The vibrant Irish public house of the nineteenth century hosted broad networks of social power, enabling publicans and patrons to disseminate tremendous influence across Ireland and beyond. During the period, affluent publicans coalesced into one of the most powerful and sophisticated forces in Irish parliamentary politics. Among the leading figures of public life, they commanded an unmatched economic route to middle-class prosperity, inserted themselves into the centre of crucial legislative debates, and took part in fomenting the issues of class, gender, and national identity which continue to be contested today. From the other side of the bar, regular patrons relied on this social institution to construct, manage and spread their various social and political causes. From Daniel O'Connell to the Guinness dynasty, from the Acts of Union to the Great Famine, and from Christmas boxes to Fenianism; Bradley Kadel offers a first and much-needed scholarly examination of the 'incendiary politics of the pub' in nineteenth-century Ireland.

Bradshaw (clinical practice, Oxford Brookes U.) describes the British apprenticeship model of nurse training, from its inception at St. Thomas's Hospital in 1860 until its ending in 1977 with the publication of the last national syllabus from the General Nursing Council for England and Wales. A sampling of topics includes the principles of apprenticeship described in Florence Nightingale's writings, an analysis of nursing textbooks, Parliamentary debates about nursing, the American influence on the British nursing tradition, and the process which led to the professional consensus on apprenticeship breaking. c. Book News Inc.

The criminal class was seen as a violent, immoral and dissolute sub-section of Victorian London's population. Making their living through crime and openly hostile to society, the lives of these criminals were characterised by drunkenness, theft and brutality. This book explores whether this criminal class did indeed truly exist, and the effectivenessof measures brought against it. Tracing the notion of the criminal class from as early as the 16th century, this book questions whether this sub-section of society did indeed exist. Bach discusses how unease of London's notorious rookeries, the frenzy of media attention and a [word deleted here] panic among the general public enforced and encouraged the fear of the 'criminal class' and perpetuated state efforts of social control. Using the Habitual Criminals Bills, this book explores how and why this legislation was introduced to deal with repeat offenders, and assesses how successful its repressive measures were. Demonstrating how the Metropolitan Police Force and London's Magistrates were not always willing tools of the British state, this book uses court records and private correspondence to reveal how inconsistent and unsuccessful many of these measures and punishments were, and calls into question the notion that the state gained control over recidivists in this period.