Brian Lavery, the pre-eminent historian of the Royal Navy, returns with the third volume of his engaging social history of the Royal Navy's 'lower deck'--the world of the seamen as distinct from the officers of the 'quarterdeck.' He examines the world of the sailor from the outbreak of war in 1939 through 70 years of change up to his place in the modern Royal Navy. The author illuminates the inherent adaptability of the professional sailor, as new technologies demanded increased professionalism, specialization and training. He also focuses on the changing social structure of the Navy, and the periods of expansion as the service coped with great demands made through two World Wars and innumerable other conflicts across the globe.

Brian Lavery, the pre-eminent historian of the Royal Navy, returns with the third volume of his engaging social history of the Royal Navy's 'lower deck' – the world of the seamen as distinct from the officers of the 'quarterdeck'. Lavery examines the world of the sailor from the outbreak of war in 1939 through 70 years of change up to his place in the modern Royal Navy. As new technologies demanded increased professionalism, specialisation and training, the inherent adaptability of the professional sailor is clearly demonstrated. The book also focuses on the changing social structure of the Navy, and the periods of expansion as the service coped with the great demands made through two World Wars and innumerable other conflicts across the globe.

Brian Lavery returns with the second volume of his engaging social history of the Royal Navy's 'lower deck.' Able Seamen addresses a range of issues central to the evolution of the seaman through 89 years of change. Readable, engaging and authoritative, it chronicles an important stage in the history of the Royal Navy and illuminates the inherent adaptability of the lower deck, as new technologies demanded increased professionalism, specialization, and training. The book also examines the changing social structure of the Navy, and the great demands made on the Service throughout the British Empire.

This well-researched historical biography is the first on Dr. T. J. Macnamara, the first ex-elementary teacher to win a government post. Colleague and close friend of Lloyd George, and praised by Winston Churchill, Macnamara was an educationist, journalist and Cabinet Minister. This study of his life and career makes a major contribution to educational history as well as to the history of the Liberal Party, the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and British political history generally. Fascinating details of Macnamara’s pre-Parliamentary career are provided and, alongside the biographical account, the book deals with a range of major issues with which Macnamara was involved. In education, government control of school funding and the curriculum in the 1890s is considered together with the emergence of elementary school teachers as powerful public figures, the operation and decline of London’s first education system (the London School Board 1870–1904), and resistance (especially in Wales) to Balfour’s 1902 Education Act. Defense issues feature: a view of the First World War arms race from inside the Admiralty; the Admiralty during the First World War from the standpoint of the only government minister who held the same office throughout the hostilities, working with, among others, Churchill and Balfour. Macnamara’s establishment of the dole on response to the post-war economic slump, 1920–22, is also considered. Important analysis is included of the fragmentation of the Liberal Party in the 1920s, leaving Macnamara as one of the last of Lloyd George’s supporters.

From the 1930s to the 1950s a large number of left-wing men and women in the USA, Britain, Europe, Australia and Canada were recruited to the Soviet intelligence services. They were amateurs and the reason for their success is intriguing. Using Soviet archives, this work explores these successes.

This collection of essays identifies a neglected but significant component of Britain's maritime and labour history, that of ethnic labour drawn from Britain's colonies in West Africa, the Middle East and Asia. The interdisciplinary nature of the volume raises a number of important issues: race and ethnicity, colonialism and migration, social class and the complex nature of racial hostility meted out by organized white labour.

This collection of essays, all published for the first time in English, provide a fresh look at the critical years of 1917-1920 when revolutionary activity and working-class unrest was rife in Europe. Written by leading authorities in the field, the collection gives wide European coverage, examining developments in the rural provinces and key cities of both Western and Central Europe in the period after the Great War. In-depth studies analyse the causes and extent of protest, the factors which contributed to its initial success and failure and the influence of the propertied classes and re-establishment of the old order. The introduction and conclusion draw the essays together, giving a clear account of the principal themes and establishing the comparative structure of the book. The essays provide major coverage of a crucial period of modern history and should raise many new questions about the events of those years.