between the 1860s and 1920s, it shows how microphysical changes in docker skeletons, the wood they carried, and rivers in both countries materialized and modified ‘macro’-level changes in tides, forestry, and shipping. Repurposing the concept ‘lines of force’ from nineteenth-century physics, the paper argues that lines—material, temporal, and spatial—reveal hidden relations between bodies and environments than those traced by global history’s typical focus on the movement of people and things. Lines etched into bones or running through tree grain show how humans and other-than-humans were exposed to one another across varying distances, and how this exposure accentuated under industrial capitalism. Second, they show how this mutual exposure operated over multiple timescales, from a worker’s lifetime to century-long changes in tree growth and river flows. Finally, such lines reveal how ‘the world’ was not simply a space which steamships crossed but a predicament, unique to and made by the relations living beings had with one another.

 

Simeon Koole est senior lecturer en Histoire à l’université de Bristol. Il est l’auteur de Intimate Subjects: Touch and Tangibility in Britain’s Cerebral Age (Chicago, London: University of Chicago Press 2024)

Laura Slater, « Philippa of Hainault: Queenship, Music and Manuscripts » (3 avr.)

Dr Laura Slater, Université de Cambridge: « Philippa of Hainault: Queenship, Music and Manuscripts »

Jeudi 3 avril 2025, 17h-18h30

Maison de la recherche de Sorbonne Université, 28 rue Serpente, 75006 Paris, salle D421

This talk highlights an underexplored facet of the cultural patronage and devotional interests of Philippa of Hainault (c. 1315-1369), wife of Edward III of England. The queen had a strong interest in music, evidenced by the motets contained in a possible wedding gift, the c. 1328 compilation now BnF MS Fr. 571 and the notated antiphons included throughout the c. 1340 Psalter of Queen Philippa (London, British Library, MS Harley 2899). The talk explores the interactions between text, image and music in the psalter and examine how the antiphons expanded both the interpretative possibilities and the spiritual meanings of the pictorial, musical and textual contents of the page. The talk also considers how Philippa may have used music to enhance the established Marian symbolism of her queenship. Laura Slater suggests that liturgical music played an important role in late medieval European court cultures and the public definition of queenly authority.

Cette communication met en lumière un aspect peu exploré du mécénat culturel et des intérêts dévotionnels de Philippa de Hainaut (v. 1315-1369), épouse Édouard III d’Angleterre. La reine éprouvait un intérêt profond pour la musique, comme en témoignent les motets contenus dans un possible cadeau de mariage, la compilation de 1328, aujourd’hui BnF, ms. fr. 571, et les antiennes notées qui émaillent le Psautier de la reine Philippa, date de 1340 environ (Londres, British Library, ms. Harley 2899). La communication explore les interactions entre le texte, l’image et la musique dans le psautier et examine comment les antiennes ont élargi les possibilités d’interprétation et les significations spirituelles des contenus picturaux, musicaux et textuels de la page. Elle examine également la manière dont Philippa a pu utiliser la musique pour renforcer le symbolisme marial de son statut de reine. Laura Slater suggère que la musique liturgique a joué un rôle important dans les cultures de cour européennes de la fin du Moyen Âge et dans la définition publique de l’autorité royale.

Dr Laura Slater is Associate Professor in the History of Medieval Art and Architecture at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Peterhouse. Her publications include Art and Political Thought in Medieval England, c. 1150-1350 (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2018). Her research interests include the cultural patronage of medieval women. She is currently writing a monograph study of Philippa of Hainault and has previously published on Isabella of France.

Laura Slater est professeure associée en histoire de l’art et de l’architecture médiévale à l’Université de Cambridge et membre de Peterhouse College. Elle a notamment publié Art and Political Thought in Medieval England, c. 1150-1350 (Woodbridge : The Boydell Press, 2018). Ses recherches portent sur le mécénat culturel des femmes médiévales. Elle rédige actuellement une monographie sur Philippa de Hainault et a déjà publié des contributions sur Isabelle de France.

