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This article examines the relationships, both real and imagined, that developed between German prisoners of war and women on the British home front during the First World War. Through an analysis of press coverage and archival materials, it adds a new dimension to the history of women’s wartime experiences. Contact with German prisoners challenged the authorities’ capacity to both control and protect British women on the home front. News of women’s interest in German prisoners jeopardised the morale of British soldiers and the idealised image of British women as potential wives and mothers while threatening the balance between the battle and home fronts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks at the small number of British subjects who visited China and North Korea during the Korean War with a view to influencing British opinion. Although none were brought to trial, all experienced some form of punitive action, whether the loss of employment, loss of passports, or damage to their reputations. The subject is placed in the context of the Cold War, and the wider concerns about disloyalty on the Left at the time, as well as the controversies surrounding the Korean War in Britain. It concludes that the actions of these individuals have to be understood in terms of their alternative loyalties (such as to the 'new' China, or to an alternative vision of the United Nations), which ultimately outweighed allegations of disloyalty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most prior work on historical female labour supply has been confined to looking at the female labour force participation decision. This article uses the detailed information on weekly hours of work and wages contained in the New Survey of London Life and Labour ( NSLLL) (1928-32) to provide the first estimation of both the participation and the hours-of-work decisions for female workers prior to the Second World War. The main finding is that the labour supply curve was negatively sloped-women worked longer hours at lower wages. It is also possible to compare the determinants of the labour force participation decision and the hours of work decision among females in the NSLLL. It appears that the labour force participation decision was more strongly related to household income level than to own wages, while the hours of work decision among working women was more strongly related to the wage level than to household income. Finally, the article also examines the differential labour market behaviour of married women, female household heads, and young single women; most striking among these results is the evident added-worker effect on married women of the onset of the Great Depression in 1930. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the sources of competitive advantage in the interwar British radio industry. Specifically, it examines why sections of the industry that reaped substantial monopoly rents from the downstream value chain failed to dominate the industry. During the 1920s Marconi (which controlled the fundamental UK patents) had a key cost advantage, as had other members of the 'Big Six' electrical engineering firms which formed the BBC and were granted preferential royalties. Meanwhile the valve manufacturers' cartel was also able to extract high rents from set manufacturers. The vertical integration literature suggests that input monopolists have incentives to control downstream production. Yet-in contrast to the gramophone industry, which became concentrated into two huge companies following market saturation in the 1930s-radio retained a much more competitive structure. The Big Six failed to capitalize fully on their initial cost advantages owing to logistical weaknesses in supplying markets subject to rapid technical and design obsolescence. Subsequently, during the 1930s, marketing innovations are shown to have played a key role in allowing several independents to establish successful brands. This gave them sufficient scale to provide strong bargaining positions with input suppliers, negating most of their initial cost disadvantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the evolution and future of the Labour Party, a British political party. Topics mentioned include the work of British politician Tony Benn, the media report on the crisis faced by the party in the 1980s, and how the Labour Party's leaders should reorganize the party and choose a new program.

The article focuses on the general election in Great Britain in 1997 which was won by the Labour Party led by Tony Blair. Topics mentioned include the crisis faced by the Conservative Party, the other main British political party, the Labour Party's campaign which focused on public philosophy, and the social changes it implies.

The article focuses on the political situation in Great Britain after the general election in 1974 during which the Labour Party won the most seats in the House of Commons. Topics mentioned include the unpredictability of the victory of the Labour Party of the Conservative Party, the country's need for a political coalition, and the report of the elections in the British journal "The Times."

The article focuses on the evolution of the periodical throughout the 1970s. Topics mentioned include the possibility to purchases previous issues, the social and political situation of Great Britain at that time, and the future of the Labour Party, a British political party. The author also discusses the social issues faced by the country the ones related to education and housing.

Interwar British retailing has been characterized as having lower productivity, less developed managerial hierarchies and methods, and weaker scale economies than its US counterpart. This article examines comparative productivity for one major segment of large-scale retailing in both countries-the department store sector. Drawing on exceptionally detailed contemporary survey data, we show that British department stores in fact achieved superior performance in terms of operating costs, margins, profits, and stock-turn. While smaller British stores had lower labour productivity than US stores of equivalent size, TFP was generally higher for British stores, which also enjoyed stronger scale economies. We also examine the reasons behind Britain's surprisingly strong relative performance, using surviving original returns from the British surveys. Contrary to arguments that British retailers faced major barriers to the development of large-scale enterprises, that could reap economies of scale and scope and invest in machinery and marketing to support the growth of their primary sales functions, we find that British department stores enthusiastically embraced the retail 'managerial revolution'-and reaped substantial benefits from this investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the private papers of Lord Killearn in conjunction with official government documents from the British national archives and the French colonial archives, this article builds upon previous historical scholarship to highlight the importance of Killearn's South-East Asian diplomacy to the resolution of the international food crisis following the Second World War. As Britain's senior diplomat in South-East Asia Killearn had little choice but to become entangled in various international disputes often centred upon French Indo-China - Killearn's failure to do otherwise would not have preserved adequate international rice supplies. Therefore this article not only demonstrates the magnitude of Killearn's concern for South-East Asian rice production during the immediate post-war food crisis but it also reveals the depth of Killearn's frustration towards the chaotic priorities emanating from French Indo-China, and thus it substantiates a more significant and complex understanding of Killearn's diplomatic mission to South-East Asia than has been formerly stated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article outlines the attempts of British central government to react to the perceived inadequacy of official economic statistics. A huge amount of work went into this project, the main aim of which was to speed up the production of statistics so that the economy could be analysed in more detail, and thus better managed. If this was to work, more data was required on the labour market, on productivity, on production, and on the interlinkages between those indicators. British official statistics clearly were more comprehensive and more detailed at the end of this period than they had been at the start. Even so, the effort was usually thought to have been a failure by the early 1970s. More detail took time to produce; it was difficult to recruit the necessary staff; successive administrative reorganizations also absorbed energies. The devolved informality of British government hampered the emergence of an overall picture. Businesses and trade unions resisted attempts to collect more data, especially when it showed them in an unflattering light. Above all, the elite, specialist, and technical nature of the reform process meant that very little political and popular pressure built up to force through further changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the British government under the Labour Party during the mid 1960s. An overview of the Labour Party's history from the early 20th century through the 1960s is provided. The role that the Labour Party politician Harold Wilson plays in regard to the Labour Party's electoral support is discussed. The relationship between the political philosophy of the British Conservative Party and the Labour Party, including in regard to socialism and their philosophy on the role that government should play in the economy, is also discussed.

