DOCSLIB.ORG

AGRICULTURAL RENT in the EARLY VICTORIAN ERA By

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
AGRICULTURAL RENT in the EARLY VICTORIAN ERA By AGRICULTURAL RENT IN THE EARLY VICTORIAN ERA by Stephen Peplow A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in The Faculty of Graduate Studies (Integrated Studies in Land and Food Systems) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) October 2012 © Stephen Peplow, 2012 Abstract This thesis concerns the economic and political relationship between the English tenant farmer, his landowner, and his Member of Parliament during the period between 1830 and 1865. Profound social and economic changes took place in agriculture during this time, notably the enfranchisement of the tenant farmer (1832), the Repeal of the Corn Laws (1846), and the development of the railways from 1832 onwards. The tenant farmer was an important actor in all three changes, but his role has been overlooked. This thesis brings him into focus in three chapters, each dealing with the tenant-farmer within the rural economy. Chapter 1 introduces the research project, makes a clear statement of the goals of the research, and reviews some of the recent literature. Chapter 2 deals with the ways in which agricultural rents were set in the 1830s and estimates agricultural rents from two centuries ago, using observations for nearly six hundred parishes in the southwest of England. The finding is that rents were set closely with Ricardian Rent Theory. Chapter 3 measures the impact on agricultural rents of railway development. The railways were laid from 1832 onwards, and farmers used the railways to take their stock to market. This saved large amounts of money, primarily from reduced loss of condition compared to droving to market. The social savings were approximately 1.1 per cent of GDP, a considerable sum. The chapter ii shows that about one fifth of the wealth transfer resulted from cheaper transportation, while the other four-fifths resulted from productivity gains as farmers rearranged their output to take advantage of the railways. Chapter 4 measures the impact of the agricultural interest on the voting decisions of Member of Parliament during the Corn Laws crisis in 1846. This chapter shows that tenant farmers had a small but measureable influence on voting decisions. iii Table of contents Abstract ....................................................................................................... ii Table of contents ......................................................................................... iv List of tables ...............................................................................................vii List of figures .............................................................................................. ix Acknowledgements ....................................................................................... x Dedication................................................................................................... xi Chapter 1. Introduction ................................................................................. 1 Research goals .......................................................................................... 3 Outline of the chapters .............................................................................. 4 Chapter 2. Rent-setting in early Victorian Britain .......................................... 15 Agricultural production in the 1830s ....................................................... 20 Landowners and their tenants ................................................................. 28 The tithe system ...................................................................................... 33 Theory of rent setting .............................................................................. 35 Data and methods ................................................................................... 42 Empirical tests ........................................................................................ 52 Discussion .............................................................................................. 65 iv Conclusion .............................................................................................. 66 Chapter 3. The advent of rail and British agriculture ..................................... 68 The development of the railways .............................................................. 76 Railways and Ricardian Rent Theory ....................................................... 80 Methods and data ................................................................................... 84 Results: estimation for 1832-1865 ........................................................... 96 Valuation of the savings at the national level ......................................... 101 Discussion ............................................................................................ 109 Conclusion ............................................................................................ 114 Chapter 4. Constituency interests and the Corn Laws Crisis of 1846 ........... 117 Electoral competition ............................................................................. 121 Politics in the 1840s .............................................................................. 123 The politics of agricultural protection .................................................... 136 The farmer as political activist ............................................................... 138 The structure of agricultural production ................................................ 140 Political pressure and the MP ................................................................ 