Entrée libre. Pour tout renseignement complémentaire: Frederique.lachaud@sorbonne-universite.fr

 

Michael Brown : “Britain’s Bystander Society, and the Argument for Abolition in the late Eighteenth Century” (20 mars)

Jeudi 20 mars 2025 à 17h

Michael Brown (University of Aberdeen) : “Britain’s Bystander Society, and the Argument for Abolition in the late Eighteenth Century

This paper argues that eighteenth-century Britain can effectively be understood as a bystander society to the cruelties of its empire. Many Britons had elective affinities with those in the empire; engaging in a form of banal imperialism in their everyday lives through a politics of consumption. Moreover, they employed rhetorical tactics such as feigning ignorance, asserting impotence, and displaying casual indifference to the reports of spectacular suffering they saw in their newspapers and elsewhere. The abolitionist movement, in particular, faced the challenge of breaking down these rhetorical barricades in its pursuit of imperial reform. The paper opens and closes with comments on the changing opinions of one such bystander, the novelist, playwright and bluestocking Frances Burney.

Michael Brown est historien des cultures politiques en Irlande, Écosse et plus largement en Grande-Bretagne au siècle des Lumières. Il est directeur du Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies. On lui doit notamment Adam Ferguson and the Politics of Virtue (Aberdeen University Press, 2023),  The Irish Enlightenment (Harvard University Press, 2016), A Political Biography of John Toland (Routledge, 2011).

 

Amélie Bonney et Christelle Gomis: “Standardizing Deficiency: Eugenic theories and the shaping of race, class and gender dynamics in Britain (1880-1970s)” (13 fév.)

Jeudi 13 février à 17h : Amélie Bonney et Christelle Gomis: “Standardizing Deficiency: Eugenic theories and the shaping of race, class and gender dynamics in Britain (1880-1970s)”

This panel investigates the long-lasting effects of theories of race and social hierarchy which developed during the nineteenth century in Britain. Focusing on educational and working environments, it shows how these theories contributed to shaping power dynamics in Britain from the late 1880s to the 1970s, focusing specifically on the ways it intersected with race and gender dynamics as well as with debates about the family. Améie Bonney’s paper explores the rise of occupational medicine as a field at the turn of the twentieth century, and shows how eugenic thought contributed to shaping the ways in which some of the symptoms of white lead poisoning were understood and addressed, focusing particularly on female workers. Christelle Gomis’s paper examines the influence of eugenic ideologies on the British education system during the post-war period, specifically in the context of Caribbean migration during the Windrush Era (1948-1971). It explores how these ideologies shaped the categorization and treatment of Caribbean children within the subnormal school system, highlighting the racial biases embedded within educational policies. By analyzing archival materials from the Inner London Education Authority and the Black Parents Movements, the project sheds light on the social and economic ramifications of such segregation and the advocacy efforts by parents, educators, and activists to push for educational reforms and challenge these injustices.

“The rise of occupational medicine, eugenics and debates over the risks of lead poisoning in Britain”

Amélie Bonney, D.Phil History of Science, Medicine and Technology, University of Oxford, UK / PRAG, Faculté des Sciences, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France – amelie.bonney@gmail.com

In the final decades of the nineteenth century, debates surrounding the legislation of workmen’s compensation made it necessary to better define thresholds of acceptable levels of toxicity in order to decide who could claim compensation. This renewed interest in occupational diseases fuelled new publications focusing specifically on the ‘diseases of occupations’ in Britain. While this raised hopes for a specialized study of dangerous work environments and the toxic substances that affected workers, in reality, the approaches of occupational physicians and industrial hygienists were also shaped by contemporary debates on eugenics and fears over the degeneration of the race. Racial theories developing in the second half of the nineteenth century – at a time of economic depression, rising social tensions and challenges to Britain’s imperial rule – significantly affected the ways in which occupational diseases were explained. In 1857, Bénédict Morel’s work on degenerescence investigated the effects of poisons such as white lead on the physiognomy of workers, an approach which subsequently persisted in the work of British experts. The standardisation of occupational medicine as a field cannot be dissociated from eugenic theories developed in the aftermath of Francis Galton’s publication of Hereditary Work on Genius (1869). Prominent figures in the field of occupational medicine such as Thomas Oliver and Thomas Arlidge approached some of the effects of lead poisoning through this lens. In particular, one major source of concern was the effect on motherhood and on the fitness of future generations, which was an argument promoted to further regulate some trades, however establishing distinctions based on gendered lines. The concerns of medical practitioners contrast with working-class women’s use of white lead as an abortive, which shows that far from being only victims of the substance, they also used it with an understanding of some of its effects.

