scholarly journals Citizenship, Vulnerability and Mental Incapacity in England, 1900–1960s

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 270-290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Weston

Over the twentieth century, the Lunacy Office (renamed the Court of Protection in 1947) was responsible for appointing ‘receivers’ to manage the property of adults in England who were found incapable of managing their own affairs. Tens of thousands of people were in this position by the 1920s, and numbers continued to grow until after Second World War. This article uses the archives of the Office to examine the evolution of the concept of mental incapacity over the first half of the twentieth century, offering a corrective to the popular impression that the time before the Mental Capacity Act of 2005 was an era of ignorance and bad practice. It examines the changing ways in which being ‘incapable’ was understood and described, with particular reference to shifting ideas of citizenship. I argue that incapacity was not always seen as absolute or permanent in the first half of the century, that models of incapacity began to include perceived vulnerability in the interwar period and that women in particular were seen in this way. From the 1940s, though, the profile of those found incapable was changing, and the growing welfare state and its principles of employment and universality saw the idea of incapacity narrowing and solidifying around knowledge deficits, especially among the elderly. This brings the history of the Lunacy Office into the twentieth century and connects it to current concerns around assessments of mental capacity today.

Author(s):  
Carlo Ghezzi

The history of Computer Science and Engineering (Informatics) began internationally after the Second World War. In the last decade of the twentieth century it bacame one of the disciplines with highest impact on economy, industry, and society. The development of Informatics at Politecnico started when the first computer was brought to Italy from the USA by Prof. Luigi Dadda and the first experiments and investigations were launched. Since then Informatics has been continuously growing until today it became the engine of modern society, often called the Information Society. This paper reports on the main developments of Informatics at Politecnico and the main contributions achieved nationally and internationally in education and research.


2017 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 491-518
Author(s):  
Bianca Gaudenzi ◽  
Astrid Swenson

Introducing the Journal of Contemporary History Special Issue ‘The Restitution of Looted Art in the 20th Century’, this article proposes a framework for writing the history of looting and restitution in transnational and global perspective. By comparing and contextualizing instances of looting and restitution in different geographical and temporal contexts, it aims to overcome existing historiographical fragmentations and move past the overwhelming focus on the specificities of Nazi looting through an extended timeframe that inserts the Second World War into a longer perspective from the nineteenth century up to present day restitution practices. Particular emphasis is put on the interlinked histories of denazification and decolonization. Problematizing existing analytical, chronological and geographical frameworks, the article suggests how a combination of comparative, entangled and global history approaches can open up promising new avenues of research. It draws out similarities, differences and connections between processes of looting and restitution in order to discuss the extent to which looting and restitution were shaped by – and shaped – changing global networks.


2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 761-774
Author(s):  
Izabella Sariusz-Skąpska

By appearance it would seem that Rodziny Katyńskie—the Katyń Families—are a veterans’ organization. The elderly, the last witnesses of the terrible Second World War, make up the majority of members. But these are not heroes, and they are not veterans. Who are they? In the first days after Poland regained its independence, after the first free elections of 4 June 1989, people from many cities leave the quiet of their homes and for the first time in their lives start talking about the history of their fathers, who had gone missing after 17 September 1939. The Katyń Families were formed. Statutes were written, and the aims of the organization were defined: explaining all of the circumstances of the Katyń Massacres, finding all of the locations where Polish prisoners of war died, and, finally, accomplishing their dignified burial in Polish War Cemeteries.


Author(s):  
Francisco Sáez de Adana Herrero

This article analyses the Manhattan Project comic-book series, which recounts an alternative ending to the Second World War, where the Manhattan Project hides another mission more closely related to science fiction. Here we discuss how the concept of the so-called «imaginary life», a term coined by Marcel Schwob, has been applied to the history of science in the twentieth century.


Scott Lithgow ◽  
2005 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Lewis Johnman ◽  
Hugh Murphy

This initial chapter outlines the founding of the Scotts Shipyard of Greenock in 1711, and follows the history of the company through to the end of the Second World War. It documents the company’s major accomplishments, business developments, finances, ownerships, and technical developments throughout the period before the postwar expansion. Events considered include the 1794 construction of the timber vessel, Caledonia, the largest Scottish vessel of the period; an association with the Admiralty; links with Liverpool shipyards; trade links with China and Hong Kong; the quick transition to steam technology; naval contracts; the twentieth century increase in naval demand; and secretive membership in the ‘Warship Group’ of private shipbuilders - a ring that aimed to protect prices from competition. The chapter concludes in 1945, noting that though the forward-thinking Scotts took advantage of wartime inflation and a boom in ship prices for financial stability, no one could predict the size of the postwar maritime expansion that would follow.