143 Statistical methodology ......................................................................... 146 Analysis ................................................................................................ 149 Discussion and conclusion .................................................................... 162 v Chapter 5. Conclusion ............................................................................... 163 Bibliography ............................................................................................... 167 Appendix: Data Sources .............................................................................. 191 vi List of tables Table 1. Tabulation by county of the parishes. .............................................. 44 Table 2. Comparison of parish data. .............................................................. 53 Table 3. Results for pastoral test. .................................................................. 55 Table 4. Reported grain yields regression. ...................................................... 57 Table 5. Arable rent regression. ..................................................................... 59 Table 6. Local R2 values by county. ............................................................... 62 Table 7. Estates and their lands. ................................................................... 89 Table 8. Rents of large estates and parishes 1836. ........................................ 92 Table 9. Rents and access to track. ............................................................... 98 Table 10. Comparing the 31 and 21 estates. ................................................ 101 Table 11. Social Savings 1865. .................................................................... 102 Table 12. Regional contributions. ................................................................ 107 Table 13. Contested elections by type. ......................................................... 122 Table 14. 1841 General Election Results. .................................................... 125 Table 15. Church attendances..................................................................... 128 Table 16. Repeal voting in 1846. ................................................................. 135 Table 17. Voting for Repeal.......................................................................... 153 Table 19. Summary statistics from by-elections. .......................................... 157 Table 20. Conservative voting on Repeal and re-election. ............................. 159 vii Table 21. Re-election in large boroughs ....................................................... 160 Table 22. 1847 results and incumbency. ..................................................... 161 viii List of figures Figure 1. Localized wheat volumes and the region of interest. ........................ 21 Figure 2. The parishes within the region of interest. ...................................... 24 Figure 3. Bid-rent curve for two crops ..................................................... 37 Figure 4. Coefficient of determination by parish. ........................................... 61 Figure 5. Holkham Hall's land and railway, 1865. ......................................... 87 Figure 6. The 31 estates with railways in 1840 and 1865. ............................. 91 Figure 7. Annual rent and distance to station 1832-1870. ............................. 93 Figure 8. Social savings as a share of GDP. ................................................. 106 Figure 9. Anglican attendances. .................................................................. 130 Figure 10. Inter-county wheatflows. ............................................................ 142 Figure 11. Opposition predicted probabilities. ............................................. 155 ix Acknowledgements I wish to especially acknowledge the support of my wife Mary and
Load more

Recommended publications
  • I the Apostle of Capitalism: the Economist from 1843-1863 A
    The Apostle of Capitalism: The Economist from 1843-1863 A Thesis Submitted to the College of Graduate Studies and Research in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Department of History University of Saskatchewan Carla Jeanine Fehr © Carla Jeanine Fehr, September 2009. All rights reserved. i PERMISSION TO USE In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Master’s of Arts Degree from the University of Saskatchewan, I agree that the Libraries of this University may make it freely available for inspection. I further agree that permission for copying of this thesis in any manner, in whole or in part, for scholarly purposes may be granted by the professor or professors who supervised my thesis work or, in their absence, by the Head of the Department of History. It is understood that any copying or publication or use of this thesis or parts thereof for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. It is also understood that due recognition shall be given to me and to the University of Saskatchewan in any scholarly use which may be made of any material in my thesis. Requests for permission to copy or to make other use of material in this thesis in whole or in part should be addressed to: Head of the Department of History University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5A5 Canada i ABSTRACT For over 160 years, The Economist newspaper has been one of the most influential, sophisticated, and effective proponents of capitalism. It has consistently championed and conveyed a form of ‘humanitarian political economy’ to its weekly, global audience of professionals and business and government leaders.