Far from being ignorant of the toxic effects of white lead, workers also had an understanding of the risks they were subjected to. A history from below of workers’ knowledge of risks thus allows us to argue that there also existed an alternative form of knowledge of risks to the one developed by official ‘experts’.

“Eugenics, Postcolonial Migration, and the Fight for Meritocratic Education in Post-War Britain (1920s-1970s)”

Christelle Gomis, Ph.D, EUI, Florence, Italy – christelle.gomis@eui.eu

In the aftermath of World War II, the UK’s educational system faced significant challenges as it grappled with the consequences of eugenic ideologies and the impact of Caribbean migration. This paper examines how eugenics influenced the development of the subnormal school system, particularly in the context of post-war immigration. The placement of Caribbean children in these schools highlights the racial biases embedded within educational policies of the time. The legacy of eugenics in Britain, deeply intertwined with the educational policies of the 20th century, cannot be overlooked. Prominent eugenic theories that emerged during the late 19th and early 20th centuries continued to shape societal views on intelligence and disability. These theories, which emphasized heredity and the prevention of “racial degeneration,” significantly impacted the categorization and treatment of children deemed “subnormal.” The interwar period (1918-1939) played a crucial role in embedding eugenic ideas within the British educational and social systems. During this time, the eugenics movement gained substantial traction, influencing public policies and educational practices. Reports and studies from this period, such as the Wood Report of 1929, reinforced the exclusion of mostly lower-class children based on perceived intellectual deficiencies, often informed by eugenic principles. This era also saw the establishment of special schools and classes for children deemed mentally defective, which laid the groundwork for the subnormal schools that proliferated in the post-war years. The arrival of Caribbean migrants during the Windrush era (1948-1971) added a new dimension to these issues, as many children from these communities were unjustly placed in subnormal schools. This placement was influenced by eugenic beliefs that linked race with intellectual capability and by a broader socio-political context that viewed these children through a lens of deficiency. Key legislative frameworks, such as the 1944 Education Act, and critical reports like the 1978 Warnock Report, played pivotal roles in shaping and eventually challenging these discriminatory practices. The experiences of Caribbean children in London subnormal schools are critical for understanding the broader impact of eugenics on British education. Education reports from the Inner London Education Authority reveal the ambivalences of an institution caught between an emerging anti-racist awareness and fears of overcrowding. Archives from the Black Parents Movement shed light on the experiences of those affected, detailing the social and economic ramifications of such segregation. They also highlight the advocacy and resistance efforts by parents, educators, and activists, who played a crucial role in pushing for educational reforms and exposing the injustices faced by these communities.

Clara Dean, “Écossais et Écossaises à Paris au XVIIIe siècle”, Joelle Gorno, “Women’s involvement in Welsh local politics before the suffrage, 1869-1928”, et Balkis Mougou, “Populism and the Conservative Party: Tracing the Intellectual Roots of a Political Discourse (1974-2010)” (19 déc.)

Jeudi 19 décembre : Clara Dean, “Écossais et Écossaises à Paris au XVIIIe siècle”, Joelle Gorno, “Women’s involvement in Welsh local politics before the suffrage, 1869-1928”, et Balkis Mougou, “Populism and the Conservative Party: Tracing the Intellectual Roots of a Political Discourse (1974-2010)”

Clara Dean (Sorbonne Université) : “Écossais et Écossaises à Paris au XVIIIe siècle : circulations, interactions, intégration ?”

S’intéressant aux mobilités et migrations, cette communication se concentrera sur le cas des Écossais et Écossaises se rendant à Paris entre 1715 et 1793. L’analyse portera sur leurs motivations et trajectoires, ainsi que sur leur possible intégration dans la société parisienne. Une attention particulière sera accordée aux journaux de voyage, sources particulièrement précieuses pour cette étude.

