Last year’s cyber-attack on the Library continues to impact on social science disciplines where researchers rely on current material.  Whilst remote ordering for print and archival materials received before April 2023 has now been restored, the Library remains unable to provide access to published material held in digital formats (ebooks, ejournals and archived web content) and to print materials received after April 2023.

Rather than focusing on recent work, at the conclusion of this year’s Black History Month, it seems fitting to present a retrospective overview of the work of one of someone who has been at the forefront of reclaiming the historical narrative for over three decades. Hakim Adi held the post of Professor of the History of Africa and the African Diaspora at the University of Chichester, until the university discontinued the Masters course on which he taught and made him redundant in July 2023.  He was the first historian of African heritage to become a professor of history in Britain. Hakim Adi established a ground-breaking Masters by Research (MRes) programme on the History of Africa and the African Diaspora at Chichester. His most recent work, African and Caribbean People in Britain (Penguin, 2023) was shortlisted for the prestigious Wolfson history prize, and he was instrumental in the founding of History Matters whose free, online journal is celebrating the organisation's 10^th year.   History Matters will host the 3rd New Perspectives on the History of African and Caribbean People in Britain Conference on Saturday 9 November 2024. 

 

Cover of Winter 2024 issue of History Matters Journal, Volume 4, no.1.

 

Hakim Adi founded the Young Historians Project to promote the study and popular understanding of Black history. The project encourages the development of young people of African and Caribbean heritage into historians, researchers, editors, public speakers, creatives, and more: passing the work of reclaiming the narrative to a new generation.  In this light, it perhaps not surprising that the earliest of Professor Adi’s works held by the Library is one of his books written for children, rather than adults: African migrations (Hove, Wayland, 1994, YK.1995.b.8866).   This book was republished with an updated cover by Hachette in 2021. 

 

African migrations, by Hakim Adi. Hove, Wayland, 1994. YK.1995.b.8866

 

This post highlights Hakim Adi’s books and chapters in collective works that are held by the Library in print format, and which are currently available to readers using the Library.   Professor Adi can be counted among the many voices calling for Black history to be incorporated more fully into the curriculum at school and university, and to be a concern across the whole year rather than confined to Black History Month.  The books featured in this post can be accessed in the Library’s reading rooms in London and Yorkshire. Anyone over 18 can register for a free reader’s pass to use the reading rooms.

 

The earliest of Professor Adi’s works for adults, co-authored with Marika Sherwood, and held by the Library recounts the history of the fifth, and arguably most significant, Pan African Congress, held in Manchester in 1945.  The book includes the report of the 5th Congress edited by leading Pan-Africanist and writer George Padmore (1903-1959). The book was published by Britain’s first Black publishers and bookshop, New Beacon Books, founded by John La Rose and Sarah White.

 

The 1945 Manchester Pan-African Congress revisited. Hakim Adi and Marika Sherwood. London: New Beacon Books  1995, YC.1995.a.3969

 

Adi followed on three years’ later with West Africans in Britain 1900-1960: nationalism, pan-Africanism and communism, which not only shines an important light on the lives of Black people living in Britain before the Second World War but also shows the influence these pioneers have had on a world scale.

 

West Africans in Britain, 1900-1960: nationalism, pan-Africanism and communism, by Hakim Adi. London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1998   YC.1999.a.3231

 

An inside page from West Africans in Britain, 1900-1960: nationalism, pan-Africanism and communism, by Hakim Adi. London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1998   YC.1999.a.3231

 

Professor Adi, again working with Marika Sherwood, followed up with a book tracing the wider history of political figures from Africa and the African diaspora.  Pan-African history: political figures from Africa and the Diaspora since 1787, was published by Routledge in 2003.

 

Pan-African history: political figures from Africa and the Diaspora since 1787, by Hakim Adi and Marika Sherwood. London: Routledge, 2003. YC.2004.a.199

 

Adi adapted his scholarship to author another book for children, The history of the African and Caribbean communities in Britain, published in London by Hodder Wayland in 2005, YK.2008.b.5900.  This book has been through multiple editions, and was republished most recently by Hachette in 2021.

The history of the African and Caribbean communities in Britain. London, Hodder Wayland, 2005. YK.2008.b.5900

Professor Adi’s concern not only with history but with the way colonial histories have been presented, comes to the fore in the chapter he contributed to a collective work edited by Simon Faulkner and Anandi Ramamurthy: Visual culture and decolonisation in Britain, YC.2007.a.933.  First published by Ashgate in 2006, and subsequently by Routledge, the book traces the way in which different visual genres – art, film, advertising, photography, news reports and ephemera – represented and contributed to political and social struggles over Empire and decolonisation during the mid-Twentieth century.  Hakim Adi wrote a chapter with Anandi Ramamurthy under the title, 'Fragments in the history of the visual culture of anti-colonial struggle'.

Simon Faulkner and Anandi Ramamurthy: Visual culture and decolonisation in Britain, YC.2007.a.933

 

Another chapter in a wide-ranging and fascinating historical work followed. Adi contributed the chapter on ‘The Negro question; the communist international and black liberation in the interwar years’ to From Toussaint to Tupac : the Black international since the age of revolution (Michael O. West, William G Martin and Fanon Che Wilkins) Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009, YC.2010.a.684. From Toussaint to Tupac is a collection of essays across geographic and cultural lines exploring black internationalism and its implications for a black consciousness. Its description reads, “At its core, black internationalism is a struggle against oppression, whether manifested in slavery, colonialism, or racism. The ten essays in this volume offer a comprehensive overview of the global movements that define black internationalism, from its origins in the colonial period to the present.”

From Toussaint to Tupac, YC.2010.a.684, in the centre of other books on the basement shelves, waiting to be ordered up to the reading rooms.

 

In 2011, with Caroline Bressey, Adi edited and contributed a chapter to Belonging in Europe : the African diaspora and work, London: Routledge  2011, YC.2014.a.9592.  In this book, which makes connections across Europe through the experience of work and labour, Adi’s chapter was on ‘The Comintern and Black Workers in Britain and France 1919-37’.  The book’s chapters cover the period from the long eighteenth century to the Second World War.

 

Belonging in Europe: the African diaspora and work, edited by Caroline Bressey and Hakim Adi, London: Routledge  2011, YC.2014.a.9592

 

A flavour of Caroline Bressey’s important work can be gained from her chapter (chapter 11) in Slavery and the British Country House (edited by Madge Dresser and Andrew Hann, and published by English Heritage, which is freely available online.

 

Adi updated and extended his earlier work on communism and Pan-Africanism in 2013, publishing the 445-page Pan-Africanism and communism: the communist international, Africa and the diaspora, 1919-1939. Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press, 2013. YC.2019.a.166

Pan-Africanism and communism: the communist international, Africa and the diaspora, 1919-1939. Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press, 2013. YC.2019.a.166

 

In 2018, Adi published Pan-Africanism: a history, Bloomsbury Academic, covering many key figures in the twentieth century development of Pan-African thought and practice from W.E.B. De Bois, Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X and Kwame Nkrumah through to the music of Bob Marley.  

Front cover of Pan-Africanism: a history, Hakim Adi, London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018. YC.2019.a.2646

Back cover of Pan-Africanism: a history, Hakim Adi, London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018. YC.2019.a.2646

 

Adi brought the work of established and emerging scholars together in the publication of his edited work Black British History: New Perspectives, Zed Books, 2019.  The book spans the centuries from the first Black Britons to the latest African migrants, covering everything from Africans in Tudor England to the movement for reparations. This is held in the Library as an ebook at ELD.DS.649502 and is not currently available.