    [Show full text]
  • Patrick John Cosgrove
    i o- 1 n wm S3V NUI MAYNOOTH Ollfctel na t-Ciraann W* huatl THE WYNDHAM LAND ACT, 1903: THE FINAL SOLUTION TO THE IRISH LAND QUESTION? by PATRICK JOHN COSGROVE THESIS FOR THE DEGREE OF PHD DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND MAYNOOTH HEAD OF DEPARTMENT: Professor R. V. Comerford Supervisor of Research: Dr Terence Dooley September 2008 Contents Acknowledgements Abbreviations INTRODUCTION CHAPTER ONE: THE ORIGINS OF THE WYNDHAM LAND BILL, 1903. i. Introduction. ii. T. W. Russell at Clogher, Co. Tyrone, September 1900. iii. The official launch of the compulsory purchase campaign in Ulster. iv. The Ulster Farmers’ and Labourers’ Union and Compulsory Sale Organisation. v. Official launch of the U.I.L. campaign for compulsory purchase. vi. The East Down by-election, 1902. vii. The response to the 1902 land bill. viii. The Land Conference, ix. Conclusion. CHAPTER TWO: INITIAL REACTIONS TO THE 1903 LAND BILL. i. Introduction. ii. The response of the Conservative party. iii. The response of the Liberal opposition to the bill. iv. Nationalist reaction to the bill. v. Unionist reaction to the bill. vi. The attitude of Irish landlords. vii. George Wyndham’s struggle to get the bill to the committee stage. viii. Conclusion. CHAPTER THREE: THE PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES THAT FORGED THE WYNDHAM LAND ACT, 1903. i. Introduction. ii. The Estates Commission. iii. The system of price‘zones’. iv. The ‘bonus’ and the financial clauses of Wyndham’s Land Bill. v. Advances to tenant-purchasers. vi. Sale and repurchase of demesnes. vii. The evicted tenants question. viii. The retention of sporting and mineral rights.
    [Show full text]
  • 222 1 Remembering the Famine
    NOTES 1 Remembering the Famine 1. Speech by the Minister of State, Avril Doyle TD, Famine Commemoration Programme, 27 June 1995. 2. The text of a message from the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, delivered by Britain’s Ambassador to the Republic of Ireland, Veronica Sutherland, on Saturday 31 May 1997 at the Great Irish Famine Event, in Cork (British Information Services, 212). 3. Irish News, 4 February 1997. 4. The designation of the event is contested; some nationalists find the use of the word ‘famine’ offensive and inappropriate given the large amounts of food exported from Ireland. For more on the debate, see Kinealy, A Death-Dealing Famine: The Great Hunger in Ireland (Pluto Press, 1997), Chapter 1. 5. The Irish Times, 3 June 1995. 6. The most influential work which laid the ground for much subsequent revisionist writing was R. D. Crotty, Irish Agricultural Production (Cork University Press, 1996). 7. The most polished and widely read exposition of the revisionist interpretation was provided in Roy Foster, Modern Ireland, 1600–1972 (London, 1988). 8. Roy Foster, ‘We are all Revisionists Now’, in Irish Review (Cork, 1986), pp. 1–6. 9. Professor Seamus Metress, The Irish People, 10 January 1996. Similar arguments have also been expressed by Professor Brendan Bradshaw of Cambridge Univer- sity, a consistent – but isolated – opponent of revisionist interpretation. See, for example, Irish Historical Studies, xxvi: 104 (November 1989), pp. 329–51. 10. Christine Kinealy, ‘Beyond Revisionism’, in History Ireland: Reassessing the Irish Famine (Winter 1995). 11. For more on this episode, see Cormac Ó Gráda, ‘Making History in Ireland in the 1940s and 1950s: The Saga of the Great Famine’, in The Irish Review (1992), pp.
