16 December 2024
Unlocking Hidden Collections: unveiling the past through trade literature
In the quieter corners of The British Library storage areas, lies a remarkable historical collection of trade literature.
This material, once part of the Patent Office Library, offers researchers an insight into the industrial, commercial and domestic landscape of Britain in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It mainly comprises British material, but a number of items from other countries, including the US, France and Germany, were also collected. This is now considered one of the largest and rarest collections in the country.
Thanks to the Unlocking Hidden Collections initiative, approximately 17,000 long-overlooked catalogues are being brought to light. This major project aims to discover, catalogue, and preserve collections at the British Library that have remained largely unknown to academics, historians, and the public. Through this effort, we will make valuable information accessible to researchers studying industrial innovation, economic development, and cultural trends in the last centuries.
In this initial stage of the Unlocking Hidden Collections project, I have been examining the material in the collection, identifying any conservation needs and discovering all kinds of beautiful and interesting publications. These are catalogues covering a wide range of industries, including metallurgy, chemical, agriculture, construction, telecommunications, transport, furniture, arts and more.
“A list, with descriptions, illustrations, and prices, of whatever relates to aquaria” - William Alford Lloyd, 1858.
For example, the “Aquaria” catalogue published by William Alford Lloyd in 1858 is one of the oldest catalogues found in the collection so far. It contains images and information about aquariums and the cultivation of marine plants and animals. William Alford Lloyd was a self-taught English zoologist who became the first professional aquarist. Lloyd opened the earliest aquarium shop in history and started to advertise it in 1855 in the weekly periodical Notes and Queries.
“Sels de radium et autres substances radioactives” - Sels de Radium - 1906/1907.
The catalogue published by the Sels de Radium is another rare example that illustrates the uniqueness of the collection. The company was owned by Emile Armet de Lisle, a French industrialist and chemist who helped develop the French radium industry in the early 20th century. The Armet de Lisle factories exclusively carried out all processing of the ores belonging to Marie Curie, with a view to extracting radium, polonium and actinium, intended for her laboratory.
“The "Allenburys" series of infants' food" - Allen & Hanburys Ltd.,1904.
As a researcher interested in the History of Childhood, Families and Women, it was a great surprise for me when I discovered some catalogues of Allen & Hanburys in the trade literature collection. The company specialised in infants' foods, dietetic products, medicated pastilles, malt preparations as well as galenical preparations. The interesting fact about this catalogue is that it also provides general information about all aspects of motherhood such as teething and common illnesses in early childhood. This shows that trade catalogues had a different purpose other than selling business products.
The trade literature collection (1850-1940) is an important research source covering the history of both individual businesses and whole industries - technological advances, product development, design, marketing and, ultimately, trends in consumption. Similarly, it is a particularly valuable resource for collectors, historians, economists, museum curators, antique dealers and enthusiasts because they are specifically focused on products e.g. steam engines, ceramics, clocks, agricultural machinery etc.
It is also worth noting that product literature has much more to say about a business than just its products. For example, it may contain illustrations of premises and work processes, addresses of factories and names of subsidiaries which provide an outline of corporate organisation in both the UK and overseas and corporate identity information such as logos.
Brown Bayley’s Steel Works Ltd., Sheffield – Pictures of the interior, c.1913?
Take as an example this catalogue from Brown Bailey’s Steels (pictured above), a beautiful collection of artworks by William Luker Jr. on steelworks in which appears to be a commemorative catalogue of the company. During the First World War, the firm became an important producer of alloy steels for the motor car and aircraft industry. It was also an early developer of stainless steel.
Where different editions of a given item of product literature exist, taken together they allow the identification over time of changes in products, as well as in the other categories of information. Such information assumes real importance if no other archives of a business have survived.
The Unlocking Hidden Collections project has been instrumental in making this material and other treasures of the British Library accessible to the public and we will continue working on expanding the possibilities for researchers, educators and curious minds to delve into our collections.
This blog post was written by Fernanda Turina, trade literature cataloguer working on the British Library’s Unlocking Hidden Collections project. This initiative aims to process, research and catalogue the Library’s hidden collections, making them more accessible to researchers and the public.
03 December 2024
Researching the welfare state
The British Library holds a wealth of books, journals, social studies, historical documents and official publications. Readers can examine the welfare state through a variety of topics from social work and social policy administration, governance and management and empirical studies. Our collections have considerable scope and provide historical context to a wide range of themes.
Now that the remote ordering system has been restored, it is much easier for readers to gain access to printed books and journals. To use the remote ordering system, readers need to have registered for, or renewed, their reader's pass after 21 March 2024. This post highlights publications that offer an insight into some of the issues that influence government policy, that can be ordered from home for viewing in the reading room.
Introducing social policy, by Cliff Alcock, Guy Daly, and Edwin Griggs. 2nd edition. Harlow: Longman, 2008. Shelfmark YC.2012.a.3656
Introducing social policy (YC.2012.a.3656) provides a historical overview of welfare provision as it emerged at the end of the nineteenth century and progressed into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The authors provide an overview of how contemporary social policy is governed and suggest ways researchers can adopt a theoretical approach to studying relevant policy areas. These include social security, health services, social services, education, employment and housing.
Citizen, state, and social welfare in Britain 1830-1990, by Geoffrey Finlayson. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994. Shelfmark YC.1994.a.1887
In Citizen, state and social welfare in Britain (YC.1994.a.1887), Geoffrey Finlayson states that the beginning and growth of the welfare state is highly contested and open to debate. Traditionally the processes of state control were seen to emerge in the 1830s, but one could argue that the process began in the late 17th century.
Finlayson also states that emphasising the emergence of state provision tends to ignore the ‘mixed economy of welfare’. Voluntary activities representing a broad coalition of services have until recently been excluded from research in this area.
His study is divided into four sections:
1830-1880: providence, paternalism and philanthropy
1880-1914: challenge, collectivism, and convergence
1914-1949: war, want, and welfare
1949-1991: participation, perception, and pluralism
Divided kingdom : a history of Britain, 1900 to the present, by Pat Thane. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018. Shelfmark YC.2019.b.1339
In Divided Kingdom: a history of Britain (YC.2019.b.1339), Pat Thane presents a broad picture of the UK and the political, economic, social and cultural changes which occurred since 1900. He reveals how the decolonisation of empire after the Second World War impacted Britain’s status and influence in the world and how the unity of the UK was affected by the devolution of domestic powers. Thane argues that although state welfare expanded after 1945 and partially survived into the 21st century, its provision was curtailed by successive governments since the 1980s when many services were outsourced to private contractors.
Welfare and social policy in Britain since 1870; essays in honour of Jose Harris, edited by Lawrence Goldman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019. YC.2019.a.8933
Composed as a tribute to the renowned social theory historian Jose Harris, the essays in Welfare and social policy in Britain since 1870 (YC.2019.a.8933), examine the different approaches to welfare provision in Britain since the Victorian era. Stating that philanthropy was firmly rooted within an imperialist notion of community, the collection assesses the foundations of the welfare state within the context of the Beveridge report and socialist ideals.