Adi’s most recent sole-authored work, African and Caribbean People in Britain: a history, Penguin 2023 is also unavailable at present. He came to the British Library to speak about the book, in conversation with historian David Olusoga in November 2022. A recording of the event is available online  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqe5TyD09Yk

Adi's edited work, Many Struggles: New Histories of African and Caribbean People in Britain, Pluto Press, 2023, also features the work of emerging scholars and scholar-activists. The book draws on new archival research to emphasise often-neglected themes such as local histories, women, gender and political activism.  Voices from the archive also come to the fore in Black voices on Britain, London : Macmillan, 2022 (held digitally as ELD.DS.729195, not available at the moment).  In this book, Adi draws on published works to give voice to people who lived, worked, campaigned and travelled in Britain from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century. Writers featured include James Gronniosaw, Mary Prince, Frederick Douglass, and William Wells Brown among others.  The Library appreciates the patience and understanding of its users whilst these books, received in digital format, are unavailable to readers.  Similarly the Library is grateful for the understanding of publishers currently unable to deposit books in digital format whilst work is undertaken to make ebooks and ejournals available once more.

Fortunately, following up on references to chapters Hakim Adi has contributed to other works can lead to the discovery of major contributions to scholarship that aim to redress the historical narrative.   One such work is Representing slavery: art, artefacts and archives in the collections of the National Maritime Museum, edited by Douglas J. Hamilton and Robert J. Blyth (Aldershot: Lund Humphries: 2007. LC.31.a.5400.  Adi contributed a short chapter to this substantial work, which is currently available and is relevant to the work of a wide range of British institutions confronting the legacy of colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade.

Professor Adi’s work can also be found in another book available in the Library, with a detailed preview on JSTOR : Global Africa : into the twenty-first century, edited by Dorothy Hodgson and Judith Byfield, University of California Press, 2017.  YC.2018.a.12042

Global Africa : into the twenty-first century, edited by Dorothy Hodgson and Judith Byfield, University of California Press, 2017.  YC.2018.a.12042

 

Similarly Professor Adi’s history books for children, which are held by the Library, remain important markers along the way to creating a more inclusive and accurate narrative for a younger generation.

Nelson Mandela: father of freedom, by Hakim Adi. London: Hodder Wayland, 2000. YK.2001.b.3940 (stored in Yorkshire, allow 48 hours for delivery to London reading rooms)

 

References

African migrations, by Hakim Adi. Hove, Wayland, 1994. YK.1995.b.8866

The 1945 Manchester Pan-African Congress revisited. Hakim Adi and Marika Sherwood. London: New Beacon Books, 1995. YC.1995.a.3969

Pan-African history: political figures from Africa and the Diaspora since 1787, by Hakim Adi and Marika Sherwood. London: Routledge, 2003. YC.2004.a.199

The history of the African and Caribbean communities in Britain, London, Hodder Wayland, 2005. YK.2008.b.5900.

(With Anandi Ramamurthy) 'Fragments in the history of the visual culture of anti-colonial struggle' in Visual culture and decolonisation in Britain, Simon Faulkner and Anandi Ramamurthy, Ashgate, 2006. YC.2007.a.933.

'Black people in Britain' in Representing slavery: art, artefacts and archives in the collections of the National Maritime Museum, edited by Douglas J. Hamilton and Robert J. Blyth Aldershot: Lund Humphries: 2007. LC.31.a.5400

‘The Negro question; the communist international and black liberation in the interwar years’ in From Toussaint to Tupac: the Black international since the age of revolution (Michael O. West, William G Martin and Fanon Che Wilkins) Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009, YC.2010.a.684.

Belonging in Europe: the African diaspora and work, edited by Caroline Bressey and Hakim Adi, London: Routledge  2011, YC.2014.a.9592

Pan-Africanism and communism: the communist international, Africa and the diaspora, 1919-1939. Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press, 2013. YC.2019.a.166

'Pan-Africanism: An Ideology and a Movement' in Global Africa : into the twenty-first century, edited by Dorothy Hodgson and Judith Byfield, University of California Press, 2017.  YC.2018.a.12042

Pan-Africanism: a history, Hakim Adi, London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018. YC.2019.a.2646

Black British History: New Perspectives, Zed Books, 2019

 

Black voices on Britain, London : Macmillan, 2022

 

African and Caribbean People in Britain: a history, Penguin 2023

 

Many Struggles: New Histories of African and Caribbean People in Britain, Pluto Press, 2023

 

As Pride Month’s celebration of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer communities comes to a close, this post picks out some of the books currently available to readers in the British Library.  Although our digital collections are not yet available following the cyber incident, our contemporary print collections in St Pancras offer a wide range of approaches to LGBT+ culture and history.  The books featured below are just a selection of more recent publications that are held in St Pancras and should be available to order to our reading rooms.

Our collections are particularly strong for their international coverage.   If you are keen to learn more about the development of transnational campaigns for LGBT+ rights from the mid-nineteenth century onwards, Laura Belmonte’s history of the international LGBT rights movement offers a good starting point.  The book celebrates the growing reach of struggles against homophobia but also flags up continuing threats to LGBT+ rights.

 

The international LGBT rights movement : a history. Laura A., Belmonte. London ; New York : Bloomsbury Academic, 2021.  Shelfmark YC.2022.a.6510

 

Another historical work, providing an international perspective spanning from Finland to New Zealand, the UK and USA, and focused on the first decade after the second World War is Queer 1950s: Rethinking Sexuality in the Postwar Years, edited by Heike Bauer and Matt Cook.   Collected essays examine the legacy of the 1950s and challenge preconceptions about this period.

 

Queer 1950s: Rethinking Sexuality in the Postwar Years, edited by H. Bauer and M. Cook. Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.  Shelfmark YC.2022.a.1503

 

The work of activists, artists and academics comes together in another ground-breaking collection comprising essays, poems. literary analysis, ethnographies and methodological questions exploring LGBT+ experiences in the Caribbean.   The book aims to disrupt conventional understandings of the Caribbean as deeply homophobic by focusing on LGBT+ agency.

 

Beyond Homophobia: centring LGBTQ experiences in the Anglophone Caribbean, edited by Mojo Anderson and Erin C MacLeod.  Shelfmark YC.2021.a.5033

 

Still in the Caribbean, and focusing on the Hispanic nation of the Dominican Republic, Streetwalking by Ana-Mauríne Lara presents the varied strategies employed by LGBTQ community leaders in the Dominican Republic in their struggle for recognition, and rights. Lara employs Maria Lugones's theorisation of streetwalker strategies and Audre Lorde's theorisation of silence and action to explore the exercise of power and agency among the LGBTQ community of the Dominican Republic.

 

Streetwalking : LGBTQ lives and protest in the Dominican Republic, by Lara, Ana-Mauríne.  New Brunswick : Rutgers University Press, 2021.  Shelfmark YC.2022.a.1315.

 

Published within Northwestern University Press' 'Critical Insurgencies' series of literary studies, Emilio Amideo's Queer Tidalectics brings a range of theoretical perspectives to bear on Black diasporic experience and aesthetics.   The book looks at the work of Anglophone writers James Baldwin, Jackie Kay, Thomas Glave, and Shani Mootoo. In particular, it explores their use of the idea of fluidity as a means to evade and overcome sexual, gender and racial boundaries. Amideo employs the theoretical perspectives of Sara Ahmed, Édouard Glissant and Edward Kamau Brathwaite, among others, in a fascinating and probing contribution to Black queer studies. 

