Archaeology and History

Photo of Professor Jon Lawrence

Professor Jon Lawrence

Professor of Modern British History

J.Lawrence3@exeter.ac.uk

2490

01392 722490

Overview

I work on modern British social, cultural and political history and have a special interest in the intersection of class and gender in both popular politics and the wider politics of everyday life. My latest book, Me, Me, Me? The Search for Community in Post-war England was published by the trade arm of Oxford University Press in 2019. Based largely on research conducted during a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship, it uses the testimony of ordinary people collected since the 1940s to challenge conventional accounts of the death of community and relentless rise of selfish individualism.

My previous books include Speaking for the People: Party, Language and Popular Politics in England, 1867-1914 (CUP, 1998), Electing Our Masters: the Hustings in British Politics from Hogarth to Blair (OUP, 2009) and the edited collection Party, State and Society: Electoral Behaviour in Britain since 1820 (with Miles Taylor [1997]) which played an important part in defining the so-called 'new political history'. I have previously taught at University College London, the University of Liverpool, Harvard University and the University of Cambridge and been a visiting scholar at Harvard, Monash and the Australian National University. I have supervised more than twenty PhDs to completion on a wide range of topics in modern British history and am keen to hear from new potential graduates to work with me at Exeter. 
Read more at https://humanities.exeter.ac.uk/history/staff/jlawrence/#COaa3E3gy8IDXhXg.99

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Research

Prof. Lawrence works on British social, political and cultural history from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. He has published extensively on political language and the culture of public politics. He published Me, Me, Me? The Search for Community in post-war England with Oxford Univeristy Press in 2019. This work explores the everyday or 'vernacular' politics of self and society in modern Britain. Lawrence has also worked extensively on the world of popular party politics, playing a prominent role in the development of the so-called 'new poiltical history' with its emphasis on the systematic study of political language. See especially Speaking for the People: Party, Language and Popular politics in England, 1867-1914 (CUP, 1998) and Electing Our Masters: the Hustings in British Politics from Hogarth to Blair (OUP, 2009). He is currently a Co-I on the large, interdisciplinary UKRI/AHRC project Living with Machines based at the Turing Institute and British Library which seeks to transform our ability to study the history of modern Britain at scale.

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Supervision

I am interested in supervising research students working on most aspects of British social, political and cultural history since 1860, and have particular interests in the history of class, gender, place and popular politics. 

Research students

Current:

Matt Beebee, 'Deindustrialisation and the ‘rise and fall’ of the ‘traditional working-class’ c.1970-1990' [Exeter, 2018]

Emily Pierson-Webber, ‘Masculinity and the miners’ strike, 1984-85’ [Reading, 2018]

Charles Lockwood, 'Conceptions of public opinion and social change in the British New Right, c.1965-1983' [Cambridge, 2016]

Supervised to completion:

Julie-Marie Strange (with Dr Andrew Davies), ‘This mortal coil: popular attitudes to death, c.1880-1914’ [Liverpool, 2000]  

Julie Grier, (with Dr Pat Starkey), ‘Children's charities and the welfare state, 1945-1970’ [Liverpool, 2000]

Gaynor Williams, ‘Women in public life in Liverpool between the wars’ [Liverpool, 2000]

Linda Craig (with Dr Chris Lewis), ‘Community and identity in Whalley Bridge, 1850-1950’ [Liverpool, 2002]

C. Kit Good (with Dr Andrew Davies), ‘England Goes to War 1914-15’ [Liverpool, 2002]

Ruth Clayton [Windscheffel], (with Prof. Roger Swift, Chester College), ‘A history of the working library of William Ewart Gladstone at Hawarden’ [Liverpool/Chester, 2003]                       

Victoria Barbary, ‘ “From platform to polling booth”: political leadership and popular politics in Bury and Bolton, 1868-1906’ [Cambridge, 2007]

Laura D. Beers, ‘“Selling Socialism”: Labour, democracy and the mass media, 1900-1939,’ (Harvard, 2007 [doctoral advisor]

David Thackeray, ‘Popular politics and the making of modern Conservatism, c. 1906-1924’ [Cambridge, 2010]