In her essay ‘The Reluctant Planner’ on T.H. Marshall, Julia Moses identifies a shift in post war attitudes away from an earlier tradition of philosophical idealism in social reform towards a universal equality that coexists with material wealth. Other essays in the same volume go on to examine how the foundational ideas of the welfare state were by turns exonerated and rebuffed by successive governments and state actors.
In a chapter entitled ‘Reshaping the Welfare State’, John Davis discusses the relative benefits that welfare provision brought to industrialised centres after the Second World War. He also highlights the work of the Institute of Community Studies and the Child Poverty Action Group during the 1960s which recognised the needs of the elderly, disabled and the mentally ill. As the complexity of the social makeup in urban areas and the inadequacy of housing stock became apparent, it meant that statutory services were not responding to new challenges. A consequence of this set of circumstances was that voluntary agencies then became more prevalent.
Imagined orphans: poor families, child welfare, and contested citizenship in London, by Lydia Murdoch. New Brunswick, N.J.; London: Rutgers University Press, 2006. Shelfmark m06/.21505
In her study of child welfare in late Victorian London, Imagined Orphans: poor families, child welfare, and contested citizenship in London (m06/.21505), Lydia Murdoch focuses on the cultural representations of child poverty and the reality of children’s experiences within welfare institutions in the nineteenth century. While reformers’ motivations were well intentioned, Murdoch shows how they conveyed an anti-poor sentiment that justified a minimalist welfare state. This study also reveals how institutions reacted and adapted to changing values during the First World War.
Continuity and change in voluntary action : patterns, trends and understandings, by Rose Lindsey and John Mohan. Bristol: Policy Press, 2019. Shelfmark YKL.2020.a.2072
In their series of essays on the voluntary sector, Continuity and change in voluntary action (YKL.2020.a.2072), Rose Lindsey and John Mohan provide a comprehensive analysis of the social makeup and policy environment of volunteering in Britain since 1979.
The opening chapter discusses the expansion of voluntary activity as a means of ‘renewing the values of society’. It also identifies the shifting attitudes towards voluntary activity during the Thatcher, Blair/Brown and coalition governments.
This incisive study identifies trends, trajectories over the life course and attitudes to voluntary work. It also offers a clear analysis of qualitative datasets from the Mass Observation Project and the British Household Panel Survey.
The study of social welfare in Britain encompasses a broad range of themes across a number of subject areas and disciplines. In addition to the listed publications, it is possible to investigate social welfare through our extensive collection of reports, journals and government documents. Some of these rarely used sources include reports from the Charity Organisation Society, conference papers, and a complete run of journals from the British Association of Social Workers, as well as publications from the Central Office of Information.
UK parliamentary papers are available to view in the Social Sciences Reading Room. Encyclopedias, dictionaries and some research monographs are held on the open shelves.
Please check the catalogue or contact the social sciences reference team for more information.
Ben Hadley, Social Sciences Subject Librarian
31 October 2024
Hakim Adi: three decades (and counting) of reclaiming the historical narrative
Last year’s cyber-attack on the Library continues to impact on social science disciplines where researchers rely on current material. Whilst remote ordering for print and archival materials received before April 2023 has now been restored, the Library remains unable to provide access to published material held in digital formats (ebooks, ejournals and archived web content) and to print materials received after April 2023.
Rather than focusing on recent work, at the conclusion of this year’s Black History Month, it seems fitting to present a retrospective overview of the work of one of someone who has been at the forefront of reclaiming the historical narrative for over three decades. Hakim Adi held the post of Professor of the History of Africa and the African Diaspora at the University of Chichester, until the university discontinued the Masters course on which he taught and made him redundant in July 2023. He was the first historian of African heritage to become a professor of history in Britain. Hakim Adi established a ground-breaking Masters by Research (MRes) programme on the History of Africa and the African Diaspora at Chichester. His most recent work, African and Caribbean People in Britain (Penguin, 2023) was shortlisted for the prestigious Wolfson history prize, and he was instrumental in the founding of History Matters whose free, online journal is celebrating the organisation's 10th year. History Matters will host the 3rd New Perspectives on the History of African and Caribbean People in Britain Conference on Saturday 9 November 2024.
Cover of Winter 2024 issue of History Matters Journal, Volume 4, no.1.
Hakim Adi founded the Young Historians Project to promote the study and popular understanding of Black history. The project encourages the development of young people of African and Caribbean heritage into historians, researchers, editors, public speakers, creatives, and more: passing the work of reclaiming the narrative to a new generation. In this light, it perhaps not surprising that the earliest of Professor Adi’s works held by the Library is one of his books written for children, rather than adults: African migrations (Hove, Wayland, 1994, YK.1995.b.8866). This book was republished with an updated cover by Hachette in 2021.
African migrations, by Hakim Adi. Hove, Wayland, 1994. YK.1995.b.8866
This post highlights Hakim Adi’s books and chapters in collective works that are held by the Library in print format, and which are currently available to readers using the Library. Professor Adi can be counted among the many voices calling for Black history to be incorporated more fully into the curriculum at school and university, and to be a concern across the whole year rather than confined to Black History Month. The books featured in this post can be accessed in the Library’s reading rooms in London and Yorkshire. Anyone over 18 can register for a free reader’s pass to use the reading rooms.
The earliest of Professor Adi’s works for adults, co-authored with Marika Sherwood, and held by the Library recounts the history of the fifth, and arguably most significant, Pan African Congress, held in Manchester in 1945. The book includes the report of the 5th Congress edited by leading Pan-Africanist and writer George Padmore (1903-1959). The book was published by Britain’s first Black publishers and bookshop, New Beacon Books, founded by John La Rose and Sarah White.
The 1945 Manchester Pan-African Congress revisited. Hakim Adi and Marika Sherwood. London: New Beacon Books 1995, YC.1995.a.3969
Adi followed on three years’ later with West Africans in Britain 1900-1960: nationalism, pan-Africanism and communism, which not only shines an important light on the lives of Black people living in Britain before the Second World War but also shows the influence these pioneers have had on a world scale.
West Africans in Britain, 1900-1960: nationalism, pan-Africanism and communism, by Hakim Adi. London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1998 YC.1999.a.3231
An inside page from West Africans in Britain, 1900-1960: nationalism, pan-Africanism and communism, by Hakim Adi. London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1998 YC.1999.a.3231
Professor Adi, again working with Marika Sherwood, followed up with a book tracing the wider history of political figures from Africa and the African diaspora. Pan-African history: political figures from Africa and the Diaspora since 1787, was published by Routledge in 2003.