 

Queer Tidalectics: Linguistic and Sexual Fluidity in Contemporary Black Diasporic Literature by Emilio Amideo. Northwestern University Press, 2021. Shelfmark YC.2022.a.5531



The Library's shelves are rich in academic studies applying theoretical approaches to a range of contemporary questions. But it's not all heavy theory: there are a broad range of more accessible texts waiting to be ordered up to our reading rooms. Georges-Claude Guilbert's book, Gay icons: the (mostly) female entertainers gay men love, provides a readable consideration of the way superstars and divas contribute to gay culture. The book focuses on individuals including Mae West, Julie Andrews, Britney Spears, RuPaul, and Cher to consider their appeal and what it is that makes them icons. This book is just one of many that consider gay or Queer icons in cinema, music and the arts. Other books to address this theme include The little book of queer icons by Samuel Alexander (London: Summersdale, 2019, shelfmark YC.2019.a.9751) and Heroes and exiles: gay icons through the ages, by Tom Ambrose (London: New Holland, 2010, shelfmark YC.2011.a.3923).

 

 

 

Gay icons: the (mostly) female entertainers gay men love, by Georges-Claude Guilbert. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2018  Shelfmark YC.2021.a.4232

 

Jeffrey Brown turns his gaze to the superheroes of popular media, including Hollywood films, TV series and comics, arguing that beyond the struggles of good versus evil, the superhero genre has always been about gender ideals: how men and women are supposed to look, act, and interact with each other. Superhero comics may reinforce sex roles, but their emphasis on transformation and body swaps can also work to blur gender binaries. Similarly, the importance of homosocial bonding adds another layer of complexity to the portrayal of gender identity within the genre. 

 

Love, sex, gender and super-heroes, by Jeffrey A. Brown. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2022. Shelfmark YC.2023.a.518

 

The books featured here are just a few that stood out on a walk along the shelves where some of the more recent print publications are stored in our basements.  When access to our digital collections returns, and when we are again able to offer readers access to the thousands of books kept in our automated storage buildings, readers will regain access to newer works alongside our historical collections.   For now, the Library's temporary catalogue allows readers to find the books and journals that arrived in the Library up to April 2023. The catalogue uses colour coding - red, orange, and green - to indicate whether a book or periodical should be available to readers. We may not yet be able to give access to the whole of our collections, but the books on the shelves at St Pancras allow scope for wide reading and study across the humanities and social sciences.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This post highlights a small selection of the many books published in the last two decades and available in the Library that bring a contemporary approach to the history and understanding of D-Day and the battle for France.

 

In The time left between us, by Alicia DeFonzo, Lincoln : Potomac Books (University of Nebraska Press), 2022, shelfmark m22/.11296, the author explores the link between past and present through her grandfather’s experience of D-Day and fighting in France.

 

To coincide with the 80^th anniversary of the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944, BBC2 has screened a groundbreaking documentary series, D-Day: The Unheard Tapes (available on iPlayer). The series brings to life audio interviews with those who fought by using actors who resemble the speaker at the time of the war to lip-synch to the recordings.  The use of actors bridges the gap brought by time and gives a contemporary feel to the recordings, many of which have not previously been heard beyond the archives where the tapes are held. The series, accompanied by a new book – one of many focusing on D-Day to be released this month – highlights the way these events are passing from the testimony of living witnesses into cultural history. 

 

Both the programme and the accompanying book offer new insights, and show that there are new and different ways of approaching history both to make it meaningful to younger generations and to re-examine established narratives to draw out different aspects and understandings. This post focuses on some of the books currently available to readers in the Library’s reading rooms that have been published in recent years that bring a contemporary approach to the telling of social history.  Some of the books featured in this post bring to the fore different perspectives on the invasion, others consider how a younger generation can relate to these events, and some examine the social and political implications of the commemoration of war and of D-Day itself.       

 

The selection of books highlighted are among those that are held in print format and should currently be available to readers in the Library’s reading rooms.  Most are held at our St Pancras site whilst a couple are held at our site at Boston Spa in Yorkshire.  Some books held in Yorkshire are now available to readers, although those held in automated storage cannot yet be accessed following the cyber incident last year.  Just under half of our current intake of books published in the UK come to us in digital format, and access to these has not yet been restored, so they are also excluded from this selection of books.  An update on the restoration of services can be found on our Knowledge Matters blog.

 

And so to the books we can make available to readers...   Pictured above, Alicia DeFonzo’s The time left between us blends memoir, history and oral story-telling. DeFonzo, who lectures in English at Old Dominion University in Virginia, retraces her grandfather’s steps through France and Germany and weaves his account of his experiences in wartime Europe into her own memories to understand the relationship between past and present.  Her grandfather’s memories – passing from the Normandy landings to the liberation of concentration camps - become part of her own history.  Starting from the realisation that she knew almost nothing about this history and that her grandfather had not previously related these experiences – she arrives at an understanding that she has a part to play in safeguarding and transmitting memory.

 

D-Day minute by minute, by Jonathan Mayo. London : Short Books, 2014. YC.2015.a.763

 

A more straightforward, fast-paced, and highly accessible account of events is offered by Jonathan Mayo’s D-Day minute by minute, London: Short Books, 2014 (shelfmark YC.2015.a.763).  In just over 300 pages, Mayo’s book draws on a wide range of personal narratives to construct a detailed account of events as they were experienced not only by those who fought but by many people impacted by these crucial events, from French villagers and journalists, to schoolchildren and nurses.  Mayo’s book focuses not on military strategy but on the human experience of involvement in shaping the course of history.

 

 

Normandy '44 : D-Day and the battle for France: a new history, by James Holland, London : Bantam Press, 2019, YC.2020.a.1072

 

A similarly broad range of experiences is brought to the fore in James Holland’s Normandy ’44: D-Day and the battle for France.   Holland uses archival research and eyewitness testimonies from around the world to re-examine established narratives of the invasion, bringing out the human aspect of the conflict as well as differing perspectives, with accounts from civilians and resistance fighters as well as military personnel.

 

Forgotten: the untold story of D-Day's Black heroes, by Linda Hervieux. New York, HarperCollins, 2015. Shelfmark  m15/.11728

 

Blending social history, biography and an account of military events is Linda Hervieux’s book, Forgotten: the untold story of D-Day's Black heroes (New York: HarperCollins, 2015, Shelfmark  m15/.11728).  The book focuses on the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion, a unit of African-American soldiers within the racially-segregated US forces involved in the assault on the beaches. Using military records and interviews with surviving members of the battalion and their families, Hervieux highlights the sense of freedom these men gained in Europe and in England in the lead-up to the invasion. The book notes the lack of recognition accorded to these men and the denial of military honours after the war. The disparity between their experiences in Europe and the segregation and injustice they faced at home was an important backdrop to the emergent civil rights movement.

 

A breath of freedom: the civil rights struggle, African American GIs, and Germany, by Maria Höhn and Martin Klimke, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. YC.2013.a.5132

 

This theme is shared by Maria Höhn and Martin Klimke’s book, A breath of freedom: the civil rights struggle, African American GIs, and Germany, which explores the social and historical impact of serving in Europe for African American servicemen and how this fed into activism within the civil rights movement.  Although not focused specifically on D-Day, it is one of a number of books to consider the wider social and political aspects of participation in the fight to bring to an end to the German occupation of Europe.  This is explored in a more recent work by Sandra Bolzenius, Glory in their spirit: how four black women took on the Army during World War II (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2018), shelfmark YD.2022.a.1758.  The book records a strike against discriminatory work assignments by four African American female privates serving in the Women's Army Corps (WAC) at Fort Devens, Massachusetts in 1945.  At the time, their well-publicised protest “pushed the army's segregation system to its breaking point”.

 

 

Woman at the front: memoirs of an ATS girl: D-Day to 1946, by Sylvia Wild, Stroud: Amberley 2012. YK.2013.a.3983

Returning to different perspectives and experiences of D-Day itself, is Sylvia Wild’s first-person account, published in 2012, of her service in the Auxiliary Territorial Service as a shorthand typist working for the Senior Royal Engineer officers developing the D-Day plans concerning ports, docks, harbours and railways as part of Operation Overlord.  Her service continued in France, where she lived in French households as transport services were reinstated in France, Belgium and Germany.  Her first-hand account could be read alongside the very different experiences of the 39 women who served in France within the Special Operations Executive working undercover to support the French Resistance. Their story is recounted in Kate Vigurs’ Mission France: the true history of the women of SOE, published in 2020 by Yale University Press, shelfmark YC.2022.a.4932.

