http://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/2701 2026-04-21T10:04:25Z 2026-04-21T10:04:25Z Thomas, Craig Scott http://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/6741 2026-04-17T13:57:06Z 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Peer power : the 5th Duke of Buccleuch, land, industry and paternalism, c.1820-c.1884 Authors: Thomas, Craig Scott Abstract: This thesis investigates the understudied Buccleuch estates and their industrial context during the dukedom of the 5th Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry (1820-1884). It sets out the first industrial history of the Scottish estates, examining the evolution of trade unionism and its relation to the customary paternalism of the aristocracy which underwent a resurgence during the lifetime of the 5th Duke. It also lays out the political landscape within which the Duke operated and effectively controlled as the de-facto leader of the Conservative Party in Scotland during a tumultuous time for the party. Finally, it examines the religious history of the estates of one of the biggest private landowners in Scotland and the impact of the conversion of his wife, Duchess Charlotte Anne to Catholicism at a time of significant religious disruption in Scotland. This thesis unpacks a crucial period in Scottish history, when the country was undergoing significant social and economic change and explores the role played by the traditional (and in Scotland, exceptionally powerful) landed aristocracy. The weight of historiography has always underpinned analysis and understandings of the Highlands of Scotland: the Lowlands lack in-depth historical analysis. This allows this thesis to contribute to giving an overall picture of how Scotland developed during the Victorian period with one of the most important and notable members of the British aristocracy playing a central role. Description: PhD Thesis

2025-01-01T00:00:00Z Xu, Yier http://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/6708 2026-03-27T14:51:01Z 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Who is the Modern Citizen: Diseases, Professions, and Identities in Guangxi and beyond, 1920 to 1950 Authors: Xu, Yier Abstract: This dissertation studies how the discourse of citizenship became a tool for governance in the Republican era under public health regimes by examining the conceptualisation of disease and the development of medical professions in the 1930s and 1940s in Guangxi and beyond. From the late 1920s, the GMD government promoted an ideal citizenry based on the discourse of hygiene, patriotism and moral codes. The Guangxi government incorporated this ideal into strategies to prevent malaria, cholera and leprosy. It relied on the authority of science to justify the new ideas about the aetiology and methods for disease prevention. Through the creation of health regimes, disease prevention and staying healthy became obligations of citizens. This discourse of citizenship pushed patients to the margin. The experience of leprosy patients was an example. The patients used the same discourse to eliminate stigmas, yet its impact was limited. On the other hand, patients with neurasthenia not only avoided being implicitly marginalised, but also created modern identities for themselves. Political elites played an important role in making the discourse of neurasthenia a powerful tool to create a modern identity. Medical professionals also benefited from the discourse of citizenship. The medical practitioners in Guangxi improved their social status and established their professionalism by working with the government and demonstrating their patriotism, responsibility to society and advocation for science. Female nurses also demonstrated that they lived up to the criteria of ideal citizens to justify their taking nursing as an occupation. However, female nurses’ gender identity overshadowed their professional identity in public discussion. By studying the identities of patients and medical professionals, I establish that the boundary of citizenship was flexible in the Republican era under public health regimes, which compelled the literate classes to align their own goals with the ones of the government. Description: Ph. D. Thesis.

2025-01-01T00:00:00Z Armigliato, Alessandro http://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/6622 2025-12-10T14:39:47Z 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: Reassessing early copper metallurgy : insights from the prehistoric site of Orti Bottagone, Tuscany Authors: Armigliato, Alessandro Abstract: This research focuses on the study of the metallurgical assemblage discovered at the Final Neolithic (early 4th millennium BC) site of Orti Bottagone, Tuscany (Italy). It has two objectives: understanding the copper reduction technology employed at the site and exploring the feasibility of one-step sulphide ore reduction experimentally. The overarching goal is to comprehend how prehistoric smiths might successfully have smelted sulphide ores at a time when most were still engaged in the reduction of copper oxides and carbonates. The answer, although based on evidence from a single site, has important implications for our understanding of technological change in Western Europe. Traditional belief has it that metal technology progressed from the working native copper in the Neolithic to the small-scale smelting of copper oxides and carbonates in the Chalcolithic and the large-scale reduction of copper sulphides in the Bronze Age. However, recent research has challenged this belief, highlighting that sulphide ores were already being reduced in the Chalcolithic, when most communities still relied on copper oxides and carbonates. Orti Bottagone can shed light on the transition from oxide/carbonate to sulphide smelting due to its early chronology and its location at the heart of a copper-rich ore district. The research has employed a multi-analytical approach, combining materials science and experimental archaeology. Several samples of slags and a crucible fragment were analysed using Optical and Digital Microscopy (OM and DM), X-ray Powder Diffraction (XRD), X-Ray Fluorescence (pXRF) and Scanning Electron Microscopy coupled with Energy Dispersive Spectrometry (SEM-EDX). Slag analysis has revealed that, at Orti Bottagone, copper was obtained from sulphide-rich charges through an immature slagging process. The experimental reconstruction of the process showed that sulphide ores were likely smelted through a one-step process without any roasting. These findings indicate that sulphide ores could be reduced at the initial stages of metallurgy under conditions that, although inefficient, secured the transformation of the ore into metal. Description: PhD Thesis

2025-01-01T00:00:00Z Waugh, Katherine Emmerson http://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/6600 2025-11-14T11:15:37Z 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z

Title: The Industrial Past in the Deindustrialised Present: A Cross-Generational Oral History of County Durham Mining Towns Authors: Waugh, Katherine Emmerson Abstract: This thesis explores cross-generational experiences of deindustrialisation in County Durham, with a focus on three former coal mining villages: Bearpark, Brandon, and Langley Park. By analysing oral history life narratives from individuals connected to these communities, it investigates the ever-evolving relationship between collective memory, individual experiences, and the dominant narrative of deindustrialisation. Memory is a central theme, not only in comprehending how people conceptualise deindustrialisation but also in understanding industry’s place within collective memory. Adopting a longue durée approach, deindustrialisation is understood here as an ongoing process, that continues to shape individuals and communities, both in its emotional legacies and physical remnants. The thesis assesses how past industrial communities are reconstructed in the present and their contemporary relevance. In doing so, it seeks to interrogate how memories of the past are used to inform understandings of belonging, identity, commemoration, and politics. Moreover, while the conventional narrative of coal industry decline in the UK centres on the 1984-85 miners' strike and subsequent closures, deindustrialisation had been occurring in earnest in County Durham since the 1960s. This research therefore seeks to explore this longer timeline and understand its place within the prevailing strike-centric narrative. It also aims to critically interrogate the construction of ‘imagined mining communities’ in memory, by unpacking the more complex and nuanced responses to deindustrialisation within life narratives. Throughout, a spatial perspective is adopted, examining how industry shaped the social dynamics of villages within space. Rather than offering an exhaustive history of coal mining in County Durham, this thesis focuses upon how these villages were socially and spatially constructed around industry, as well as how this has been remembered, and how interviewees make sense of the transformations in space following deindustrialisation. Description: Ph. D. Thesis

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