Pan-African history: political figures from Africa and the Diaspora since 1787, by Hakim Adi and Marika Sherwood. London: Routledge, 2003. YC.2004.a.199
Adi adapted his scholarship to author another book for children, The history of the African and Caribbean communities in Britain, published in London by Hodder Wayland in 2005, YK.2008.b.5900. This book has been through multiple editions, and was republished most recently by Hachette in 2021.
The history of the African and Caribbean communities in Britain. London, Hodder Wayland, 2005. YK.2008.b.5900
Professor Adi’s concern not only with history but with the way colonial histories have been presented, comes to the fore in the chapter he contributed to a collective work edited by Simon Faulkner and Anandi Ramamurthy: Visual culture and decolonisation in Britain, YC.2007.a.933. First published by Ashgate in 2006, and subsequently by Routledge, the book traces the way in which different visual genres – art, film, advertising, photography, news reports and ephemera – represented and contributed to political and social struggles over Empire and decolonisation during the mid-Twentieth century. Hakim Adi wrote a chapter with Anandi Ramamurthy under the title, 'Fragments in the history of the visual culture of anti-colonial struggle'.
Simon Faulkner and Anandi Ramamurthy: Visual culture and decolonisation in Britain, YC.2007.a.933
Another chapter in a wide-ranging and fascinating historical work followed. Adi contributed the chapter on ‘The Negro question; the communist international and black liberation in the interwar years’ to From Toussaint to Tupac : the Black international since the age of revolution (Michael O. West, William G Martin and Fanon Che Wilkins) Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009, YC.2010.a.684. From Toussaint to Tupac is a collection of essays across geographic and cultural lines exploring black internationalism and its implications for a black consciousness. Its description reads, “At its core, black internationalism is a struggle against oppression, whether manifested in slavery, colonialism, or racism. The ten essays in this volume offer a comprehensive overview of the global movements that define black internationalism, from its origins in the colonial period to the present.”
From Toussaint to Tupac, YC.2010.a.684, in the centre of other books on the basement shelves, waiting to be ordered up to the reading rooms.
In 2011, with Caroline Bressey, Adi edited and contributed a chapter to Belonging in Europe : the African diaspora and work, London: Routledge 2011, YC.2014.a.9592. In this book, which makes connections across Europe through the experience of work and labour, Adi’s chapter was on ‘The Comintern and Black Workers in Britain and France 1919-37’. The book’s chapters cover the period from the long eighteenth century to the Second World War.
Belonging in Europe: the African diaspora and work, edited by Caroline Bressey and Hakim Adi, London: Routledge 2011, YC.2014.a.9592
A flavour of Caroline Bressey’s important work can be gained from her chapter (chapter 11) in Slavery and the British Country House (edited by Madge Dresser and Andrew Hann, and published by English Heritage, which is freely available online.
Adi updated and extended his earlier work on communism and Pan-Africanism in 2013, publishing the 445-page Pan-Africanism and communism: the communist international, Africa and the diaspora, 1919-1939. Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press, 2013. YC.2019.a.166
Pan-Africanism and communism: the communist international, Africa and the diaspora, 1919-1939. Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press, 2013. YC.2019.a.166
In 2018, Adi published Pan-Africanism: a history, Bloomsbury Academic, covering many key figures in the twentieth century development of Pan-African thought and practice from W.E.B. De Bois, Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X and Kwame Nkrumah through to the music of Bob Marley.
Front cover of Pan-Africanism: a history, Hakim Adi, London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018. YC.2019.a.2646
Back cover of Pan-Africanism: a history, Hakim Adi, London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018. YC.2019.a.2646
Adi brought the work of established and emerging scholars together in the publication of his edited work Black British History: New Perspectives, Zed Books, 2019. The book spans the centuries from the first Black Britons to the latest African migrants, covering everything from Africans in Tudor England to the movement for reparations. This is held in the Library as an ebook at ELD.DS.649502 and is not currently available.
Adi’s most recent sole-authored work, African and Caribbean People in Britain: a history, Penguin 2023 is also unavailable at present. He came to the British Library to speak about the book, in conversation with historian David Olusoga in November 2022. A recording of the event is available online
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqe5TyD09Yk
Adi's edited work, Many Struggles: New Histories of African and Caribbean People in Britain, Pluto Press, 2023, also features the work of emerging scholars and scholar-activists. The book draws on new archival research to emphasise often-neglected themes such as local histories, women, gender and political activism. Voices from the archive also come to the fore in Black voices on Britain, London : Macmillan, 2022 (held digitally as ELD.DS.729195, not available at the moment). In this book, Adi draws on published works to give voice to people who lived, worked, campaigned and travelled in Britain from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century. Writers featured include James Gronniosaw, Mary Prince, Frederick Douglass, and William Wells Brown among others. The Library appreciates the patience and understanding of its users whilst these books, received in digital format, are unavailable to readers. Similarly the Library is grateful for the understanding of publishers currently unable to deposit books in digital format whilst work is undertaken to make ebooks and ejournals available once more.
Fortunately, following up on references to chapters Hakim Adi has contributed to other works can lead to the discovery of major contributions to scholarship that aim to redress the historical narrative. One such work is Representing slavery: art, artefacts and archives in the collections of the National Maritime Museum, edited by Douglas J. Hamilton and Robert J. Blyth (Aldershot: Lund Humphries: 2007. LC.31.a.5400. Adi contributed a short chapter to this substantial work, which is currently available and is relevant to the work of a wide range of British institutions confronting the legacy of colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade.
Professor Adi’s work can also be found in another book available in the Library, with a detailed preview on JSTOR : Global Africa : into the twenty-first century, edited by Dorothy Hodgson and Judith Byfield, University of California Press, 2017. YC.2018.a.12042
Global Africa : into the twenty-first century, edited by Dorothy Hodgson and Judith Byfield, University of California Press, 2017. YC.2018.a.12042
Similarly Professor Adi’s history books for children, which are held by the Library, remain important markers along the way to creating a more inclusive and accurate narrative for a younger generation.
Nelson Mandela: father of freedom, by Hakim Adi. London: Hodder Wayland, 2000. YK.2001.b.3940 (stored in Yorkshire, allow 48 hours for delivery to London reading rooms)
References
African migrations, by Hakim Adi. Hove, Wayland, 1994. YK.1995.b.8866
The 1945 Manchester Pan-African Congress revisited. Hakim Adi and Marika Sherwood. London: New Beacon Books, 1995. YC.1995.a.3969
Pan-African history: political figures from Africa and the Diaspora since 1787, by Hakim Adi and Marika Sherwood. London: Routledge, 2003. YC.2004.a.199
The history of the African and Caribbean communities in Britain, London, Hodder Wayland, 2005. YK.2008.b.5900.
(With Anandi Ramamurthy) 'Fragments in the history of the visual culture of anti-colonial struggle' in Visual culture and decolonisation in Britain, Simon Faulkner and Anandi Ramamurthy, Ashgate, 2006. YC.2007.a.933.