    [Show full text]
  • The Irish National Land League 1879-1881
    THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY bis 3Vr '4 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013 http://archive.org/details/irishnationallanOOjenn THE IRISH NATIONAL LAND LEAGUE 1879 - 1881 BV WALTER WILSON JENNINGS THESIS FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARTS IN HISTORY COLLEGE OF LIBERAL A UTS AND SCIENCES UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 1915 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 191 THIS IS TO CERTIFY THAT THE THESIS PREPARED UNDER MY SUPERVISION BY ENTITLED IS APPROVED BY ME AS FULFILLING THIS PART OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF i.c^^^. ^ £. Instructor in Charge APPROVED: HEAD OF DEPARTMENT OF TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I Historical Sketch - the Remote Background: Elizabeth's system of colonization - Sir Charles Coote - Cromwell - Charles II - William III - Condi- tions in Ireland - Famine of 1847 and 1848 - Land Act 1 CHAPTER II Certain Conditions in Ireland. 1879-1881: Geography of Ireland - Population - Occupations - Products - Famine of 1879 - Land owners and their power - Evictions - Proposed remedies - Actual emigra- tion - Charity - Help from the United States - Relief committees - Duchess of Marlborough's Fund - Mansion— 9 CHAPTER III Organization. Ob.iects. and Methods of the Land League: Founding of the League - Support - Leaders and members - Executive meetings - Objects - Parnell's early plan - MasB meetings - Navan - Gurteen - Balla - Irishtown - Keash - Ennis - Ballybricken - Feenagh - Dublin demonstration - Dungarven local convention - General convention at Dublin - Newspapers - Frustra- tion of sales - Reinstatements - Boycotting - Some 22 CHAPTER
    [Show full text]
  • Agrarian Reform in Eighteenth -Century Denmark
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Papers from the University Studies series (The University of Nebraska) University Studies of the University of Nebraska 1977 Agrarian Reform in Eighteenth -Century Denmark Lawrence J. Baack Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/univstudiespapers Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the University Studies of the University of Nebraska at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Papers from the University Studies series (The University of Nebraska) by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. new senes no. 56 University of Nebraska Studies 1977 Agrarian Reform in Eighteenth-Century Denmark The University of Nebraska The Board of Regents JAMES H. MOYLAN ROBERT L. RAUN chairman EDWARD SCHWARTZKOPF CHRISTINE L. BAKER STEVEN E. SHOVERS KERMIT HANSEN ROBERT G. SIMMONS, JR. ROBERT R. KOEFOOT, M.D. KERMIT WAGNER WILLIAM J. MUELLER WILLIAM F. SWANSON ROBERT J. PROKOP, M.D. corporation secretary The President RONALD W. ROSKENS The Chancellor, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Roy A. YOUNG Committee on Scholarly Publications GERALD THOMPSON DAVID H. GILBERT chairman executive secretary JAMES HASSLER KENNETH PREUSS HENRY F. HOLTZCLAW ROYCE RONNING ROBERT KNOLL Lawrence J. Baack Agrarian Reform in Eighteenth-Century Denmark university of nebraska studies : new series no. 56 published by the university at lincoln: 1977 For my mother. Frieda Baack Copyright © 1977 by the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 77-78548 UN ISSN 0077-6386 Manufactured in the United States of America Contents Preface vii Agrarian Reform in Eighteenth-Century Denmark 1 Notes 29 Acknowledgments 45 Preface AGRARIAN REFORM can be one of the most complex tasks of gov­ ernment.
    [Show full text]
  • Tenant-Right in Nineteenth-Century Ireland Author(S): Timothy W
    Economic History Association Bonds without Bondsmen: Tenant-Right in Nineteenth-Century Ireland Author(s): Timothy W. Guinnane and Ronald I. Miller Source: The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 56, No. 1 (Mar., 1996), pp. 113-142 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Economic History Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2124021 Accessed: 01/11/2010 12:25 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cup. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Cambridge University Press and Economic History Association are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of Economic History.
    [Show full text]
  • Free Land and Peasant Proprietorship
    The Nineteenth Century, Volume 7. February, 1880 page 297 FREE LAND AND PEASANT PROPRIETORSHIP. Arthur Arnold. • We are on the threshold, as I believe and hope, of great changes in agriculture. The labourer is urging his claim for increased, or at least for undiminished wages; the farmer is embarrassed, and, in the corngrowing districts, is pinched by this pressure on the part of labour and by the low price of corn; the landlord, often with only a narrow margin of income after satisfying the incumbering charges upon his inalienable patrimony, is at his wits' end how to deal with entreaties for reduction of rent at a time when the cost of fashionable existence shows no sign of abatement. The agricultural labourer withholds his strength. An employer writes: 'I have known labourers decline to hoe turnips on piece-work, by which they might earn 48. a day, preferring to receive 2«. 6d. per day, and to limit the amount of work done.' The farmer is less careful in his cultivation. A farmer has stated that weeds have been allowed to get such hold upon the land that an outlay of 10,000,000l. would not suffice to bring back the higher cultivation which existed three or four years ago; and another, also in a letter to the Times, dealing with the same subject— the increasing impoverishment of corn land—declares that 'it is well known among farmers and agricultural valuers that there are hundreds of thousands of acres of land in this country which, even if prices and seasons were favourable, are not worth so much for occupation by fifty per cent, as they were a few years ago, because labour has been stinted.' The landlord, too, has not been backward in contributing to the decline of British agriculture.