Gary Love, ‘Conservatives, National Politics and the Challenge to Democracy in Britain, 1931-37’ [Cambridge, 2010]

Geraint Thomas, ‘Conservatives and the culture of ‘National’ government between the wars’ [Cambridge, 2010]

Chris Cotton, ‘The Labour Party and European Integration, 1961-1983’ [Cambridge, 2011]

Christian Schlaepfer, [with Chris Andrew] ‘Counter Subversion in Britain c. 1945-1962’ [Cambridge, 2013]

Tom Cordiner, ‘British attitudes to Israel and Zionism since 1945,’ AHRC-funded [Cambridge, 2013]

Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite, ‘Class, community and individualism in English politics and society, 1969-2000’ [Cambridge, 2014]

Justin Fantauzzo, ‘Experience, Memory, and British Soldiers in the Palestine Campaign of the First World War, 1916-1918’ [Cambridge, 2014]

John Barry, ‘Overspill and the impact of the town development act, 1945-74’ [with Martin Daunton] [Cambridge 2015]

Simon Abernethy, ‘Class, commuting and social change in London, 1881-1939’ [Cambridge, 2015]

Stuart Middleton, ‘Class, culture and the Left, c.1930-70’ [Cambridge, 2015]

Alex Campsie, ‘The New Left, the New Times, and the re-making of British socialism, 1962-1991’ [Cambridge, 2017]

Kieran Heinemann, ‘Popular share-owning and processes of “financialization” in post-war Britain’ [Cambridge, 2017]

David Cowan, 'The politics of the past in Britain, c.1939-1990' [Cambridge, 2019]

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Publications

Copyright Notice: Any articles made available for download are for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the copyright holder.

| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2019 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2003 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997 | 1994 | 1993 | 1992 | 1991 |

2023

2022

2021

  • Coll Ardanuy M, Beelen K, Lawrence J, McDonough K, Nanni F, Rhodes J, Tolfo G, Wilson DCS. (2021) Station to station: Linking and enriching historical British railway data, CEUR Workshop Proceedings, volume 2989, pages 249-265.

2019

2017

  • Lawrence. (2017) Individualism and community in historical perspective, Austerity, Community Action, and the Future of Citizenship in Europe, ed. Shana Cohen, Christina Fuhr and Jan-Jonathan Bock, Policy Press, 239-254.
  • Lawrence J. (2017) Languages of place and belonging: competing conceptions of “community” in mid-twentieth century Bermondsey, London, (Re)Constructing Communities in Europe, 1918-1968: Senses of Belonging Below, Beyond and Within the Nation-State, ed. Stefan Couperus and Harm Kaal, Routledge, 19-44.
  • Elliott J, Lawrence J. (2017) Narrative, time and intimacy in social research: Linda and Jim revisited, Revisiting Divisions of Labour: the Impacts and Legacies of a Modern Sociological Classic, ed. Graham Crow and Jaimie Ellis, Manchester University Press, 189-204, DOI:10.7765/9781526116239.00017.
  • Lawrence J. (2017) Workers’ testimony and the sociological reification of manual / non-manual distinctions in 1960s Britain, Sozial.Geschichte online/Social History online, volume 20, pages 13-51. [PDF]

2016

2015

  • Lawrence J. (2015) Public and private languages of “class” in the Luton by-election of 1963, The Art of the Possible: Politics and Governance in Modern British History, 1885-1997. Essays in Memory of Duncan Tanner, ed. Chris Williams and Andrew Edwards, Manchester University Press, 188-206.

2014

  • Elliott J, Lawrence J. (2014) Refining childhood social class measures in the 1958 British cohort study. [PDF]
  • Lawrence J. (2014) Social-science Encounters and the Negotiation of Difference in early 1960s England, History Workshop Journal, volume 77, pages 215-239.

2013

  • Lawrence J. (2013) Class, “affluence” and the study of everyday life in Britain, c.1930-1964, Cultural and Social History, volume 10, pages 273-299, article no. 2.

2012

  • Lawrence J, Sutcliffe-Braithwaite F. (2012) Margaret Thatcher and the decline of class politics, Making Thatcher’s Britain, ed. Ben Jackson and Robert Saunders, Cambridge University Press, 132-47.