 

Joelle Gorno (Sorbonne Université), “A voice before the vote: Women’s involvement in Welsh local politics before the suffrage, 1869-1928”

In the fifty years prior to the Representation of the People Act 1928, securing universal suffrage for over twenty-one year olds, male and female, across the United Kingdom, Welsh women’s involvement in local politics proved significant. There are three major dimensions in which Welsh women were active prior to being granted the vote on a national scale; firstly participating in local government and elections, secondly as full members on school boards, and lastly, as Poor Law guardians. These achievements were made possible thanks to the passing of legislation in the second half of the nineteenth century, making slight reforms towards gender equality in the public sphere.

Who were these female activists? Some were wives of politicians and ministers, others industrialists, nurses or teachers. Though many were certainly from the middle and upper classes, there has been proof of some working-class involvement, which is to be expected considering Wales’ vast working-class population. Though many of these women faced prejudice and discrimination for their sex, and almost all of them were ostracised and ridiculed by the press, they continued to push for change. Established Victorian attitudes to women’s role in society were being challenged and the idea that women could be significant participants in political activity was put in place.

 

Balkis Mougou (CY Cergy Paris Université / Université de Bourgogne), “Populism and the Conservative Party: Tracing the Intellectual Roots of a Political Discourse (1974-2010)”

The Conservative Party has been shaped by a number of controversial figures whose ideologies align with populist tendencies, significantly influencing the party’s direction and political discourse. A shared stream of ideas has united these politicians, offering the party a new perspective that can be retrospectively characterized as populist. This ongoing research investigates the emergence and evolution of populist discourse within the Conservative Party in the UK, focusing on the period from 1974 to 2010.

Situated at the crossroads of the history of political ideas and political science, this research aims to uncover the intellectual roots of a distinct form of populism unique to the British Conservative Party. By analyzing key speeches, policies, and political strategies, the study will offer a fresh, historically expansive view of how these ideas evolved into a populist dimension. Drawing on contemporary theories of populism, this thesis will provide new insights into the role of populism in shaping the modern Conservative Party, shedding light on how populist narratives have transformed the party’s political identity.

James Fisher, autour de son ouvrage _The Enclosure of Knowledge: Books, Power & Agrarian Capitalism in Britain 1660-1800_ (25 avril)

Jeudi 25 avril : James Fisher (Exeter), autour de son ouvrage The Enclosure of Knowledge. Books, Power and Agrarian Capitalism in Britain, 1660–1800 (Cambridge, 2022)

James Fisher viendra présenter son ouvrage, The Enclosure of Knowledge: Books, Power & Agrarian Capitalism in Britain 1660-1800 (Cambridge University Press, 2022) qui s’intéresse à l’essor de la production d’ouvrages d’agriculture et d’agronomie au dix-huitième siècle en Grande Bretagne et dont voici le résumé (en anglais) :

 

“The rise of agrarian capitalism in Britain is usually told as a story about markets, land and wages. The Enclosure of Knowledge reveals that it was also about books, knowledge and expertise. It argues that during the early modern period, farming books were a key tool in the appropriation of the traditional art of husbandry possessed by farm workers of all kinds. It challenges the dominant narrative of an agricultural ‘enlightenment’, in which books merely spread useful knowledge, by showing how codified knowledge was used to assert greater managerial control over land and labour. The proliferation of printed books helped divide mental and manual labour to facilitate emerging social divisions between labourers, managers and landowners. The cumulative effect was the slow enclosure of customary knowledge. By synthesising diverse theoretical insights, this study opens up a new social history of agricultural knowledge and reinvigorates long-term histories of knowledge under capitalism.”

 James Fisher is Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of Exeter. He completed his PhD in History at King’s College London in 2018. Befor joining Exeter in 2023, he taught at King’s College London, Royal Holloway, and the University of East London.