    [Show full text]
  • The Irish Potato Famine
    TEACHING HUMAN DIGNITY The Irish Potato Famine AN EXPERT GUIDE BY CLARE KILBANE Where higher learning meets faithful service. Clare Kilbane serves as a Professor of the Practice for the McGrath Institute for Church Life. There she serves as the Senior Learning Designer and Academic Director for STEP (the Satellite Theological Education Program) Clare completed a B.S. in Elementary Education at the University of Dayton an M.A. in Instructional Design and Technology from The Ohio State University and a Ph.D. in Educational Evaluation from the University of Virginia. Clare has published widely in the field of education. She is a versatile scholar who has authored many videos and multimedia products, as well as over 30 articles, book chapters, papers, and reviews. The most recent of her seven books include Teaching Models: Designing Instruction for 21st Century Learners (with Natalie Milman, George Washington University) for Allyn & Bacon / Pearson in 2013 and The 4C's: Understanding 21st Century Skills in the Light of Faith for the National Catholic Educational Association in 2018. Copyright © 2020 McGrath Institute for Church Life, University of Notre Dame. Content created by Clare Kilbane. Table of Contents The Potato, Blight, and Famine .............................................................................................4 Life of the Irish Before 1845 ..................................................................................................5 The Social, Economic, and Political Conditions ....................................................................8
    [Show full text]
  • National Grasslands Management a Primer
    NATIONAL GRASSLANDS MANAGEMENT A PRIMER Appendix H 75th Congress HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Report 1st Session } { No.1198 BANKHEAD-JONES FARM TENANT ACT1 JULY 12, 1937 Ordered to be printed Mr. JONES, from the committee of conference, submitted the following CONFERENCE REPORT [To accompany H. R. 7562] The committee of conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses on the amendment of the Senate to the bill (H. R. 7562) to encourage and promote the ownership of farm homes and to make the possession of such homes more secure, to provide for the general welfare of the United States, to provide additional credit facilities for agricultural development, and for other purposes, having met, after full and free conference, have agreed to recommend and do recommend to their respective Houses as follows: In lieu of the matter proposed to be inserted by the Senate amendment insert the following: That this Act may be cited as “The Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act”. TITLE I FARM TENANT PROVISIONS POWER OF SECRETARY SECTION 1. (a) The Secretary of Agriculture (hereinafter referred to as the “Secretary”) is authorized to make loans in the United States and in the Territories of Alaska and Hawaii and in Puerto Rico to persons eligible to receive the benefits of this title to enable such persons to acquire farms. (b) Only farm tenants, farm laborers, share croppers, and other individuals who obtain, or who recently obtained, the major portion of their income from farming operations shall be eligible to receive the benefits of this title. In making available the benefits of this title, the Secretary shall give preference to persons who are married, or who have dependent families, or wherever practicable, to persons who are able to make an initial down payment, or who are owners of livestock and farm implements necessary successfully to carry on farming operations.