 

 

 

Normandiefront: D-Day to Saint-Lô through German eyes, by Vince Milano and Bruce Conner. Stroud: Spellmount, 2012. Shelfmark YK.2013.a.1164)

 

A different perspective on the fighting, based on interviews with, and the testimony of, German combatants in 352 Division is offered by Normandiefront: D-Day to Saint-Lô through German eyes, by Vince Milano and Bruce Conner (Stroud: Spellmount, 2012, shelfmark YK.2013.a.1164).  Through the course of their work over many years, the authors collected German and Allied photographs and documents, many of which had not previously been published.  Although focused more on the course of the battle than on the feelings of those involved, the book gives an insight into a very different experience of how events unfolded.

 

 

 

D-Day UK: 100 locations in Britain, by Simon Forty, Swindon: Historic England, 2019, shelfmark YC.2020.b.320

 

The preparations for D-Day and the way that they involved a wide range of people from across the country is the focus of D-Day UK: 100 locations in Britain, by Simon Forty (Swindon: Historic England, 2019, shelfmark YC.2020.b.320). It is one of a number of books to consider the planning and information-gathering that was necessary before the invasion could be attempted.  This is also the focus of Bletchley Park and D-Day: the untold story of how the battle for Normandy was won, by David Kenyon, published in 2019. Using previously classified documents, David Kenyon shows how preparations for the Normandy landings in 1944 - the turning point in the war in Europe - began at Bletchley in 1942, with the careful collation of information extracted from enemy signals traffic.

 

 

Bletchley Park and D-Day: the untold story of how the battle for Normandy was won, David Kenyon, New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2019. YC.2020.a.1359

 

 

 

The cruel victory: the French Resistance, D-Day and the battle for the Vercors 1944, by Paddy Ashdown, London : William Collins, 2014, shelfmark YC.2015.a.14166

 

In a very different vein, Paddy Ashdown’s book about the French Resistance in the Vercors mountain range near Grenoble aims to tell a story overlooked by most English-language histories of D-Day. As Allied troops stormed the beaches in Normandy, the resistance in the Vercors rose up in a planned rearguard action that was brutally crushed when German reinforcements arrived. The book shows how the tragedy gave the Vercors a place in French history and gives voice to the many fighters who fought to gain a say in the future of their country.

 

 

Divided memory : French recollections of World War II from the Liberation to the present, Olivier Wieviorka, Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, 2012. Shelfmark YC.2013.a.312

 

Wieviorka's important book tackles the conflicting memories of all aspects of wartime France: the fall of France, Vichy, the Occupation, the deportations, the Resistance, trials and amnesties. Wieviorka examines the contested area of who should be honoured within French history in the wake of war and occupation.

 

 

D-Day in history and memory: the Normandy landings in international remembrance and commemoration. Edited by Michael Dolski, Sam Edwards, and John Buckley. Denton, Texas: University of North Texas Press, 2014, shelfmark YC.2015.a.5044

 

The politics of commemoration is the focus of a work bringing together a collection of essays on the complex and often conflicting memories of D-Day.   The work aims to deconstruct and counter the way D-Day has frequently been mythologised by bringing together multiple national viewpoints.

 

 

D-Day remembered : the Normandy landings in American collective memory, Dolski, Michael, 2016. YC.2017.a.7666.

 

Addressing similar themes, historian Michael Dolski’s book examines how understandings of the past are shaped by the present through consideration of how D-Day is remembered and commemorated by Americans. His study aims to expose and consider the cultural functions of war remembrance.  Drawing on a wider range of international examples of warfare, Commemorating war : the politics of memory, by T G Ashplant, Graham Dawson, and Michael Roper (New Brunswick, N.J.; London: Transaction 2004) is one of a growing number of academic works to explore war memory and the role of commemoration.  The latter book is available on the open shelves in the Social Sciences reading room at SPIS303.66 and can also be ordered to other reading rooms via shelfmark YC.2009.a.7918.

 

Because of the Library's IT outage, readers will have to wait a while before access is available to the new crop of books published to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, but as services are restored, anyone with an interest in delving deeper into this history will be able to access these works in the Library's reading rooms.

This post, written by Social Sciences Subject Librarian, Ben Hadley, describes printed resources relevant to social work that are available to readers in the Social Sciences Reading Room, as well as publications that can be ordered up from basement storage for use in the reading rooms.  The Library's digital collections are not currently available whilst systems are restored following the cyber attack in October 2023.   Information about the restoration of services can be found on the British Library Knowledge Matters blog, and details of opening hours and current services are on the Library's website.

 

Reference materials relevant to social work in the OPL section on the shelves in the Social Sciences Reading Room. 

 

Social work is a practice-based profession and an academic discipline that promotes social change. Research themes encompass a range of interdisciplinary approaches including law, philosophy, politics, public policy, psychology and social anthropology. 

 

The recent cyber-attack has had a severe impact on our digital collections. Unfortunately we currently cannot provide access to abstracting databases and e-resources via our reading room PCs.  Similarly, we are not able to provide access to books and journals published in the UK or in Ireland that have been deposited with the Library in electronic format rather than in print.  This affects many British (and also Irish) books published since 2013 as roughly half of the Library's intake from these countries is received in digital format.

 

However, readers can still order journals and printed books to use in our study spaces, and social work dictionaries, encyclopedias and reference sources on related topics are available on the open shelves. Social work research demands a multi-disciplinary approach, and we can still provide access to a broad spectrum of topics from a wide range of subject areas. Our research monographs cover a wide field of subject disciplines and many are held in the Social Sciences Reading Room. 

 

Here are just a few examples of books are available to order and use in the reading rooms, that can be found in our catalogue: 

 

Social Policy for Social Work, Lorraine Green and Karen Clark 

Front cover of Social policy for social work, by Lorraine Green and Karen Clarke. Cambridge; Polity Press, 2016. British Library shelfmark YC.2016.b.604

 

This book examines the shifts in the dominant political ideology that have affected the nature of welfare provision and the balance of responsibilities between the family, the voluntary sector, the market and the state. It explains how these developments impact social workers and service users. 

It traces the origins of state welfare from the Elizabethan Poor Laws to the late 1800s. It then examines each stage of welfare provision from the post-war consensus through to the Coalition government 2010 – 2015.     British Library shelfmark YC.2016.b.604 

 

Mind, state and society: social history of psychiatry and mental health in Britain 1960 – 2010, edited by George Ikkos and Nick Bouras.

Cover image of Mind, state and society: social history of psychiatry and mental health in Britain 1960–2010, edited by George Ikkos and Nick Bouras. Cambridge University Press, 2021.  Shelfmark YC.2022.a.5666.

 

This book examines the reforms in psychiatry and mental health services in Britain. It features contributions from leading academics, policymakers, mental health clinicians, service users and carers. It offers a rich and integrated picture of mental health, covering experiences from children to older people; employment to homelessness; women to LGBTQ+; refugees to black and minority ethnic groups; and faith communities and the military. 

British Library shelfmark YC.2022.a.5666 

 

Child Welfare and Social Action in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Jon Lawrence and Pat Starkey.  Liverpool University Press, 2001

This collection of essays addresses child migration, ‘delinquency’, and the physical and psychological traumas of children in care. It offers an international perspective on these issues and each case study provides a thorough analysis within its historical context. Each of the themes introduced in this study can be explored in more detail in our collections. 