Perry Gauci, “Friends and Countrymen: The London Private Banker in Eighteenth-Century Society”  (14 mars)

Jeudi 14 mars, de 17h à 18h30, salle D421 :

Perry Gauci (Oxford), “Friends and Countrymen: The London Private Banker in Eighteenth-Century Society” 

Avec la publication imminente d’une nouvelle étude sur le monde de la banque britannique à l’époque moderne, Perry Gauci (Oxford) s’interroge sur l’émergence de ce nouveau métier et sur ses fondements culturels et sociaux. Son intervention portera en outre sur la place de la banque privée dans la société du 18ème siècle.  Il évoquera la professionnalisation des métiers de la banque au 18e siècle, l’importance des réseaux amicaux et familiaux et l’émergence d’une culture propre au milieu bancaire. La nature des relations entre les banquiers et leurs clients se trouvera au cœur de ses interrogations et permettra d’aborder de manière nouvelle, l’éternelle question de la coexistence entre les élites négociantes et foncières.

Perry Gauci est l’auteur de plusieurs livres, notamment Politics and Society in Great Yarmouth 1660-1722 (Oxford, 1996), The Politics of Trade: The Overseas Merchant in State and Society (Oxford , 2001), William Beckford: First Prime Minister of the London Empire (Yale, 2013), Emporium of the World: The Merchants of London (Hambledon Continuum, 2007). Il a également publié une collection d’essais consacrée à Paul Langford : Revisiting the Polite and Commercial People (Oxford, 2019).

Béatrice Robic, « Le travail des enfants en Angleterre et au pays de Galles (1870-1914) » (29 fév.)

Jeudi 29 février 2024 à 17h

Béatrice Robic (Paris Nanterre), « Le travail des enfants en Angleterre et au pays de Galles (1870-1914) »

Cette communication apporte un éclairage sur le travail des enfants en Grande-Bretagne au moment où celui-ci, bien qu’il touche à sa fin, est loin d’être devenu un phénomène marginal.

L’abolition du travail des enfants outre-Manche fut le fruit d’une longue marche : entamée en 1788 avec, pour premier pas, l’interdiction de l’emploi d’enfants ramoneurs de moins de huit ans, celle-ci ne s’acheva que 130 ans plus tard, en 1918. Il fallut en effet attendre la fin de la Première Guerre mondiale pour que furent levées les dernières dérogations autorisant les écoliers des classes populaires à quitter l’école deux ans avant d’avoir atteint les quatorze ans réglementaires. De fait, tout au long du dix-neuvième siècle, l’action des réformateurs sociaux se heurta à de vives résistances, alimentées par une offre et une demande de main-d’œuvre enfantine soutenues.

Si le sevrage de l’économie britannique au travail des enfants s’avéra difficile, il semble toutefois que ce processus connut une nette accélération entre 1870 et 1914. Entre ces deux dates, le pourcentage d’enfants (âgés de dix à treize ans inclus) déclarés actifs dans les recensements de l’Angleterre et du pays de Galles fut divisé par quatre, passant de près de 20% à 5%. Or cette période fut aussi celle de l’introduction, puis de l’extension progressive, de l’obligation de scolarité élémentaire. Dès lors, on peut se demander dans quelle mesure le retrait des enfants du marché du travail est allé de pair avec la démocratisation de l’accès à l’école. Autrement dit, peut-on mettre l’élimination du travail des enfants en Grande-Bretagne au crédit de l’État ?

Béatrice Robic est maitresse de conférences en civilisation britannique à l’université Paris-Nanterre.

Programme 2023-2024

Les séances ont lieu, sauf indication contraire, le jeudi de 17h à 18h30 à la Maison de la Recherche de Sorbonne Université (28 rue Serpente, Paris 6e), salle D421

Jeudi 5 octobre 2023 : Séance pédagogique sur les ressources en ligne en histoire britannique (Fabrice Bensimon, Stéphane Jettot et Frédérique Lachaud)

Jeudi 19 octobre : Louise Jackson (Edimbourg), ‘Gender equalities at work: writing an interdisciplinary history of feminist campaigning in the UK c. 1970-2020’

Jeudi 9 novembre : Ophélie Siméon (Sorbonne Nouvelle), « Anna Doyle Wheeler (1785-1848): itinéraire politique et militant d’une pionnière du féminisme » (cette séance remplace celle avec John Tolan, initialement prévue).

