useful reading

Dear students,

You will find two fine chapters that explain the context in which the Parliament Bill of 1911 was passed in the following book :

Twentieth Century Britain : A political History .
WIllaim. D. Rubinstein. 2003

The book is in the library, please use it in the library to let everyone have a chance at looking at it.
The photocopies of the relevant chapter in Poverty and Welfare is available at the the library in Les Chènes.

See you wednesday;

AM

Any one know what is hitting the headlines today in Britain?

what's hitting the headlines in the UK this week

The Archbishop of Canterbury has recently given a legal paper and an interview on the subject of the relationship between sharia and English law. He has said that sharia law will inevitably have to accomodate sharia law which is used by the British Muslims, especially in areas such as marriage legislation. If you want to read or listen to the full interview with Archbishop Rowan Williams visit the BBC page. You will also find the video of his address on their website.

Read The Guardian article.
For a very different perspective you can refer to the articles published by The Telegraph by clicking here.

As you can see the archbishop has tried to clarify his thoughts in response to the barrage of criticism he has faced in the press this week.

Did you read any noteworthy news in the British papers this week? Let me know and I can arrange for you to post it on the blog.

reading suggestions

Here are a few books available at Cergy's Library and I suppose that they can be useful.

Nineteenth century Britain. Jeremy Black

The Pelican history of England : 1815-1914 , David Thomson . 8 . England in the nineteenth century (use the index to find references to the trade-unions)

Histoire du syndicalisme dans le monde : des origines à nos jours , sous la dir. de Jean Sagnes

L'invention des syndicalismes : le syndicalisme en Europe occidentale à la fin du XIXe siècle , sous la dir. de Jean-Louis Robert, Friedhelm Boll, Antoine Prost ; postf. de Jacques Delors

You may also want to use a book on British history or on the history of the 19th century or on Victorian Britain.

Websites you may want to check out :
union history website.

wikipedia and encarta also provide for encyclopedia entries for trade-unions. Use these sources carefully and remember to think for yourselves as you construct your answer to the essay question. 

best wishes for 2008

Dear Students,

I hope that 2008 will be a year of personal and academic fulfillment for all of you.

The Queen addressed her country on Christmas Day. I have found that this video tells you a lot about Britain and is quite touching albeit a bit quaint.