'Black people in Britain' in Representing slavery: art, artefacts and archives in the collections of the National Maritime Museum, edited by Douglas J. Hamilton and Robert J. Blyth Aldershot: Lund Humphries: 2007. LC.31.a.5400
‘The Negro question; the communist international and black liberation in the interwar years’ in From Toussaint to Tupac: the Black international since the age of revolution (Michael O. West, William G Martin and Fanon Che Wilkins) Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009, YC.2010.a.684.
Belonging in Europe: the African diaspora and work, edited by Caroline Bressey and Hakim Adi, London: Routledge 2011, YC.2014.a.9592
Pan-Africanism and communism: the communist international, Africa and the diaspora, 1919-1939. Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press, 2013. YC.2019.a.166
'Pan-Africanism: An Ideology and a Movement' in Global Africa : into the twenty-first century, edited by Dorothy Hodgson and Judith Byfield, University of California Press, 2017. YC.2018.a.12042
Pan-Africanism: a history, Hakim Adi, London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018. YC.2019.a.2646
30 June 2024
Pride beyond June: readings in LGBT+ history, culture and theory
As Pride Month’s celebration of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer communities comes to a close, this post picks out some of the books currently available to readers in the British Library. Although our digital collections are not yet available following the cyber incident, our contemporary print collections in St Pancras offer a wide range of approaches to LGBT+ culture and history. The books featured below are just a selection of more recent publications that are held in St Pancras and should be available to order to our reading rooms.
Our collections are particularly strong for their international coverage. If you are keen to learn more about the development of transnational campaigns for LGBT+ rights from the mid-nineteenth century onwards, Laura Belmonte’s history of the international LGBT rights movement offers a good starting point. The book celebrates the growing reach of struggles against homophobia but also flags up continuing threats to LGBT+ rights.
The international LGBT rights movement : a history. Laura A., Belmonte. London ; New York : Bloomsbury Academic, 2021. Shelfmark YC.2022.a.6510
Another historical work, providing an international perspective spanning from Finland to New Zealand, the UK and USA, and focused on the first decade after the second World War is Queer 1950s: Rethinking Sexuality in the Postwar Years, edited by Heike Bauer and Matt Cook. Collected essays examine the legacy of the 1950s and challenge preconceptions about this period.
Queer 1950s: Rethinking Sexuality in the Postwar Years, edited by H. Bauer and M. Cook. Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. Shelfmark YC.2022.a.1503
The work of activists, artists and academics comes together in another ground-breaking collection comprising essays, poems. literary analysis, ethnographies and methodological questions exploring LGBT+ experiences in the Caribbean. The book aims to disrupt conventional understandings of the Caribbean as deeply homophobic by focusing on LGBT+ agency.
Beyond Homophobia: centring LGBTQ experiences in the Anglophone Caribbean, edited by Mojo Anderson and Erin C MacLeod. Shelfmark YC.2021.a.5033
Still in the Caribbean, and focusing on the Hispanic nation of the Dominican Republic, Streetwalking by Ana-Mauríne Lara presents the varied strategies employed by LGBTQ community leaders in the Dominican Republic in their struggle for recognition, and rights. Lara employs Maria Lugones's theorisation of streetwalker strategies and Audre Lorde's theorisation of silence and action to explore the exercise of power and agency among the LGBTQ community of the Dominican Republic.
Streetwalking : LGBTQ lives and protest in the Dominican Republic, by Lara, Ana-Mauríne. New Brunswick : Rutgers University Press, 2021. Shelfmark YC.2022.a.1315.
Published within Northwestern University Press' 'Critical Insurgencies' series of literary studies, Emilio Amideo's Queer Tidalectics brings a range of theoretical perspectives to bear on Black diasporic experience and aesthetics. The book looks at the work of Anglophone writers James Baldwin, Jackie Kay, Thomas Glave, and Shani Mootoo. In particular, it explores their use of the idea of fluidity as a means to evade and overcome sexual, gender and racial boundaries. Amideo employs the theoretical perspectives of Sara Ahmed, Édouard Glissant and Edward Kamau Brathwaite, among others, in a fascinating and probing contribution to Black queer studies.
Queer Tidalectics: Linguistic and Sexual Fluidity in Contemporary Black Diasporic Literature by Emilio Amideo. Northwestern University Press, 2021. Shelfmark YC.2022.a.5531
The Library's shelves are rich in academic studies applying theoretical approaches to a range of contemporary questions. But it's not all heavy theory: there are a broad range of more accessible texts waiting to be ordered up to our reading rooms. Georges-Claude Guilbert's book, Gay icons: the (mostly) female entertainers gay men love, provides a readable consideration of the way superstars and divas contribute to gay culture. The book focuses on individuals including Mae West, Julie Andrews, Britney Spears, RuPaul, and Cher to consider their appeal and what it is that makes them icons. This book is just one of many that consider gay or Queer icons in cinema, music and the arts. Other books to address this theme include The little book of queer icons by Samuel Alexander (London: Summersdale, 2019, shelfmark YC.2019.a.9751) and Heroes and exiles: gay icons through the ages, by Tom Ambrose (London: New Holland, 2010, shelfmark YC.2011.a.3923).
22 April 2024
Researching social work in the Social Sciences Reading Room.
This post, written by Social Sciences Subject Librarian, Ben Hadley, describes printed resources relevant to social work that are available to readers in the Social Sciences Reading Room, as well as publications that can be ordered up from basement storage for use in the reading rooms. The Library's digital collections are not currently available whilst systems are restored following the cyber attack in October 2023. Information about the restoration of services can be found on the British Library Knowledge Matters blog, and details of opening hours and current services are on the Library's website.
Reference materials relevant to social work in the OPL section on the shelves in the Social Sciences Reading Room.
Social work is a practice-based profession and an academic discipline that promotes social change. Research themes encompass a range of interdisciplinary approaches including law, philosophy, politics, public policy, psychology and social anthropology.
The recent cyber-attack has had a severe impact on our digital collections. Unfortunately we currently cannot provide access to abstracting databases and e-resources via our reading room PCs. Similarly, we are not able to provide access to books and journals published in the UK or in Ireland that have been deposited with the Library in electronic format rather than in print. This affects many British (and also Irish) books published since 2013 as roughly half of the Library's intake from these countries is received in digital format.
However, readers can still order journals and printed books to use in our study spaces, and social work dictionaries, encyclopedias and reference sources on related topics are available on the open shelves. Social work research demands a multi-disciplinary approach, and we can still provide access to a broad spectrum of topics from a wide range of subject areas. Our research monographs cover a wide field of subject disciplines and many are held in the Social Sciences Reading Room.