Jeudi 23 novembre : William Ashworth (Liverpool) : ‘The Early Chemical Industry in North West England and Its Legacy’

Jeudi 7 décembre : Emily Ward (Edimbourg), ‘”I witness this myself”: adolescent rulers and political “belonging” in Britain and France, c. 1150 –c. 1260’

Jeudi 21 décembre : Myriam-Isabelle Ducrocq (Nanterre), sur son livre La République de Harrington dans la France des Lumières et de la Révolution (Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment, 2023)

Jeudi 1er février 2024 : Alison Cathcart (Stirling) : ‘James VI & I and his empire of islands’

Jeudi 8 février : Luke Blaxill (Oxford), ‘Text Mining and Political History: challenges and opportunities in the age of Big Data’

Jeudi 15 février : Thomas Stammers (Durham): ‘Philippe, comte de Paris and the Orleans family in Exile after 1848: Liberalism, Collecting and Empire’  (la séance est annulée)

Jeudi 29 février: Béatrice Robic (Nanterre) : « Le travail des enfants en Angleterre et au pays de Galles entre 1870 et 1914 »

Jeudi 14 mars : Perry Gauci (Oxford) : ‘Friends and Countrymen: The London Private Banker in Eighteenth-Century Society’

Jeudi 28 mars : Lauriane Simony (Cergy) : « Diplomatie culturelle, stratégies d’influence et propagande : le British Council en Birmanie après l’indépendance »

Jeudi 4 avril : Sophie Scott-Brown (East Anglia), ‘The Impolitics of Internationalism: Claude Bourdet, G. D. H. Cole, and the International Society for Socialist Studies’

Jeudi 25 avril : James Fisher (Exeter), autour de son ouvrage The Enclosure of Knowledge. Books, Power and Agrarian Capitalism in Britain, 1660–1800 (Cambridge, 2022)

Jeudi 16 maiEmma Griffin (Queen Mary University of London), ‘Empire and the Origins of Global Capitalism’

 

Le séminaire est ouvert aux étudiants de master et doctorat, ainsi qu’à toutes les personnes intéressées. Les enregistrements de la plupart des communications sont ensuite disponibles sur la chaine YouTube du séminaire :  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCveumFeGDtmJP8GTG3S8DOQ

Sally Holloway, ‘Food, Family & Feeling: Edible Gifts and the Making of Marriage in Georgian England’ (11 mai)

Jeudi 11 mai à 17h (Serpente, salle D421)

Sally Holloway, ‘Food, Family & Feeling: Edible Gifts and the Making of Marriage in Georgian England’

It is well established that the navigation of courtship in Georgian England was shaped by a range of romantic gifts including ribbons, rings, garters, gloves, and portrait miniatures, which helped to generate feelings of love and shepherd courting couples toward the altar. Yet these were not the only items which couples had at their disposal: in Jane Austen’s Emma (1815), it is the humble walnut which enables the farmer Robert Martin to express his admiration for the heroine’s protégée Harriet Smith, while in Pride & Prejudice (1813) it is the beautiful pyramids of hothouse fruits and hospitality at Pemberley which first lead Elizabeth Bennet to realise her love for Mr Darcy. Such edible offerings are largely absent from scholarship on courtship in Georgian England, though they were likely among the most common material objects routinely exchanged by and shared between couples.

This paper sets out how courting couples orchestrated their relationships using a breath of edible gifts from cakes and sweetmeats to apricots, peaches, pineapples, melons, duck, pork, venison, turbot, oysters, and sturgeon. These sweet treats, fruits, meats, and fish could variously be deployed as a means of flirtation, to gauge early romantic interest, underscore the status and generosity of the giver, show investment in the bodily health of the recipient as a future spouse, and bind two families together before matrimony. Together, they add a crucial dimension to our understanding of the widely recognised ‘gift mode’ during courtship, illuminate the mechanics of courtship as rooted in family homes and gardens, and the new spaces of the metropolitan public sphere, and demonstrate how natural or perishable items such as food could operate as powerful vehicles for emotional meaning.

Dr Sally Holloway is a Vice Chancellor’s Research Fellow in History and History of Art at Oxford Brookes University. She specialises in histories of emotions, gender, and visual and material culture in Britain over the long eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. She is the co-editor of Feeling Things: Objects and Emotions through History (Oxford, 2018), and the author of The Game of Love in Georgian England: Courtship, Emotions and Material Culture (Oxford, 2019) which has recently been released in paperback (2022).