2011

  • Feldman D, Lawrence J. (2011) Structures and transformations in British historiography, Structures and transformations in modern British history: essays for Gareth Stedman Jones, ed. David Feldman and Jon Lawrence, Cambridge University Press.
  • Lawrence J. (2011) Labour and the politics of class, 1900-1940, Structures and transformations in modern British history: essays for Gareth Stedman Jones, ed. David Feldman and Jon Lawrence, Cambridge University Press, 237-260.
  • Lawrence J. (2011) Paternalism, Class and the British Path to Modernity, The Peculiarities of Liberal Modernity in Imperial Britain, ed. Simon Gunn and James Vernon, University of California Press, 163-80. [PDF]
  • Lawrence J. (2011) The culture of elections in modern Britain, History, volume 96, pages 459-476, article no. 324.
  • . (2011) Structures and transformations in modern British history: essays for Gareth Stedman Jones, Cambridge University Press.

2010

  • Lawrence J. (2010) Political History, Writing History: theory and practice, 2nd edn, ed. Stefan Berger, Heiko Feldner and Kevin Passmore, Bloomsbury, 213-231.

2009

  • Lawrence J. (2009) Electing Our Masters: the hustings in British politics from Hogarth to Blair, Oxford University Press.

2008

  • Lawrence J, Taylor M. (2008) British historians and political sociology, POLITIX, volume 21, no. 81, pages 13-+. [PDF]
  • Lawrence J, Taylor M. (2008) Les historiens britanniques face à la sociologie politique, Politix: Revue des Sciences Sociales du Politique, volume 21, pages 13-39, article no. 81.
  • LAWRENCE JON, ELLIOTT J. (2008) Parliamentary Election Results Reconsidered: An Analysis of Borough Elections, 1885–1910, Parliamentary History, volume 16, no. 1, pages 18-28, DOI:10.1111/j.1750-0206.1997.tb00571.x. [PDF]

2007

  • Lawrence J. (2007) Public space, political space, Capital Cities at War: Paris, London, Berlin, 1914-1919. Volume 2: A Cultural History, ed. Jat Winter and Jean-Louis Robert, Cambridge University Press, 280-312.

2006

  • Lawrence J. (2006) The Transformation of British Public Politics after the First World War, Past & Present, volume 190, pages 185-216.

2005

  • Lawrence J. (2005) Why Olympia mattered: reply to Pugh, Historical Research, volume 78, pages 263-272, article no. 200.

2003

  • Lawrence J. (2003) Political History, Writing History: theory and practice, ed. Stefan Berger, Heiko Feldner and Kevin Passmore, Arnold, 183-202.
  • Lawrence J. (2003) Fascist Violence and the Politics of Public Order in inter-war Britain: the Olympia Debate Revisited, Historical Research, volume 76, pages 238-267, article no. 192.
  • Lawrence J. (2003) Forging a Peaceable Kingdom: War, Violence and the Fear of Brutalisation in Post-First World War Britain, Journal of Modern History, volume 75, pages 557-589, article no. 3.

2001

  • Lawrence J, Starkey P. (2001) Introduction: Child welfare and social action, CHILD WELFARE AND SOCIAL ACTION IN THE NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURIES: INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES, pages 1-11. [PDF]
  • Lawrence J, Starkey P. (2001) Child welfare and social action, Child welfare and social action in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: international perspectives, ed. Jon Lawrence and Pat Starkey, Liverpool University Press, 1-11.
  • Lawrence J. (2001) Contesting the male polity: the suffragettes and the politics of disruption in Edwardian Britain, Women, privilege and power: British politics, 1750 to the present, ed. Amanda Vickery, Stanford University Press, 201-226.
  • . (2001) Child welfare and social action in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: international perspectives, Liverpool University Press.

2000

  • Lawrence J. (2000) Labour – the myths it has lived by, Labour’s First Century, ed. Duncan Tanner, Pat Thane and Nick Tiratsoo, Cambridge University Press, 341-366.

1999

  • Lawrence J. (1999) The complexities of English Progressivism: Wolverhampton politics in the early twentieth century, Midland History, volume 24, pages 147-166.