British Library shelfmark YC.2006.a.15461 

 

What is Social Work: Contexts and Perspectives, Nigel Horner. London; Learning Matters, 2012

This book is primarily aimed at social work students in their first year of study. It examines the major influences that shaped the welfare systems towards the end of the nineteenth century, including religious movements, philanthropy, social reform, labour movements and government policy. 

 

It presents an overview of child welfare policy and practice and introduces legal frameworks for working with children and families. It also examines the changing context of the profession in light of legislative changes from the 1908 Children Act which led to the introduction of juvenile courts, to the Children Act 2004 which affirmed a commitment to assuring high quality childcare for all.  

British Library shelfmark SPIS 361.30941 

 

In addition this book also introduces a professional capabilities framework that informs all social work practice. These themes can be explored further in studies held in the reading room under subject heading SPIS 361.01. A member of staff can help you to find these titles.  

 

Gender diversity, recognition and citizenship: towards a politics of difference, Sally Hines. Basingstoke; Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

 

Gender diversity, recognition and citizenship: towards a politics of difference, by Sally Hines. Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. British Library shelfmark SPIS 306.768 

This book explores the significance of the UK Gender Recognition Act (GRA) and considers broader social, cultural, legal political shifts that have resulted. This book considers the politics of identity and how lived experience has been impacted by these changes. The GRA is also contextualised within human rights discourse and law.  

British Library shelfmark SPIS 306.768  

 

 

Social Policy, John Baldock.  Oxford University Press, 2012

Explores the history and development of social policy and provides a comprehensive introduction to this area of study. An understanding of these themes is essential to social work students and to those studying related disciplines. The glossary provides a list of terms that can help readers to focus and narrow their research themes. 

 

Some of the subject headings in this study include: social need and inequality, family and welfare, the voluntary sector, global social policy, health policy, housing, crime and punishment. 

British Library shelfmark SPIS 361.610941 

 

 

Here is a list of some of the key journals in social work: 

 

Social Policy and Society 

British Journal of Social Work 

Journal of Social Policy 

Journal of evidence based social work 

Journal of social work practice 

Social Policy and Administration 

 

Some of the articles from these journals are available for free on the web. Just type the journal title into Google and you should be able to find a full list of articles on the publisher’s website. Look for the Open Access symbol, this means that an article is free to access.  We can provide access to other articles from these journals if they have been published before October 2023, just note down the year and issue number that you need and bring this information to the Social Sciences issue desk.  You can also find some digitised journal articles via the Internet Archive's  Wayback Machine. 

 

The following titles are held on the open shelves in the SPIS journals collection: 

 

Professional Social Work 

Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society 

Social Theory and Health 

Journal of Child and Adolescent Trauma 

Journal of Public Health Policy 

 

Here is a list of some of the topics associated with social work held within the SPIS books collection (there is a more comprehensive list in the reading room): 

 

Children 305.23  

Older people 305.26 

Courts 347.4201 

Social work 361.301  

Social action 361.2  

Social work research 362 

Mental health 362.2  

Disabled persons 362.4  

Children problems 362.7  

Criminology 364 

Drug abuse 362.29 

Counselling 361.06 

Delinquent and problem pupils 371.93  

 

In the OPL section you can find encylopedias and abstracts for related subjects and disciplines

Examples of reference sources on the open shelves in the Social Sciences Reading Room.  

 

 

Reference materials on the open shelves include the following titles: 

 

Social research methods OPL 300.72  

Encyclopedias, sociology dictionaries OPL 301.03  

(In this section you can also find encyclopedias in women’s studies, social psychology, adolescence, race and LGBTQ studies) 

Encyclopedias of social work OPL. 361.003  

Social work abstracts OPL 361.973  

Halsbury’s laws of England OPL 344.4209  

Introduction the law and the legal system OPL 345.0973  

Magistrates court guide 2024 OPL 345.38  

 

Finally, here are some websites and resources that may be useful to your research into social policy: 

 

The King’s Fund Library 

https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/work-with-us/library#use-our-library-collections 

 

London School of Economics Library 

https://www.lse.ac.uk/library/using-the-library/library-resources-guide 

 

British Sociological Association 

https://www.britsoc.co.uk/media-centre/research-databases/ 

 

King’s College Library 

https://libguides.kcl.ac.uk/systematicreview/greylit 

 

The Knowledge Exchange 

https://theknowledgeexchangeblog.com 

 

The following organisations publish research papers, policy briefings and reports on their websites: 

 

National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) 

Joseph Rowntree Foundation 

Resolution foundation 

Reform 

The Children’s Commissioner 

Intergenerational Foundation 

International Longevity Centre (ILC-UK) 

 

This post, written by the Library's Content Lead for Official and Government Publications describes how readers can access official publications in the wake of the cyber-attack on the Library in October 2023.   Information about the restoration of services can be found on the British Library Knowledge Matters blog, and details of opening hours and current services are on the Library's website.

 

Following the cyber-attack on the British Library’s IT estate in October 2023, access to our official publications collections is limited, but will gradually improve.  At present, you can only consult print and microform materials that are either shelved in the Social Sciences Reading Room at St Pancras or in the St Pancras basements. In the reading room we have a selection of historic UK parliamentary and legal texts including:

Commons and Lords journals
The Official Report (Hansard) and Standing Committee Debates
Public General Acts, Local and Personal Acts and Private Acts
UK Statutory Instruments
House of Commons papers and bills on microfiche, 1801-2004/05
House of Commons Sessional Papers of the Eighteenth Century reprint edited by Sheila Lambert

 

Official publications on the open shelves in the Social Sciences Reading Room at St Pancras.

 

Basement 1 at St Pancras holds an eclectic mix of UK, US and United Nations publications in print which, in a leap back to the 20^th century, can be ordered on paper tickets:

Bound sets of Commons and Lords papers and bills from 1801-
United States Congressional Serial Set 1817/18-1979/90
Electoral registers, 2002-
United Nations documents 1946-2012

 

Official texts were historically catalogued and shelved in series, not at the individual document level. Fortunately hard copy indexes are still available in the reading room and these will enable you to record the correct citation in the series so that the library assistants can locate your chosen document on the shelf.

 

Hansard: the official record of parliamentary debates in the House of Commons.

 

The St Pancras basements also hold a treasure trove of official materials on microform which can be consulted in lieu of electronic sources, such as:

The depository collection of US federal government and Congressional papers, 1982- on microfiche arranged by Superintendent of Documents (SuDocs) code
US Congressional hearings on microfiche
Historic electoral registers for England, 1832-1937 on microfilm
HMSO controller’s library on microfilm
Government publications relating to Kenya, 1897-1963 on microfilm
Annual departmental reports relating to Sierra Leone, 1893-1961 on microfilm

 

There are printed indexes to these sets in the reading room that will help you to find the correct document codes and reel numbers so that you can place orders. There is also a card index of official microforms available for consultation.

 

Now for the bad news. Apart from these print and microform sets, all other UK, foreign national government, and intergovernmental organisation (IGO) publications are two hundred miles away on our Boston Spa site in Yorkshire. UK departmental publications and electoral registers 1832-2001 in print are kept in an automated store and cannot be retrieved as yet, although restoring this service is a priority.  However the historic collections of foreign national government and IGO documents are in static stores, and we aim to restart delivery around the end of March. You can find their shelfmarks in the interim catalogue or in the printed copy of the British Museum Library catalogue in the Social Sciences reading room.

 

An example of the electoral registers available at the Library.

