Public Life and Public Lives: Essays in Honour of Richard W. Davis

Richard W. Davis, a self–described political historian, devoted his career to understanding, in his own words, the play of power and influence and how they are mobilized to get things done . The central question he asked and those repeated by the contributors in this volume to honour him are straightforward: how did individuals envision the public good in modern Britain and how, through religious and moral beliefs, coupled with wisdom and political savvy, could they improve the public good through the ever–changing 19th century political institutions? The essays in this volume range from studies of local electoral politics and parliamentary reform campaign to national political party organization, high politics and the role religion and empire played in the creation of national policy. They also examine the influence of individuals on the political process through their professional work in historical and philosophical writing, journalism and missionary work at home and abroad. They bring new original research in the area of modern British political history together in Parliamentary History.

Preface.

List of Contributors.

Acknowledgments.

Bibliography of the Publications of Richard W. Davis compiled by Nancy LoPatin–Lummis.

A Public Life: Richard W. Davis, Historian, Mentor and Gentleman: Nancy LoPatin–Lummis (University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point).

Introduction: Nancy LoPatin–Lummis (University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point).

Section I: Public Life:.

1. Managers and Agents: Conservative Party Organisation in the 1850s: Edwin Jaggard.

2. Underhand Dealings with the Papal Authorities : Disraeli and the Liberal Conspiracy to Disestablish the Irish Church: Padraic C. Kennedy (York College of Pennsylvania).

3. A Usable Past: History and the Politics of National Identity in Late Victorian England: Richard A. Cosgrove (University of Arizona).

4. T.H. Green and the Dissidence of Dissent: On Religion and National Character in Nineteenth–Century England: Denys P. Leighton (Tulane University).

5. Een–Gonyama Gonyama!: Zulu Origins of the Boy Scout Movement and the Africanisation of Imperial Britain: Timothy Parsons (Washington University).

6. The Cow is Still the Most Important Figure in Indian Politics! : Religion, Imperial Culture and the Shaping of Indian Political Reform in the 1930s: Andrew Muldoon (Metropolitan State College of Denver).

Section II: Public Lives:.

7. Sir John Coxe Hippisley: That Busy Man in the Cause of Catholic Emancipation: Susan Mitchell Sommers (St Vincent College, Latrobe).

8. With All My Oldest and Native Friends . Joseph Parkes: Warwickshire Solicitor and Electoral Agent in the Age of Reform: Nancy LoPatin–Lummis (University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point).

9. Meddling with Politics : The Political Role of Foreign Missions in the Early Nineteenth Century: Michael A. Rutz (University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh).

10. After Emancipation: Thomas Fowell Buxton and Evangelical Politics in the 1830s: Richard R. Follett (Covenant College).

11. A Provincial Minister in Politics: Henry W. Crosskey: R.K. Webb (University of Maryland).

12. The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Episcopal Bench, and the Passage of the 1911 Parliament Act: Derek W. Blakeley (McNeese State University).

13. Political Ideas and Audiences: The Case of Arthur Bryant and the Illustrated London News, 1936 1945: Reba N. Soffer (California State University).

Index

Nancy LoPatin–Lummis is Professor of Modern British History at University of Wiscsonsin–Stevens Point. She has published Political Unions, Popular Politics and the Great Reform Act of 1832 (1999), is co–general editor of Lives of Victorian Political Figures Series and articles on parliamentary and popular political history in Journal of British Studies, Parliamentary History, Journal of Victorian Culture, Midland History and other journals. She received her PhD from Washington University in St Louis in 1988 and was a student of Richard W. Davis.

The thirteen essays in the volume, written by former graduate students and colleagues, range widely in time, space, and subject matter, yet they collectively address issues of political biography, the role of ideas in politics, the nature of British electoral politics, and the constitutional position of the House of Lords, which have preoccupied Davis throughout his career. ( History: Reviews of New Books, Winter 2009)