1998

  • Lawrence J. (1998) Speaking for the People: party, language and popular politics in England, 1867-1914, Cambridge University Press.

1997

  • Lawrence J. (1997) The dynamics of urban politics, 1867-1914, Party, state and society: electoral behaviour in Britain since 1820, ed. Jon Lawrence and Miles Taylor, Scolar Press (Ashgate), 79-105.
  • Lawrence J, Taylor M. (1997) Electoral sociology and the historians, Party, state and society: electoral behaviour in Britain since 1820, ed. Jon Lawrence and Miles Taylor, Scolar Press (Ashgate), 1-26.
  • Magri S, Lawrence J, Cole J. (1997) Housing, Capital cities at war: London, Paris, Berlin, 1914 1919, ed. Jay Winter and Jean-Louis Robert, Cambridge University Press, 374-417.
  • Triebel A, Lawrence J, Bonzon T. (1997) Coal and the metropolis, Capital cities at war: London, Paris, Berlin, 1914 1919, ed. Jay Winter and Jean-Louis Robert, Cambridge University Press, 342-373.
  • Lawrence J, Robert J-L, Cole J. (1997) Material pressures on the middle classes, Capital cities at war: London, Paris, Berlin, 1914 1919, ed. Jay Winter and Jean-Louis Robert, Cambridge University Press, 229-254.
  • Cole J, Lawrence J, Robert J-L. (1997) The transition to peace, 1918-1919, Capital cities at war: London, Paris, Berlin, 1914 1919, ed. Jay Winter and Jean-Louis Robert, Cambridge University Press, 196-226.
  • Bonzon T, Cole J, Lawrence J. (1997) The labour market and industrial mobilization, 1915-1917, Capital cities at war: London, Paris, Berlin, 1914 1919, ed. Jay Winter and Jean-Louis Robert, Cambridge University Press, 164-195.
  • Lawrence J, Dean M, Robert J-L. (1997) The transition to war in 1914, Capital cities at war: London, Paris, Berlin, 1914 1919, ed. Jay Winter and Jean-Louis Robert, Cambridge University Press, 135-163.
  • . (1997) Party, state and society: electoral behaviour in Britain since 1820, Scolar Press (Ashgate).

1994

  • Lawrence J. (1994) The First World War and its aftermath, Twentieth-Century Britain: economic, social and cultural change, ed. Paul Johnson, Longmans, 151-168.

1993

  • Lawrence J, Taylor M. (1993) The poverty of protest: Gareth Stedman Jones and the politics of language: a reply, Social History, volume 18, pages 1-15, article no. 1.
  • Lawrence J. (1993) Class and gender in the making of urban toryism, 1880 1914, English Historical Review, volume 108, pages 629-652, article no. 428.
  • Winter J, Lawrence J, Arouiat J. (1993) The impact of war on infant mortality in London, 1910 1923, Annales de Demographie Historique, volume 1993, pages 329-253.

1992

  • Lawrence J. (1992) Popular Radicalism and the socialist revival in Britain, Journal of British Studies, volume 31, pages 163-186, article no. 2.
  • Lawrence J, Dean M, Robert J-L. (1992) The outbreak of War and the urban economy, Paris, Berlin and London in 1914, Economic History Review, volume 45, pages 564-93, article no. 3.

1991

  • Lawrence J. (1991) Popular politics and the limitations of party: Wolverhampton, 1867 1900, Currents of Radicalism: popular Radicalism, organized labour and party politics in Britain, 1850-1914, ed. Eugenio Biagini and Alastair Reid, Cambridge University Press, 65-85.

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External impact and engagement


Media

I have appeared in historical documentary programmes on BBC2, Channel 4 and the Parliament Channel, and on a range of BBC radio programmes including The Long View, Westminster Hour and the recent ten part series on Conservatism, Liberalism and Socialism. In June 2014 I wrote and presented a BBC Radio 4 documentary exploring 'The Unmaking of the English Working Class'. I have written on the political and policy implications of my research for Renewal, Juncture, The New Left Project, BBC History Magazine, History Today and History & Policy. 

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