 

Our world class collection of subscribed electronic resources is inaccessible at the moment, including full-text document collections such as the US Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1994, Congressional Record to 1997,  Congressional Hearings, 1823-1979, US Territorial Papers, the US Foreign Broadcast Information Service, UK Parliamentary Papers, UK State Papers Online 16^th-18^th centuries, and British Online Archives databases, but in many cases there are print or microform alternatives available.  Originals of digitised UK government archives are available at the National Archives, Kew.  Recent UK, IGO and foreign national government materials can of course be found freely available on the internet.  Large and influential IGOs such as the United Nations, the IMF and the World Bank now make their electronic libraries available free as a public good:

World Bank Open Knowledge Repository 
United Nations Official Document System  
IMF eLibrary 

 

You will find records for electronic UK, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland government documents acquired through non-print legal deposit before April 2023 in the interim catalogue, but there is no access to the documents themselves at present. We are aiming to restore view access in June or July this year, so watch this space. However, prior to the cyber incident we received feeds of records with hot links to freely available documents published by the European Union, the US federal government and the Irish Republic government. These links work and you can view the documents from within the catalogue.

 

Access to full text of Scottish government and Parliament documents is available from the National Library of Scotland catalogue (Library Search). Queen’s University Belfast hosts the Northern Ireland Official Publications Archive, a repository containing Northern Ireland government documents. For current UK government and Parliamentary documentation you can of course search Gov.UK and the UK Parliament website.

 

Navigating the Library’s historic print and microform collections of government and IGO documents is challenging because they were catalogued at the series level (print) or set level (microform). To trace the correct citation of a document within a series or microform set you need to consult a range of printed indexes. Please ask our friendly and efficient reference team for help. They can be contacted in person in the Social Sciences reading room or by email at [email protected]

 

 

 

 

'Transnational feminist politics, education and social justice', edited by Silvia Edling and Sheila Macrine. Shelfmark YC.2023.a.64.   Books published by Bloomsbury are received in print and continue to be available to readers.

 

The cyber-attack on the British Library and the resulting IT outage have thrown a spotlight on the Library’s collections held in physical formats such as print and manuscripts.  Whilst the Library is working to restore access to digital collections and to material stored in Yorkshire at Boston Spa, the physical collections held in London are still available to readers.   Written on International Women’s Day, this post takes a look at the books on the shelves in the Library's basements at St Pancras. Focusing on books on Women's Studies, it considers the (temporary) effect of bringing a hybrid library back to a primary reliance on print.

 

'Edith Cavell: faith before the firing squad', by Catherine Butcher (shelfmark YC.2016.a.12850) gazes out from the centre of a row of books received through Legal Deposit. Works centering women are spread through the collections.  This book comes from Lion Hudson (Monarch Books) who publish Christian material, in print format. 

 

The Library restored access to a temporary version of its online catalogue on 15 January.  That catalogue, based on a back-up version, includes material received by the Library up to April 2023.    The catalogue marks material held in physical form in London as ‘should be available’, whilst e-books, e-journals and e-resources that cannot be accessed, and print materials held at Boston Spa, are marked as ‘unavailable’.  Some materials available online can still be accessed too.

 

What does this mean in practice for anyone looking for contemporary published books in social science subject areas?

 

The answer, in short, is that whilst most older social science books are still available, a sizeable proportion of more recent publications from the UK and Ireland cannot currently be accessed. 

 

After non-print legal deposit regulations came into force in 2013, most of the UK’s major publishers of academic texts switched to depositing their publications in digital format.  This includes very many of the big-hitters in the social sciences.  For books, think Routledge, Ashgate, Gower, Sage, Policy Press (Bristol University), Palgrave Macmillan, Rowman & Littlefield, and smaller independent publishers such as Intellect Books, Verso, Pluto, IB Tauris, Saqi and Zed Press.  Those depositing e-books rather than print also include several university presses, among them UCL, Manchester, Liverpool, Wales, Huddersfield and two of the major US university presses, Yale and Chicago.  For journals the list is similar but also includes Taylor & Francis and Oxford University Press.  These are major publishers of social science materials.

 

For these publishers, the Library holds books and journals in print format to at least 2013 and sometimes beyond, as not all publishers switched to digital deposit at the same time.  All had completed their transition by 2018, so any books and journals received since then will have been received in digital format and are not currently available.  The Library is working to restore access to these materials.

 

Academic publishers who continue to deposit their books in print include Cambridge University Press and Bloomsbury (the latter deposits print and digital copies), as well as Oxford University Press (books, but not journals),  along with very many international university presses who deposit because they distribute their books in the UK and Ireland. A wide range of smaller UK and Irish publishers also deposit print copies, but their output in the social sciences is much smaller than the academic presses who deposit books and journals in digital format.

 

 

'Women’s rights in armed conflict under international law', by Catherine O’Rourke.  Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2020.  British Library shelfmark YC.2022.a 1908.   Books published by Cambridge University Press are received in print and should be available.

 

Legal deposit regulations cover the UK and Ireland. The Library purchases a wide range of academic material and other books relevant to readers’ needs published outside the UK and Ireland.  Purchased books in English and in European languages are received in print format and are held in London at St Pancras.  The vast majority of these books should be available to readers, but readers planning to consult items should contact the Reference Services team by emailing  [email protected]  in advance of their visit to ensure that specific items are available.

 

A screenshot of a catalogue search showing recent books acquired by purchase as mostly still available to readers.

 

Assessing the resources that are currently available for social science research, there has been less impact for books published before 2013.  After that date, the switch to digital deposit means that a substantial proportion of books published in the UK and Ireland are not currently available.  Books published outside the UK and Ireland, in Europe, the Americas and Oceania, are less impacted by the IT outage.  Most more recent books published in Africa and Asia are not available as most are stored at the Library’s Boston Spa site: there is  information about alternative resources on the Asian and African Studies blog. Additional materials, especially reference books and recent issues of some journals, can be found in the Library's reading rooms, including the Social Science reading room and the Asian and African Studies reading room. 

 

'Gender and elections', by Susan Carroll, Richard Fox and Kelly Dittmar.  Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2022.  British Library shelfmark YC.2023.a.1355.

 

The Library is still able to provide readers with access to a very wide range of important academic texts across all subject areas within the social sciences.  In the absence of a large part of UK and Irish publishing, the more recent books available have a slightly more international frame of reference.

 

Etel Adnan's artwork graces the cover of the monumental 'Arab American women; representation and refusal', edited by Michael W Suleiman, Suad Joseph and Louise Cainkar.  Syracuse University Press.  Shelfmark YC.2022.b.1696

 

 

Knowledge and inspiration combine in 'Womanist and mujerista psychologies: voices of fire, acts of courage', edited by Thema Bryant-Davis and Lillian Comas-Díaz. Washington, D.C. : American Psychological Association, 2016.  Shelfmark YC.2016.b.1854

 

 

A brief walk along the shelves in the Library’s basements reveals a rich range of books relevant to women’s studies and women’s history.  Whilst they are generally spread fairly thinly across the shelves, they wait to be discovered and called up to the light of the reading rooms.

 

 

The relatively rare sight of two books in a row with a focus on women and gender.  Both the ethnographic study 'Sex, shame and violence: a revolutionary practice of  public storytelling in poor communities' by Kathleen Cash  (YC.2016.b.1866) and 'Nurses as leaders: evolutionary visions of leadership' by William Rosa  (YC.2016.b.1867) are US publications (published by Vanderbilt University Press and Springer,  New York respectively)  showing the international coverage of currently-available, more recent, material in the social sciences.

 

Recently published books in the humanities and social science sit side by side on the shelves in the basements, whilst works of fiction, general interest, and children's books are housed at Boston Spa.   Interestingly, current drama is housed in London, illustrated in the image below showing three plays, 'Mum' by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm, August Strindberg's 'Miss Julie' adapted by Amy Ng and Lulu Raczka's 'Antigone'.   In the centre of this shelf, partly hidden by its label, is Chiara Bottici's 'Anarchafeminism', published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2022.

 

Social science and humanities books received from UK, Irish and some international publishers by Legal Deposit, and stored at St Pancras.