Here are just a few examples of books are available to order and use in the reading rooms, that can be found in our catalogue:
Social Policy for Social Work, Lorraine Green and Karen Clark
Front cover of Social policy for social work, by Lorraine Green and Karen Clarke. Cambridge; Polity Press, 2016. British Library shelfmark YC.2016.b.604
This book examines the shifts in the dominant political ideology that have affected the nature of welfare provision and the balance of responsibilities between the family, the voluntary sector, the market and the state. It explains how these developments impact social workers and service users.
It traces the origins of state welfare from the Elizabethan Poor Laws to the late 1800s. It then examines each stage of welfare provision from the post-war consensus through to the Coalition government 2010 – 2015. British Library shelfmark YC.2016.b.604
Mind, state and society: social history of psychiatry and mental health in Britain 1960 – 2010, edited by George Ikkos and Nick Bouras.
Cover image of Mind, state and society: social history of psychiatry and mental health in Britain 1960–2010, edited by George Ikkos and Nick Bouras. Cambridge University Press, 2021. Shelfmark YC.2022.a.5666.
This book examines the reforms in psychiatry and mental health services in Britain. It features contributions from leading academics, policymakers, mental health clinicians, service users and carers. It offers a rich and integrated picture of mental health, covering experiences from children to older people; employment to homelessness; women to LGBTQ+; refugees to black and minority ethnic groups; and faith communities and the military.
British Library shelfmark YC.2022.a.5666
Child Welfare and Social Action in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Jon Lawrence and Pat Starkey. Liverpool University Press, 2001
This collection of essays addresses child migration, ‘delinquency’, and the physical and psychological traumas of children in care. It offers an international perspective on these issues and each case study provides a thorough analysis within its historical context. Each of the themes introduced in this study can be explored in more detail in our collections.
British Library shelfmark YC.2006.a.15461
What is Social Work: Contexts and Perspectives, Nigel Horner. London; Learning Matters, 2012
This book is primarily aimed at social work students in their first year of study. It examines the major influences that shaped the welfare systems towards the end of the nineteenth century, including religious movements, philanthropy, social reform, labour movements and government policy.
It presents an overview of child welfare policy and practice and introduces legal frameworks for working with children and families. It also examines the changing context of the profession in light of legislative changes from the 1908 Children Act which led to the introduction of juvenile courts, to the Children Act 2004 which affirmed a commitment to assuring high quality childcare for all.
British Library shelfmark SPIS 361.30941
In addition this book also introduces a professional capabilities framework that informs all social work practice. These themes can be explored further in studies held in the reading room under subject heading SPIS 361.01. A member of staff can help you to find these titles.
Gender diversity, recognition and citizenship: towards a politics of difference, Sally Hines. Basingstoke; Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
Gender diversity, recognition and citizenship: towards a politics of difference, by Sally Hines. Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. British Library shelfmark SPIS 306.768
This book explores the significance of the UK Gender Recognition Act (GRA) and considers broader social, cultural, legal political shifts that have resulted. This book considers the politics of identity and how lived experience has been impacted by these changes. The GRA is also contextualised within human rights discourse and law.
British Library shelfmark SPIS 306.768
Social Policy, John Baldock. Oxford University Press, 2012
Explores the history and development of social policy and provides a comprehensive introduction to this area of study. An understanding of these themes is essential to social work students and to those studying related disciplines. The glossary provides a list of terms that can help readers to focus and narrow their research themes.
Some of the subject headings in this study include: social need and inequality, family and welfare, the voluntary sector, global social policy, health policy, housing, crime and punishment.
British Library shelfmark SPIS 361.610941
Here is a list of some of the key journals in social work:
Social Policy and Society
British Journal of Social Work
Journal of Social Policy
Journal of evidence based social work
Journal of social work practice
Social Policy and Administration
Some of the articles from these journals are available for free on the web. Just type the journal title into Google and you should be able to find a full list of articles on the publisher’s website. Look for the Open Access symbol, this means that an article is free to access. We can provide access to other articles from these journals if they have been published before October 2023, just note down the year and issue number that you need and bring this information to the Social Sciences issue desk. You can also find some digitised journal articles via the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.
The following titles are held on the open shelves in the SPIS journals collection:
Professional Social Work
Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society
Social Theory and Health
Journal of Child and Adolescent Trauma
Journal of Public Health Policy
Here is a list of some of the topics associated with social work held within the SPIS books collection (there is a more comprehensive list in the reading room):
Children 305.23
Older people 305.26
Courts 347.4201
Social work 361.301
Social action 361.2
Social work research 362
Mental health 362.2
Disabled persons 362.4
Children problems 362.7
Criminology 364
Drug abuse 362.29
Counselling 361.06
Delinquent and problem pupils 371.93
In the OPL section you can find encylopedias and abstracts for related subjects and disciplines
Examples of reference sources on the open shelves in the Social Sciences Reading Room.
Reference materials on the open shelves include the following titles:
Social research methods OPL 300.72
Encyclopedias, sociology dictionaries OPL 301.03
(In this section you can also find encyclopedias in women’s studies, social psychology, adolescence, race and LGBTQ studies)
Encyclopedias of social work OPL. 361.003
Social work abstracts OPL 361.973
Halsbury’s laws of England OPL 344.4209
Introduction the law and the legal system OPL 345.0973
Magistrates court guide 2024 OPL 345.38
Finally, here are some websites and resources that may be useful to your research into social policy:
The King’s Fund Library
https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/work-with-us/library#use-our-library-collections
London School of Economics Library
https://www.lse.ac.uk/library/using-the-library/library-resources-guide
British Sociological Association
https://www.britsoc.co.uk/media-centre/research-databases/
King’s College Library
https://libguides.kcl.ac.uk/systematicreview/greylit
The Knowledge Exchange
https://theknowledgeexchangeblog.com
The following organisations publish research papers, policy briefings and reports on their websites:
National Centre for Social Research (NatCen)
Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Resolution foundation
Reform
The Children’s Commissioner
Intergenerational Foundation
International Longevity Centre (ILC-UK)
13 March 2024
Consulting Official Publications collections after the cyber attack.
This post, written by the Library's Content Lead for Official and Government Publications describes how readers can access official publications in the wake of the cyber-attack on the Library in October 2023. Information about the restoration of services can be found on the British Library Knowledge Matters blog, and details of opening hours and current services are on the Library's website.
Following the cyber-attack on the British Library’s IT estate in October 2023, access to our official publications collections is limited, but will gradually improve. At present, you can only consult print and microform materials that are either shelved in the Social Sciences Reading Room at St Pancras or in the St Pancras basements. In the reading room we have a selection of historic UK parliamentary and legal texts including:
Commons and Lords journals
The Official Report (Hansard) and Standing Committee Debates
Public General Acts, Local and Personal Acts and Private Acts
UK Statutory Instruments
House of Commons papers and bills on microfiche, 1801-2004/05
House of Commons Sessional Papers of the Eighteenth Century reprint edited by Sheila Lambert
Official publications on the open shelves in the Social Sciences Reading Room at St Pancras.