    [Show full text]
  • The Origins and Development of Oklahoma Tenant
    THE ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT OF OKLAHOMA TENANT FARMING, 1890-1940 By KURT ANDREW LIVELY Bachelor of Arts Northwestern Oklahoma State University Alva, Oklahoma 2002 Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate College of the Oklahoma State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS July 2004 THE ORIGINS AND DEVELOPlvtENT OF OKLAHOMA TENANT FARMING, 1890-1940 Thesis Approved: 11 Preface Though Oklahoma has historically been one of the most identifiable states with rural communities, its tenant society has been largely forgotten, especially before 1930. This interesting phenomenon developed because of the perception of pre-World War II Oklahoma is based on the novel and movie The Grapes of Wrath. Though Steinbeck put in a great deal of research and interviews with Okie and Arkie migrants, he had never been to Oklahoma when he wrote his book. Therefore, the American public is influenced about the ideas of Oklahoma by a man who was not even familiar with the way that tenants actually lived. The primary motivation for this study is to look at the three basic phases of Oklahoma tenancy and show the evolution from a communal ownership to an exact opposite form of land ownership where the wealthy owned the land in only fifty years time. In the first phase, 1890-191 O, I will examine the origins of the Oklahoma system and why it is unique. Growing from a much different tradition than the Southern tenant system, Oklahoma tenancy was born from a system of the exploitation of the legal system and the dispossessing of the Native Americans and their previously communal homelands.
    [Show full text]
  • National University of Ireland St Patrick's College, Maynooth
    I jo. i ^ . o National University of Ireland St Patrick's College, Maynooth Background to the murder of Major Denis Mahon, Strokestown Park, County Roscommon on 2 November, 1847. by Olivia Me Cormack Thesis presented to the Department of Modem History, St. Patrick's College, Maynooth. in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of M.A., (Mode II) August, 1994. Supervisor of Research: Professor R.V. Comerford. Table of Contents Page e • Acknowledgements 11 Abbreviations Introduction iv Chapter One: The Methods of Management in 1 the Mahon Estate. Chapter Two: The Hidden Agenda of Landed 14 Proprietors. Chapter Three: Strokestown's Assisted Emigration 24 Plan. Chapter Four: The Murder of Major Mahon and its 36 Aftermath. Conclusion 46 Bibliography 49 i Acknowledgements This thesis is a product of sustained interest in the restoration of Strokestown Park. The interest was inspired by my parents and supported by my whole family. I would like to thank the History Department and especially Professor Comerford for the opportunity to pursue this topic and his consistent encouragement. The staff of the National Library and Strokestown Park must be commended for their patience and affability. I would especially like to thank my brother Alan for his diligent work and advice in the presentation of this thesis. Olivia Me Cormack, August, 1994. Abbreviations N.H.I., V. W.E. Vaughan (ed.) A New History of Ireland vol.v: Ireland under the Union 1801-70 (Oxford 1989) N.L. National Library of Ireland P.M. Pakenham - Mahon papers I.E.S.H. Irish Economic and Social History Journal S.P.
    [Show full text]
  • Place, Trauma and Identity in the Irish Nationalism of John Mitchel G
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by MURAL - Maynooth University Research Archive Library Political Geography 20 (2001) 885–911 www.politicalgeography.com “Educate that holy hatred”: place, trauma and identity in the Irish nationalism of John Mitchel G. Kearns Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EN, UK Abstract Many anti-colonial nationalisms incorporate a historical justification for independence. In the case of Irish nationalism, this historical argument has often drawn attention to traumatic historical events of conquest and famine. These traumas are blamed on the English colonisers. In this article, I explore some of the consequences of this particular way of tying together place and history in the service of nationalism. I argue that it can serve to deflect nationalists from detailed consideration of alternative futures towards a purely manichean critique of the past. 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Nationalism; John Mitchel; Ireland; Irish Famine; Colonialism; Trauma People, land and history in nationalist identities Among other things identities can interpellate (Althusser, 1971) people as mem- bers of a political community. They help define a group characterised by mutual obligations and rights. Identities help justify the limits of civil society. Nationalism is one form in which these identities are often expressed. The nation defines a people. When used to denote a political community, nationalism easily becomes a plea for statehood on the part of the people it defines. This conflation of nation and state was an axiom of the League of Nations (Heffernan, 1998; Shaw, 1998) and bedevils much theoretical work on nations and states.
    [Show full text]