The article discusses the relationship between Great Britain's national interest and its foreign policy during the mid 1960s. British military relations with other countries, including in regard to nuclear weapons, nuclear deterrence and its military presence in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, are discussed. An overview of the United States' foreign policy towards Europe, including in regard to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and with the French President Charles de Gaulle, is provided.

The article discusses the power held by Great Britain's Parliament in regard to public expenditures and taxation during the 1960s. The role that the British Parliament plays in regard to the country's budget, including budget deficits and surpluses, is discussed. An overview of the several parliamentary committees involved in creating British economic policy, including the Select Committee on Economic Affairs, the Estimates Committee, the Standing Committee and the Plowden Committee, is provided.

The article discusses the prospect for Great Britain's entry into the European Community as of the mid 1960s. An overview of the quantity of British civil servants that would be employed, should Great Britain enter the European Community, is provided. The relationship between the French government and the European Community, including the former's desire to prevent Great Britain from joining the Community, is discussed. An overview of the official languages spoken in the European Community is also provided.

The article discusses the British government's economic policy which is referred to mixed enterprise, or a mixed economy, as of October 1967. The role the British Labour Party, including its National Executive Committee, plays in creating mixed enterprises is discussed. The British government's policy towards industry, including its shares in the Anglo-Persian (later renamed the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company) creation of the Industrial Reorganisation Corporation to develop industry, is also discussed.

The article discusses the British government's 1967 report on the status of the country's primary education system, which is known as the Plowden Report. An overview of British school teachers, including teachers' salaries and the quantity of teachers needed in relation to the number of students, is provided. The role that the British government plays in financing primary school education, including the cost of educating students annually, is discussed. An overview of the training of primary school teachers, including the costs involved, is also provided.

The article discusses the Great Britain's Liberal Party's political philosophy as of July 1962, including in regard to British citizens' participation in government, the decentralization, or devolution, of government and the Party's perspective on public welfare. An overview of the Liberal Party's philosophy on international relations, pensions, defence policy, social security, social policy, relations between industrial management and employees, economic policy, national income and currency policy, is provided.

The article discusses the status of Great Britain's Liberal Party as of July 1962. An overview of putative lack of support that the Liberal Party receives from the middle class is provided. The support for the Conservative Party and the Labour Party in general elections, including the relationship between the identity of the working class and the political support received by the Labour Party and the relationship between the country's material prosperity and the support for the Conservative Party during the late 1950s, is discussed.

The article discusses the support in Great Britain for the Liberal Party from the 1920s through 1962, including the support that the party receives in British elections. The British political parties the Conservative Party (which is also referred to as the Tory party) and the Labour Party are discussed. An overview of British voters, including the role that religion plays in their political activity, middle-aged women's support for the Liberal Party and the putative of lack of support among white-collar workers for the Labour Party, is provided. The relationship between social class and politics is also discussed.

The article discusses the putatively minor political parties in Great Britain from the 1930s through July 1962, including the British Communist Party, the National Socialist Party, the Socialist Party of Great Britain (SPGB) and the Independent Labour Party (ILP). An overview the political persuasion of British political parties, including the left-wing Socialist Labour League, is provided. The role that anarchists play in British politics, including the Freedom Group of anarchists' collaboration with the ILP, is discussed. The support that minor parties of Great Britain garner in elections is also discussed. An overview of the role that pressure-groups play within British political parties is also provided.

The article discusses the middle class of Great Britain's putative discontent with the country's political parties, particularly with the British Labour Party, as of July 1962. An overview of the British middle class' political activity from 1947 through 1962, including the author's opinion that the middle class may support the British Conservative Party or the Liberal Party in Great Britain's 1962 General Elections, is provided. The economic aspects of the British middle class' political activity are discussed.

The article focuses on the political elections in Great Britain during the 1970s. Topics mentioned include the lack of quality of the political debate, the public opinion regarding this issue, and the government policy regarding education. The author also discusses the importance of the role played by the media.

The Conservative Party was in government for almost all of the decade after the First World War, during which it faced not only economic problems but also the political threat of the advance of the Labour Party. Socialism raised the challenge of a greatly extended role for the state, and in response to this and to tackle the difficulties of industry and the high level of unemployment, which Conservatives attributed to the free trade economy, the party returned in 1923 and 1930–2 to its pre‐war advocacy of a system of tariff protection linked to imperial preference. These factors have previously been viewed from separate perspectives, and accounts of the development of the British state have treated Conservative attitudes as simply negative. This article explores the more varied strands of Conservative opinion about the role of the state in the inter‐war period, and links these to the party's governing practice in key aspects of economic policy in the decade after 1918, and its attempts to introduce protective tariffs in 1923 and 1930–2. It is based upon contemporary discussions of Conservative principles and policies by active politicians and propagandists, and upon the private correspondence of the party's parliamentary leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]