Basement 1 at St Pancras holds an eclectic mix of UK, US and United Nations publications in print which, in a leap back to the 20th century, can be ordered on paper tickets:
Bound sets of Commons and Lords papers and bills from 1801-
United States Congressional Serial Set 1817/18-1979/90
Electoral registers, 2002-
United Nations documents 1946-2012
Official texts were historically catalogued and shelved in series, not at the individual document level. Fortunately hard copy indexes are still available in the reading room and these will enable you to record the correct citation in the series so that the library assistants can locate your chosen document on the shelf.
Hansard: the official record of parliamentary debates in the House of Commons.
The St Pancras basements also hold a treasure trove of official materials on microform which can be consulted in lieu of electronic sources, such as:
The depository collection of US federal government and Congressional papers, 1982- on microfiche arranged by Superintendent of Documents (SuDocs) code
US Congressional hearings on microfiche
Historic electoral registers for England, 1832-1937 on microfilm
HMSO controller’s library on microfilm
Government publications relating to Kenya, 1897-1963 on microfilm
Annual departmental reports relating to Sierra Leone, 1893-1961 on microfilm
There are printed indexes to these sets in the reading room that will help you to find the correct document codes and reel numbers so that you can place orders. There is also a card index of official microforms available for consultation.
Now for the bad news. Apart from these print and microform sets, all other UK, foreign national government, and intergovernmental organisation (IGO) publications are two hundred miles away on our Boston Spa site in Yorkshire. UK departmental publications and electoral registers 1832-2001 in print are kept in an automated store and cannot be retrieved as yet, although restoring this service is a priority. However the historic collections of foreign national government and IGO documents are in static stores, and we aim to restart delivery around the end of March. You can find their shelfmarks in the interim catalogue or in the printed copy of the British Museum Library catalogue in the Social Sciences reading room.
An example of the electoral registers available at the Library.
Our world class collection of subscribed electronic resources is inaccessible at the moment, including full-text document collections such as the US Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1994, Congressional Record to 1997, Congressional Hearings, 1823-1979, US Territorial Papers, the US Foreign Broadcast Information Service, UK Parliamentary Papers, UK State Papers Online 16th-18th centuries, and British Online Archives databases, but in many cases there are print or microform alternatives available. Originals of digitised UK government archives are available at the National Archives, Kew. Recent UK, IGO and foreign national government materials can of course be found freely available on the internet. Large and influential IGOs such as the United Nations, the IMF and the World Bank now make their electronic libraries available free as a public good:
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
United Nations Official Document System
IMF eLibrary
You will find records for electronic UK, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland government documents acquired through non-print legal deposit before April 2023 in the interim catalogue, but there is no access to the documents themselves at present. We are aiming to restore view access in June or July this year, so watch this space. However, prior to the cyber incident we received feeds of records with hot links to freely available documents published by the European Union, the US federal government and the Irish Republic government. These links work and you can view the documents from within the catalogue.
Access to full text of Scottish government and Parliament documents is available from the National Library of Scotland catalogue (Library Search). Queen’s University Belfast hosts the Northern Ireland Official Publications Archive, a repository containing Northern Ireland government documents. For current UK government and Parliamentary documentation you can of course search Gov.UK and the UK Parliament website.
Navigating the Library’s historic print and microform collections of government and IGO documents is challenging because they were catalogued at the series level (print) or set level (microform). To trace the correct citation of a document within a series or microform set you need to consult a range of printed indexes. Please ask our friendly and efficient reference team for help. They can be contacted in person in the Social Sciences reading room or by email at [email protected]
08 March 2024
Finding Women's Studies on the shelves: an international turn
'Transnational feminist politics, education and social justice', edited by Silvia Edling and Sheila Macrine. Shelfmark YC.2023.a.64. Books published by Bloomsbury are received in print and continue to be available to readers.
The cyber-attack on the British Library and the resulting IT outage have thrown a spotlight on the Library’s collections held in physical formats such as print and manuscripts. Whilst the Library is working to restore access to digital collections and to material stored in Yorkshire at Boston Spa, the physical collections held in London are still available to readers. Written on International Women’s Day, this post takes a look at the books on the shelves in the Library's basements at St Pancras. Focusing on books on Women's Studies, it considers the (temporary) effect of bringing a hybrid library back to a primary reliance on print.
'Edith Cavell: faith before the firing squad', by Catherine Butcher (shelfmark YC.2016.a.12850) gazes out from the centre of a row of books received through Legal Deposit. Works centering women are spread through the collections. This book comes from Lion Hudson (Monarch Books) who publish Christian material, in print format.
The Library restored access to a temporary version of its online catalogue on 15 January. That catalogue, based on a back-up version, includes material received by the Library up to April 2023. The catalogue marks material held in physical form in London as ‘should be available’, whilst e-books, e-journals and e-resources that cannot be accessed, and print materials held at Boston Spa, are marked as ‘unavailable’. Some materials available online can still be accessed too.
What does this mean in practice for anyone looking for contemporary published books in social science subject areas?
The answer, in short, is that whilst most older social science books are still available, a sizeable proportion of more recent publications from the UK and Ireland cannot currently be accessed.
After non-print legal deposit regulations came into force in 2013, most of the UK’s major publishers of academic texts switched to depositing their publications in digital format. This includes very many of the big-hitters in the social sciences. For books, think Routledge, Ashgate, Gower, Sage, Policy Press (Bristol University), Palgrave Macmillan, Rowman & Littlefield, and smaller independent publishers such as Intellect Books, Verso, Pluto, IB Tauris, Saqi and Zed Press. Those depositing e-books rather than print also include several university presses, among them UCL, Manchester, Liverpool, Wales, Huddersfield and two of the major US university presses, Yale and Chicago. For journals the list is similar but also includes Taylor & Francis and Oxford University Press. These are major publishers of social science materials.
For these publishers, the Library holds books and journals in print format to at least 2013 and sometimes beyond, as not all publishers switched to digital deposit at the same time. All had completed their transition by 2018, so any books and journals received since then will have been received in digital format and are not currently available. The Library is working to restore access to these materials.
Academic publishers who continue to deposit their books in print include Cambridge University Press and Bloomsbury (the latter deposits print and digital copies), as well as Oxford University Press (books, but not journals), along with very many international university presses who deposit because they distribute their books in the UK and Ireland. A wide range of smaller UK and Irish publishers also deposit print copies, but their output in the social sciences is much smaller than the academic presses who deposit books and journals in digital format.
'Women’s rights in armed conflict under international law', by Catherine O’Rourke. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2020. British Library shelfmark YC.2022.a 1908. Books published by Cambridge University Press are received in print and should be available.
Legal deposit regulations cover the UK and Ireland. The Library purchases a wide range of academic material and other books relevant to readers’ needs published outside the UK and Ireland. Purchased books in English and in European languages are received in print format and are held in London at St Pancras. The vast majority of these books should be available to readers, but readers planning to consult items should contact the Reference Services team by emailing [email protected] in advance of their visit to ensure that specific items are available.
