Employing the first analysis of the entire population of any British town, this book examines how overseas migrants affected society and culture in South Shields near Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Resituating Britain within global processes of migration and cultural change, it recasts British society pre-1940 as culturally and racially dynamic and diverse.

This volume explores the possibilities of studying embodied subjects in the past through the sources and approaches of archaeology, history and material culture studies. It draws on collections of human remains, material culture and documentary evidence from Britain during the period 1700–1850, considering the themes of gender, rank, age, disability and maternity. Each chapter looks at the lived experiences of the material body, bringing together disciplines that share an interest in the material or embodied turn. Combining archaeological and historical data to reconstruct embodied experiences, the volume represents the first collection of genuinely collaborative scholarship by historians and archaeologists.