 

'Anarchafeminism' by Chiara Bottici (London, Bloomsbury Academic, 2022).  Shelfmark YC.2022.a.8306 is among books available to readers.

 

Chiara Bottici is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research, USA, and has written extensively on philosophy and myth.  Judith Butler, who will be speaking at the British Library on 19 March 2024 (in person tickets are sold out, but online tickets are available), reviewed this latest work by Bottici, saying  "This is a capacious, clear, and revolutionary text that will bring readers who are just starting to learn about feminist philosophy as well as those who have been around a long time. This book does an excellent job in communicating the value of the anarchic, especially in its resistance to the leader, and its thoroughgoing affirmation of the value of freedom. This freedom is not a narrow idea of personal liberty, but an entire mode of transforming the world. We learn as well about a 'transindividualism' which allows us a way to rethink global solidarity for our times."   (https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/anarchafeminism-9781350095854/ viewed 8/3/2024).

 

 

With International Women's Day approaching on 8th March, this post ushers in Women’s History Month by picking out a selection of books published over the last few years that put women’s history and women’s voices centre stage. Ranging from quick reads to more weighty academic studies, this small selection gives an insight into the diversity of the material that is available to readers in the Library’s St Pancras reading rooms.  

Access to the collections held by the British Library remains limited because of a major technology outage caused by a cyber attack at the end of October 2023.  The work being done to restore services is detailed in a post on our Knowledge Matters blog, and our temporary website outlines the services that are currently available, as well as listing what's on at the Library.  Our reading rooms at both St Pancras and Boston Spa are open for personal study, with free wifi and limited access to the collections.  Those who held a reading pass before the outage are able to consult a limited range of collection items.    

The selection of books below ranges from literary criticism to histories of political activism, and from interviews to theory: all are held at St Pancras and should be available to readers who have a readers pass, but if you are planning to come to the Library, please check the availability before you visit.  To do so, contact our Reference Services team by emailing [email protected] .

 

Uncontrollable women: radicals, reformers and revolutionaries by Nan Sloane

London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2022.  British Library shelfmark YC.2023.a.1245

Cover image of Uncontrollable women: radicals, reformers and revolutionaries, by Nan Sloane. London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2022.  British Library shelfmark YC.2023.a.1245

Nan Sloane’s most recent book explores the history of radical, reformist and revolutionary women between the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 and the passing of the Great Reform Act in 1832. The book puts the often-untold stories and voices of these women centre stage to show the way they challenged power structures and even gave their lives for the cause they made their own.   The battles they fought for political expression and greater freedom are relevant not only to a different reading of history, but also to women's rights today.  Nan Sloane’s earlier work, The Women in the Room: Labour’s forgotten history (London, IB Tauris, 2020, British Library shelfmark YC.2021.a.4484) offered a readable and enlightening account of the political activists who shaped the British Labour party.

 

Carnival is woman: feminism and performance in Caribbean mas, edited by Frances Henry and Dwaine Plaza.

Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, 2020 British Library shelfmark YC.2023.a.488

Cover image of Carnival is woman : feminism and performance in Caribbean mas, edited by Frances Henry and Dwaine Plaza. Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, 2020 British Library shelfmark YC.2023.a.488

 

The essays in this collection bring a feminist perspective to the role of women in Caribbean Carnival, through a focus on women and their practices in the Trinidad Carnival. The book presents a range of qualitative research methods, including interviews, participant observation and ethnography to examine women’s empowerment through performance, enjoyment and expression. 

 

Feminism by Bernardine Evaristo

London: Tate Gallery Publishing Ltd., 2021.  British Library shelfmark YC.2023.a.590.

Cover image of Feminism, by Bernardine Evaristo, London: Tate Gallery Publishing Ltd., 2021.  British Library shelfmark YC.2023.a.590.

The ‘Look Again’ series of short books explores the Tate’s National Collection of British Art, reframing the collection in new ways and drawing on contemporary perspectives.  In just under 50 pages, this richly-illustrated book offers an interpretation of British art from an intersectional feminist perspective, from one of Britain’s foremost writers.  Bernadine Evaristo is a Booker Prize-winning author and Professor of Creative Writing whose work ranges from fiction and poetry to criticism.  This personal exploration focuses on representations of women and non-binary people of colour who have been less visible within museums and galleries.

 

The career and communities of Zaynab Fawwaz: feminist thinking in fin-de-siècle Egypt by Marilyn Booth.

New York: Oxford University Press, 2021. British Library shelfmark YC.2023.a.366

Cover image of The career and communities of Zaynab Fawwaz : feminist thinking in fin-de-siècle Egypt by Marilyn Booth. New York: Oxford University Press, 2021. British Library shelfmark YC.2023.a.366

 

Academic and literary translator Marilyn Booth has worked for over thirty years to show women’s input into debates around feminism and gender politics in Egypt.  Her latest work focuses on Lebanese author and activist, Zaynab Fawwaz who wrote and published in Egypt toward the end of the nineteenth century. Her monumental work The Book of Scattered Pearls Regarding Categories of Women /   الدر المنثور في طبقات ربات الخدور  which was first published in 1891, is a biographical dictionary that celebrates and supports women's achievements.  Zaynab Fawwaz wrote two novels and a play, and was at the forefront of the emergence of the novel in Arabic.

 

The women are up to something: how Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley, and Iris Murdoch revolutionized ethics, by Benjamin J. B. Lipscomb.

New York: Oxford University Press, 2022.  British Library shelfmark YC.2023.a.411

 

Cover image of The women are up to something: how Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley, and Iris Murdoch revolutionized ethics, by Benjamin J. B. Lipscomb .
New York : Oxford University Press, 2022.  British Library shelfmark YC.2023.a.411

 

This book focuses on four women who began their studies at Oxford just before the Second World War: Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley, and Iris Murdoch.  From very different backgrounds, they forged friendships and worked to set out an intellectual understanding of what it means to live a good life. Drawing on letters, archives and interviews, the book explores their ideas and the contribution to intellectual history made by their distinct, alternative, interventions into philosophy and ethics.

Inside page with figures from The Women are up to something... : Iris Murdoch, Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot and Mary Midgley.

 

Surfacing: on being Black and feminist in South Africa, edited by Desiree Lewis and Gabeba  Baderoon. 

Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 2021.  British Library shelfmark YC.2022.a.3898

Cover of Surfacing : on being Black and feminist in South Africa, edited by Desiree Lewis and Gabeba  Baderoon.  Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 2021.  British Library shelfmark YC.2022.a.3898

 

This ground-breaking collection of essays, edited by feminist theorist Desiree Lewis and poet and scholar Gabeba Baderoon is dedicated to bringing to the fore a range of contemporary Black South African feminist perspectives. The writers and practitioners who have contributed their views use creative expression, photography and poetry to explore representations of Blackness, sexuality, girlhood, history, divinity, alongside other themes.

 

 

Challenging women's agency and activism in early modernity, edited by Merry E. Wiesner.

Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2021, British Library shelfmark YC.2023.a.1071

 

Cover of Challenging women's agency and activism in early modernity, edited by Merry E. Wiesner. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2021, British Library shelfmark YC.2023.a.1071

An Open Access edition of this book is also available free online as at OAPEN Online Library of Open Access Books https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/61368

This collection of essays, focusing on Europe and beyond, considers the various ways women were able to exercise agency in the Renaissance and early modern period. At this time women faced new constraints but also found new forms of activism. The essays look at how the actions of girls and women could shape their lives and challenge male-dominated institutions in spite of family and social pressures. 

 

Feminisms with Chinese characteristics, edited by Ping Zhu and Hui Faye Xiao.