A screenshot of a catalogue search showing recent books acquired by purchase as mostly still available to readers.
Assessing the resources that are currently available for social science research, there has been less impact for books published before 2013. After that date, the switch to digital deposit means that a substantial proportion of books published in the UK and Ireland are not currently available. Books published outside the UK and Ireland, in Europe, the Americas and Oceania, are less impacted by the IT outage. Most more recent books published in Africa and Asia are not available as most are stored at the Library’s Boston Spa site: there is information about alternative resources on the Asian and African Studies blog. Additional materials, especially reference books and recent issues of some journals, can be found in the Library's reading rooms, including the Social Science reading room and the Asian and African Studies reading room.
'Gender and elections', by Susan Carroll, Richard Fox and Kelly Dittmar. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2022. British Library shelfmark YC.2023.a.1355.
The Library is still able to provide readers with access to a very wide range of important academic texts across all subject areas within the social sciences. In the absence of a large part of UK and Irish publishing, the more recent books available have a slightly more international frame of reference.
Etel Adnan's artwork graces the cover of the monumental 'Arab American women; representation and refusal', edited by Michael W Suleiman, Suad Joseph and Louise Cainkar. Syracuse University Press. Shelfmark YC.2022.b.1696
Knowledge and inspiration combine in 'Womanist and mujerista psychologies: voices of fire, acts of courage', edited by Thema Bryant-Davis and Lillian Comas-Díaz. Washington, D.C. : American Psychological Association, 2016. Shelfmark YC.2016.b.1854
A brief walk along the shelves in the Library’s basements reveals a rich range of books relevant to women’s studies and women’s history. Whilst they are generally spread fairly thinly across the shelves, they wait to be discovered and called up to the light of the reading rooms.
The relatively rare sight of two books in a row with a focus on women and gender. Both the ethnographic study 'Sex, shame and violence: a revolutionary practice of public storytelling in poor communities' by Kathleen Cash (YC.2016.b.1866) and 'Nurses as leaders: evolutionary visions of leadership' by William Rosa (YC.2016.b.1867) are US publications (published by Vanderbilt University Press and Springer, New York respectively) showing the international coverage of currently-available, more recent, material in the social sciences.
Recently published books in the humanities and social science sit side by side on the shelves in the basements, whilst works of fiction, general interest, and children's books are housed at Boston Spa. Interestingly, current drama is housed in London, illustrated in the image below showing three plays, 'Mum' by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm, August Strindberg's 'Miss Julie' adapted by Amy Ng and Lulu Raczka's 'Antigone'. In the centre of this shelf, partly hidden by its label, is Chiara Bottici's 'Anarchafeminism', published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2022.
Social science and humanities books received from UK, Irish and some international publishers by Legal Deposit, and stored at St Pancras.
'Anarchafeminism' by Chiara Bottici (London, Bloomsbury Academic, 2022). Shelfmark YC.2022.a.8306 is among books available to readers.
Chiara Bottici is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research, USA, and has written extensively on philosophy and myth. Judith Butler, who will be speaking at the British Library on 19 March 2024 (in person tickets are sold out, but online tickets are available), reviewed this latest work by Bottici, saying "This is a capacious, clear, and revolutionary text that will bring readers who are just starting to learn about feminist philosophy as well as those who have been around a long time. This book does an excellent job in communicating the value of the anarchic, especially in its resistance to the leader, and its thoroughgoing affirmation of the value of freedom. This freedom is not a narrow idea of personal liberty, but an entire mode of transforming the world. We learn as well about a 'transindividualism' which allows us a way to rethink global solidarity for our times." (https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/anarchafeminism-9781350095854/ viewed 8/3/2024).
01 March 2024
'Women are up to something': selected readings for Women's History Month 2024
With International Women's Day approaching on 8th March, this post ushers in Women’s History Month by picking out a selection of books published over the last few years that put women’s history and women’s voices centre stage. Ranging from quick reads to more weighty academic studies, this small selection gives an insight into the diversity of the material that is available to readers in the Library’s St Pancras reading rooms.
Access to the collections held by the British Library remains limited because of a major technology outage caused by a cyber attack at the end of October 2023. The work being done to restore services is detailed in a post on our Knowledge Matters blog, and our temporary website outlines the services that are currently available, as well as listing what's on at the Library. Our reading rooms at both St Pancras and Boston Spa are open for personal study, with free wifi and limited access to the collections. Those who held a reading pass before the outage are able to consult a limited range of collection items.
The selection of books below ranges from literary criticism to histories of political activism, and from interviews to theory: all are held at St Pancras and should be available to readers who have a readers pass, but if you are planning to come to the Library, please check the availability before you visit. To do so, contact our Reference Services team by emailing [email protected] .
Uncontrollable women: radicals, reformers and revolutionaries by Nan Sloane
London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2022. British Library shelfmark YC.2023.a.1245
Cover image of Uncontrollable women: radicals, reformers and revolutionaries, by Nan Sloane. London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2022. British Library shelfmark YC.2023.a.1245
Nan Sloane’s most recent book explores the history of radical, reformist and revolutionary women between the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 and the passing of the Great Reform Act in 1832. The book puts the often-untold stories and voices of these women centre stage to show the way they challenged power structures and even gave their lives for the cause they made their own. The battles they fought for political expression and greater freedom are relevant not only to a different reading of history, but also to women's rights today. Nan Sloane’s earlier work, The Women in the Room: Labour’s forgotten history (London, IB Tauris, 2020, British Library shelfmark YC.2021.a.4484) offered a readable and enlightening account of the political activists who shaped the British Labour party.
Carnival is woman: feminism and performance in Caribbean mas, edited by Frances Henry and Dwaine Plaza.
Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, 2020 British Library shelfmark YC.2023.a.488
Cover image of Carnival is woman : feminism and performance in Caribbean mas, edited by Frances Henry and Dwaine Plaza. Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, 2020 British Library shelfmark YC.2023.a.488
The essays in this collection bring a feminist perspective to the role of women in Caribbean Carnival, through a focus on women and their practices in the Trinidad Carnival. The book presents a range of qualitative research methods, including interviews, participant observation and ethnography to examine women’s empowerment through performance, enjoyment and expression.
Feminism by Bernardine Evaristo
London: Tate Gallery Publishing Ltd., 2021. British Library shelfmark YC.2023.a.590.
Cover image of Feminism, by Bernardine Evaristo, London: Tate Gallery Publishing Ltd., 2021. British Library shelfmark YC.2023.a.590.
