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British non-governmental organizations (NGOs) became a part of the modern aid industry in the 1960s, particularly across Africa. At the moment of decolonization, humanitarian charities were recast into modern NGOs focused on small-scale grassroots initiatives nevertheless tied to long-term official development planning. NGOs and charities were popular because they represented many things for many people. For the late colonial state, they were the agents that would step in where government retreated, providing vital lessons in self-help for the future leaders of the country. For newly independent governments, they were both suppliers of Western funds and props to impoverished social service departments. For donors and international aid agencies, they were a route through which liberal internationalist sympathies could be directed. That no one in these early decades of development was certain which aid initiatives actually worked on the ground was therefore of less importance than the optimistic hopes placed upon charity to tackle global poverty. Indeed, it was the ad hoc, confusing, and complex landscape of charitable aid that lay behind the rise of the modern NGO. For a variety of reasons, all had a stake in their continued presence and expansion across the developing world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews several books including "Mail Order Retailing in Britain: A Business and Social History," by Richard Coopey, Sean O'Connell and Dilwyn Porter, "The Origins of the British Welfare State. Society, State and Social Welfare in England and Wales, 1800-1945," by Bernard Harris, and "Working-Class Organisations and Popular Tourism 1840-1970," by Susan Barton.

The article reviews several books, including "Queer London: Perils and Pleasures in the Sexual Metropolis, 1918-1957," by Matt Houlbrook, "England's Revelry: A History of Popular Sports and Pastimes 1660-1830," by Emma Griffin, and "Chocolate on Trial: Slavery, Politics and the Ethics of Business," by Lowell J. Satre.

Reviews several books. "Nameless Offences: Homosexual Desire in the Nineteenth Century," by H. G. Cocks; "Performance and Evolution in the Age of Darwin: Out of the Natural Order," by Jane R. Goodall; "Drink and British Politics Since 1830: A Study in Policy Making," by John Greenway.

Reviews several books on business history. "City Merchants and the Arts, 1670 -1720," edited by Mireille Galinou; "The Beginnings of a Commercial Sporting Culture in Britain, 1793 -1850," by Adrian Harvey; "John Brown Engineering: Power Contractors to the World," by John Hood.

Reviews several books. "Gender, Justice and Welfare: Bad Girls in Britain, 1900-1950," by Pamela Cox; "Punishment & Civilization: Penal Tolerance and Intolerance in Modern Society," by John Pratt; "Keeping Up With the Joneses: Envy in American Consumer Society, 1890-1930," by Susan J. Matt.

Books reviewed in this article: A. D. M. Phillips and C. B. Phillips, eds., 'A new historical atlas of Cheshire Philip Riden,' 'The Victoria history of the counties of England: a history of the county of Northampton,' G. J. Benson and L. Ugolini, eds., 'A nation of shopkeepers: five centuries of British retailing' Stanley Chapman, 'Hosiery and knitwear: four centuries of small-scale industry in Britain c.1589–2000' Peter Borsay and Lindsay Proudfoot, eds., 'Provincial towns in early modern England and Ireland: change, convergence and divergence' John Cramsie, 'Kingship and Crown finance under James VI and I, 1603–1625' Matthew and George Culley, 'Travel journals and letters, 1765–1798' John Cantrell and Gillian Cookson, eds., 'Henry Maudslay and the pioneers of the machine age' Desmond Greer and James W. Nicolson, 'The factory acts in Ireland, 1802–1914' Charles K. Rawding, 'The Lincolnshire wolds in the nineteenth century' Derek J. Oddy, 'From plain fare to fusion food: British diet from the 1890s to the 1990s' Alan Fowler, 'Lancashire cotton operatives and work, 1900–1950: a social history of Lancashire cotton operatives in the twentieth century' Martin Daunton, 'Just taxes: the politics of taxation in Britain, 1914–1979' Becky E. Conekin, '‘The autobiography of a nation’: the 1951 Festival of Britain'Andrea Rusnock, 'Vital accounts: quantifying health and population in eighteenth-century England and France' Martin Horn, 'Britain, France, and the financing of the First World War' Mark Cioc, 'The Rhine: an eco-biography, 1815–2000' Helena Hamerow, 'Early medieval settlements: the archaeology of rural communities in north-west Europe, 400–900' Martina De Moor, Leigh Shaw-Taylor, and Paul Warde, eds., 'The management of common land in north west Europe, c. 1500–1850' Johan Söderberg and Janken Myrdal, 'The agrarian economy of sixteenth-century Sweden' John Armstrong and Andreas Kunz, eds., 'Coastal shipping and the European economy, 1750–1980' Stephen A. Resnick and Richard D. Wolff, 'Class theory and history: capitalism and communism in the USSR' Virginia G. Drackman, 'Enterprising women: 250 years of American business' W. Carl Bliven, 'Jimmy Carter's political economy: policy in an age of limits' Colin M. Lewis, 'Argentina: a short history' Maurice Wright, 'Japan's fiscal crisis: the Ministry of Finance and the politics of public spending, 1975–2000' Zhaojin Ji, 'A history of modern Shanghai banking: the rise and decline of China's finance capitalism' Linsun Cheng, 'Banking in modern China: entrepreneurs, professional managers, and the development of Chinese banks, 1897–1937' Ts'ui-jung Liu, James Lee, David Sven Reher, Osamu Saito, and Wang Feng, eds., 'Asian population history' Andrea Colli, 'The history of family business, 1850–2000' Eric Helleiner, 'The making of national money: territorial currencies in historical perspective.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reviews several books about social history. 'Hidden Histories of Gender and the State in Latin America,' edited by Elizabeth Dore and Maxine Molyneux; 'Dona Maria's Story: Life History, Memory, and Political Identity,' by Daniel James; 'Before Jim Crow: The Politics of Race in Postemancipation Virginia,' by Jane Dailey; 'Creating the Florentine State. Peasants and Rebellion, 1348-1434,' by Samuel K. Cohn.

Reviews several books on class, consumption and public sphere. Includes 'Cathedrals of Consumption: The European Department Store,' edited by G. Crossick and S. Jaumain; 'Gender, Civic, Culture and Consumerism: Middle-Class Identity in Britain,' edited by A. Kidd and D. Nicholls; 'Getting and Spending: European and American Consumer Socities in the Twentieth Century,' edited by S. Strasser, C. McGovern and M. Judt.

The article reviews the book "Hunger: A Modern History," by James Vernon.

The article reviews the book "A History of Popular Culture: More Everything, Faster and Brighter," by Raymond F. Betts.

Reviews the book "Britain Since 1945," edited by Jonathan Hollowell.

Reviews the book `The First Teenagers: The Lifestyles of Young Wage-Earners in Interwar Britain,' by David Fowler.

Reviews the book `The Rise of Consumer Society in Britain, 1880-1920,' by John Benson.

Reviews the book "Real Fantasies: Edward Steichen's Advertising Photography," by Patricia Johnston.

The article reviews the books "The Smoke of the Gods: A Social History of Tobacco," by Eric Burns and "The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product That Defined America," by Allan M. Brandt.

The article reviews the book "Women and smoking since 1890," by Rosemary Elliot.

The article reviews the book "The Authority of Everyday Objects: A Cultural History of West German Industrial Design," by Paul Betts.

The article reviews the book "Chinese medicine men: consumer culture in China and Southeast Asia," by Sherman Cochran.

This article is a book review of " The making of the consumer: knowledge, power and identity in the modern world," edited by Frank Trentmann.

Reviews the book "Scotland and the Music Hall, 1850-1914," by Paul Maloney.