2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 566-585
Author(s):  
Gábor Győrffy ◽  
Zoltán Tibori-Szabó ◽  
Júlia-Réka Vallasek

Sabbatarians were the only proselyte religious community that had an official institutional form in nineteenth-century Europe. This study aims to present the history and gradual disintegration of the Sabbatarian community and their acceptance of a common fate with Transylvanian Jewry during the Second World War. This is realized by, first, outlining the historical context of the formation of Sabbatarianism; second, by describing the social and political circumstances of Transylvanian Jews in the first half of the twentieth century; and third, by giving a detailed presentation of the 1944 deportations and other related events.


Author(s):  
Tamara Nikolchenko ◽  
◽  
Maria Nikolchenko ◽  

The article covers the complex processes of folk art during the Second World War, in particular slave poetry. In times of war, the creation of folk poetry is intensified, which is caused by the need to respond to events, to record them, above all, in memory. These song responses to events take place on the material of "old" samples of poetry that are already known. And «innovations» are used by participants of events and are saturated with new realities. Such is the folk song of the period of fascist captivity during the Second World War. The genesis of the poetry of captivity of the studied period can be traced on a large factual material, it is proved that genetically slave poetry of the period of the Second World War is connected with the cries of slaves and has its roots in the long history of Ukraine. These motives are still heard in the old Cossack thoughts, in which the lamentation gradually turns into a lyrical song. And during the war troubles of the twentieth century, these songs became relevant and sounded in a modern way. The article analyzes recordings of songs that reflect the grief of young girls taken to forced labor in Germany, the suffering of mothers who lose their children. Most of the analyzed works are stored in the funds of the IMFE of Ukraine, as well as in the own records of the authors of the article. The folklore of captivity, according to the authors of the article, fully reflects the deep universal feelings. It is the basis of artistic culture, because the socio-pragmatic world is conditioned by spiritual ideas about its integrity and ideals. The folklore of captivity, according to the authors of the article, fully reflects the deep universal feelings. It is the basis of artistic culture, because the socio-pragmatic world is conditioned by spiritual ideas about its integrity and ideals.


Author(s):  
Margo de Koster ◽  
Herbert Reinke

This essay seeks to broaden the discussion of the policing of minorities to situate it within its longer history of the policing of migrants. Since theancien régime, the explicit endeavor to control migrants has been a major driving force behind the development of modern policing and the professionalization of police practices. This essay charts how, from the sixteenth century onward, the movements of migrants and traveling groups were increasingly controlled through vagrancy regulation, poor laws, and the creation of specialized policing agencies and techniques. It also considers the realities of policing and repression of vagrancy in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Europe, showing how the intensity of repression varied considerably. Finally, the essay discusses minority policing and the recruitment of minorities into the police during the post–Second World War period.


Author(s):  
Kirsten Leng

The Conclusion accounts for the fate of the women whose ideas are examined in this book, and takes stock of the legacies of their sexological work. It further lays out the benefits of pursuing a larger twentieth century history of women’s sexological work, one that is international in its scope and grapples with the rupture in female sexual knowledge production affected by the Second World War and its geopolitical realignments, the reshuffling of the ideological landscapes after 1945, and the rise of new social movements in the 1960s. Finally, the Conclusion argues that the history of women’s sexological work is especially significant at this particular moment in time, as twenty-first century feminist theorists positively embrace science and nature as intellectual and rhetorical resources once again.


Urban History ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 388-409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter J. Larkham

There are well-known reconstruction plans for various UK cities produced during and after the Second World War, but little attention has been paid to those towns suffering little damage, or whose plans were not drawn up by the usual eminent consultants. This paper explores the process of preparing such a plan for Wolverhampton, in the English West Midlands. Here, a ‘technocentric’ plan is evident, typical of the 1940s reconstruction plans, but one with roots stretching back a decade into the middle 1930s; one whose key impetus was the Borough Surveyor, but which was prepared for a major programme of public involvement and consultation. Although this plan was not carried out in this form, it set the agenda for the next forty years of development in planning thought and in changing urban form. It was pivotal in the history of the town and its restructuring from the middle of the twentieth century.


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