The ‘Look Again’ series of short books explores the Tate’s National Collection of British Art, reframing the collection in new ways and drawing on contemporary perspectives. In just under 50 pages, this richly-illustrated book offers an interpretation of British art from an intersectional feminist perspective, from one of Britain’s foremost writers. Bernadine Evaristo is a Booker Prize-winning author and Professor of Creative Writing whose work ranges from fiction and poetry to criticism. This personal exploration focuses on representations of women and non-binary people of colour who have been less visible within museums and galleries.
The career and communities of Zaynab Fawwaz: feminist thinking in fin-de-siècle Egypt by Marilyn Booth.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2021. British Library shelfmark YC.2023.a.366
Cover image of The career and communities of Zaynab Fawwaz : feminist thinking in fin-de-siècle Egypt by Marilyn Booth. New York: Oxford University Press, 2021. British Library shelfmark YC.2023.a.366
Academic and literary translator Marilyn Booth has worked for over thirty years to show women’s input into debates around feminism and gender politics in Egypt. Her latest work focuses on Lebanese author and activist, Zaynab Fawwaz who wrote and published in Egypt toward the end of the nineteenth century. Her monumental work The Book of Scattered Pearls Regarding Categories of Women / الدر المنثور في طبقات ربات الخدور which was first published in 1891, is a biographical dictionary that celebrates and supports women's achievements. Zaynab Fawwaz wrote two novels and a play, and was at the forefront of the emergence of the novel in Arabic.
The women are up to something: how Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley, and Iris Murdoch revolutionized ethics, by Benjamin J. B. Lipscomb.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2022. British Library shelfmark YC.2023.a.411
Cover image of The women are up to something: how Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley, and Iris Murdoch revolutionized ethics, by Benjamin J. B. Lipscomb .
New York : Oxford University Press, 2022. British Library shelfmark YC.2023.a.411
This book focuses on four women who began their studies at Oxford just before the Second World War: Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley, and Iris Murdoch. From very different backgrounds, they forged friendships and worked to set out an intellectual understanding of what it means to live a good life. Drawing on letters, archives and interviews, the book explores their ideas and the contribution to intellectual history made by their distinct, alternative, interventions into philosophy and ethics.
Inside page with figures from The Women are up to something... : Iris Murdoch, Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot and Mary Midgley.
Surfacing: on being Black and feminist in South Africa, edited by Desiree Lewis and Gabeba Baderoon.
Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 2021. British Library shelfmark YC.2022.a.3898
Cover of Surfacing : on being Black and feminist in South Africa, edited by Desiree Lewis and Gabeba Baderoon. Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 2021. British Library shelfmark YC.2022.a.3898
This ground-breaking collection of essays, edited by feminist theorist Desiree Lewis and poet and scholar Gabeba Baderoon is dedicated to bringing to the fore a range of contemporary Black South African feminist perspectives. The writers and practitioners who have contributed their views use creative expression, photography and poetry to explore representations of Blackness, sexuality, girlhood, history, divinity, alongside other themes.
Challenging women's agency and activism in early modernity, edited by Merry E. Wiesner.
Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2021, British Library shelfmark YC.2023.a.1071
Cover of Challenging women's agency and activism in early modernity, edited by Merry E. Wiesner. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2021, British Library shelfmark YC.2023.a.1071
An Open Access edition of this book is also available free online as at OAPEN Online Library of Open Access Books https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/61368
This collection of essays, focusing on Europe and beyond, considers the various ways women were able to exercise agency in the Renaissance and early modern period. At this time women faced new constraints but also found new forms of activism. The essays look at how the actions of girls and women could shape their lives and challenge male-dominated institutions in spite of family and social pressures.
Feminisms with Chinese characteristics, edited by Ping Zhu and Hui Faye Xiao.
Syracuse, New York : Syracuse University Press 2021. British Library shelfmark YC.2023.a.908
Front cover of Feminisms with Chinese characteristics, edited by Ping Zhu and Hui Faye Xiao. Syracuse, New York : Syracuse University Press 2021. British Library shelfmark YC.2023.a.908
Edited by two academics from US universities, this collection of ten essays and two interviews examines the varying ways Chinese feminist ideas have developed since the mid-1990s. It includes articles by contemporary activists and writers from China to highlight the importance of exploring different interpretations of feminism in a way that is integrated into Chinese culture and history.
Shakespeare's 'lady editors': a new history of the Shakespearean text, by Molly G. Yarn
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022. British Library shelfmark YC.2023.a.1605
Cover image of Shakespeare's 'lady editors': a new history of the Shakespearean text, by Molly G. Yarn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022. British Library shelfmark YC.2023.a.1605
In the tradition of challenging established histories and revealing the work of women who have been left out of history, this book sets out to recover the lives and work of almost seventy women editors. It challenges the received wisdom those who edited Shakespeare’s texts were almost all men up until the late twentieth century. Its alternative perspective takes these women's work seriously in order to change our understanding of how Shakespeare’s works were edited and how we read Shakespeare across time.
Family, slavery and love in the early American republic: the essays of Jan Ellen Lewis. Edited by Barry Bienstock, Annette Gordon-Reed, and Peter Onuf.
Williamsburg, Virginia : The Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture ; Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 2021. British Library shelfmark YC.2023.a.455
Title page of Family, slavery and love in the early American republic: the essays of Jan Ellen Lewis. YC.2023.a.455
Historian Jan Ellen Lewis, who died in 2018, taught at Rutgers University-Newark for over four decades. Her studies of gender, emotions, and the family transformed understandings of the early American republic. She was a renowned scholar of colonial and early national history, focusing on the intersections between gender, race and politics. She was also known for championing the career progress of students and colleagues. This collection, brought together by her husband Barry Bienstock, along with colleagues Annette Gordon-Reed and Peter Onuf, contains thirteen of her most important essays, along with critical interpretation and contextual discussion by fellow historians.
The ten books picked out here - just a few of the diverse approaches to women's history - also have in common the fact that they were received by the Library under Legal Deposit. This is the requirement that publishers should deposit a copy of each book published or distributed in the United Kingdom or in the Republic of Ireland with the British Library, and it remains a key means through which the Library builds its collections. Just over half of the books received each year under Legal Deposit come into the Library in print, whilst slightly less than half are received in electronic format. Our contemporary printed collections are also built through purchase and donation. The Library is still able to receive Legal Deposit copies in print format. Electronic deposit is yet to be restored but has been identified as a priority.
Social Science blog recent posts
- Unlocking Hidden Collections: unveiling the past through trade literature
- Researching the welfare state
- Hakim Adi: three decades (and counting) of reclaiming the historical narrative
- Pride beyond June: readings in LGBT+ history, culture and theory
- Researching social work in the Social Sciences Reading Room.
- Consulting Official Publications collections after the cyber attack.
- Finding Women's Studies on the shelves: an international turn
- 'Women are up to something': selected readings for Women's History Month 2024
- Historical census publications of Africa, the West Indies, and Pacific Islands: 'Unlocking our Hidden Collections'
- Animals and social justice: readings on animals in literature
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