Syracuse, New York : Syracuse University Press  2021.  British Library shelfmark YC.2023.a.908

 

Front cover of Feminisms with Chinese characteristics, edited by Ping Zhu and Hui Faye Xiao.  Syracuse, New York : Syracuse University Press  2021.  British Library shelfmark YC.2023.a.908

Edited by two academics from US universities, this collection of ten essays and two interviews examines the varying ways Chinese feminist ideas have developed since the mid-1990s. It includes articles by contemporary activists and writers from China to highlight the importance of exploring different interpretations of feminism in a way that is integrated into Chinese culture and history.

 

 

Shakespeare's 'lady editors': a new history of the Shakespearean text, by Molly G. Yarn

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022. British Library shelfmark YC.2023.a.1605

 

Cover image of Shakespeare's 'lady editors': a new history of the Shakespearean text, by Molly G. Yarn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022. British Library shelfmark YC.2023.a.1605

In the tradition of challenging established histories and revealing the work of women who have been left out of history, this book sets out to recover the lives and work of almost seventy women editors. It challenges the received wisdom those who edited Shakespeare’s texts were almost all men up until the late twentieth century. Its alternative perspective takes these women's work seriously in order to change our understanding of how Shakespeare’s works were edited and how we read Shakespeare across time.

 

Family, slavery and love in the early American republic: the essays of Jan Ellen Lewis. Edited by Barry Bienstock, Annette Gordon-Reed, and Peter Onuf.

Williamsburg, Virginia : The Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture ; Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 2021.  British Library shelfmark YC.2023.a.455

 

Title page of Family, slavery and love in the early American republic: the essays of Jan Ellen Lewis. YC.2023.a.455

 

Historian Jan Ellen Lewis, who died in 2018,  taught at Rutgers University-Newark for over four decades.  Her studies of gender, emotions, and the family transformed understandings of the early American republic.  She was a renowned scholar of colonial and early national history, focusing on the intersections between gender, race and politics.  She was also known for championing the career progress of students and colleagues.   This collection, brought together by her husband Barry Bienstock, along with colleagues Annette Gordon-Reed and Peter Onuf, contains thirteen of her most important essays, along with critical interpretation and contextual discussion by fellow historians.

 

The ten books picked out here - just a few of the diverse approaches to women's history -  also have in common the fact that they were received by the Library under Legal Deposit. This is the requirement that publishers should deposit a copy of each book published or distributed in the United Kingdom or in the Republic of Ireland with the British Library, and it remains a key means through which the Library builds its collections.  Just over half of the books received each year under Legal Deposit come into the Library in print, whilst slightly less than half are received in electronic format.  Our contemporary printed collections are also built through purchase and donation.  The Library is still able to receive Legal Deposit copies in print format.  Electronic deposit is yet to be restored but has been identified as a priority. 

 

 

 

 

The British Library acquires material at a rapid rate, and this has resulted in areas where material cannot be catalogued promptly soon after its arrival. This prevents discovery and access by readers, effectively ‘hiding’ the material away. In response to this, the Unlocking our Hidden Collections initiative aims to clear cataloguing backlogs, process donated material, and upgrade already existing bibliographic records, making the material 'visible' once more.

 

Front cover of the Swaziland census 1956. Credits: Swaziland census 1956 shelfmark C.S.D.475/1.

There are several collections being worked on under this umbrella including  Archives by Women Musicians, the Tony Benn Archive: Correspondence and personal papers, Cotton charters and rolls, and the Harley Manuscripts (post 1600).

The Government and Official Information group at the British Library also has a collection joining this exciting line up, the Historical Census Publications of Africa, the West Indies, and Pacific Islands; which is comprised of 18^th and 19^th century publications and was donated by the Office for National Statistics in the late 1990s. Up to now the material has not been fully accessioned and catalogued.

With the commencement of the Hidden Collections project, these items are being sorted and catalogued, so that readers will now be able to access this intriguing material via the Library's main catalogue Explore the British Library.  The main focus is to process items from Africa, the West Indies, and the Pacific Islands.  

But this work will also reveal and allow us to catalogue material from other areas, because when the material was first accepted it was listed and stored in boxes containing a mix of items, for example the Gold Coast with Canada, or Malawi with Ireland, resulting in a mix of locales. Many of these areas went through periods of upheaval and change during the 18^th and 19^th centuries  – from world wars and other conflicts, to the end of colonial rule and establishing independence as separate nations.

The first item to be catalogued from these donated publications as part of the Hidden Collections Programme was the Swaziland census of 1956, which was one of the last censuses carried out in the country before it regained independence in 1968.

Introductory paragraph of the Swaziland census 1956. Credits: Swaziland census 1956 shelfmark C.S.D.475/1.

During this time Swaziland was governed by a resident Commissioner who worked with the white settlers, the Swazi ruler, and the British High Commissioner to South Africa. Following Swaziland’s involvement in the Second World War, and some unpopular decrees made by the Commissioners, in 1952 the Swazi paramount chief was given a degree of autonomy that had been unheard of in the indirect British rule in Africa.

While the census document itself may look unassuming, inside it is filled with tables that give an insight into the lives of people living in Swaziland in 1956 as the country was being prepared for independence. For example, there are tables that measure the population growth of Swaziland against other regions, before going on to list the demographics of age, sex, residence, occupation, and it also contains comparative tables of the African population compared to the Euro-African population.

As the project has continued it has become evident that this census material is a true mix of cultures, spanning the globe from New Zealand to Lesotho, to Malta to Jamaica, to Argentina to Canada, and everywhere in between.

The mix of material has thrown up different challenges to be met along the way. One of the first encountered was how to approach censuses that had been bound together, whether to catalogue the item as a whole or to treat each census as an individual item.

Spine of an item with three census years listed, culminating in four different documents in need of cataloguing. The 1921 census can also be found at C.S.C.378/4., and the 1931 census at C.S.C.378. Credits: Gold Coast 1911, 1921, 1931 shelfmark OPE.2023.x.59.

Other headscratchers have been about what the correct approach should be for censuses published as a Parliamentary Sessional Paper, or in a Gazette, or in a supplement to that Gazette, or published in a supplement to a bulletin for the census of a completely different country. There are a lot of different ways to publish a census, and not just as a simple monograph.

However, there have been some fantastic finds within the material donated by the Office for National Statistics. Highlights have included additional volumes from the Mauritius 1983 census (CSD.384/63) and the Commonwealth Caribbean 1970 census (CSF.157/60) which have been added to our existing holdings. A census new to our collections was that for Nigeria in 1963. This census was the last taken before the civil war of 1967-70, and the 1973 census was cancelled amid controversy and accusations of inaccuracies in the counting.

There has also been the first census of Malta taken in 1842, which unlike most we have received was conducted not by a Statistics or Census Office, but instead by the Chief Inspector of Police. Another item of note was a very interesting census for the Western Pacific Islands in 1911. While geographically expansive, it was incredibly short – with most of the islands having a single sentence census: “Island was empty at this time.”

The first page from the handwritten census of Labuan in 1881. Credits: [Report on the census of Labuan and its dependencies taken in 1881], shelfmark OPG.2023.x.8 (1)

 

Some of the best finds though have been the handwritten censuses, such as the Gambian census of 1901, or that of Norfolk Island in 1891. There was also the census of Labuan in 1881, a tiny island near the coast of Borneo that was uninhabited until it came into the hands of the British who constructed a port there, although how it came to be under British control is a matter of some debate. Some stories involve pirates, and others hostage taking and cannon fire. Later the censuses of this island became folded into that of North Borneo, and were published in the Official Gazette.

As the Hidden Collections Programme progresses, more of this material will become accessible.  Its eclectic mix of locales and publication methods serves to highlight the incredibly varied census publications already in the collection, as well as some great new additions.

 

Vikki Greenwood

Cataloguer, Hidden Collections Project