Social HistoryPub Date : 2025-03-04eCollection Date: 2025-01-01DOI: 10.1080/03071022.2025.2431396
David Green, Natasha Preger, Harry Smith
{"title":"Trusting the postman: prosecuting theft and managing sickness in the British Post Office, c.1860-1910.","authors":"David Green, Natasha Preger, Harry Smith","doi":"10.1080/03071022.2025.2431396","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03071022.2025.2431396","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The Post Office was an immensely important institution of the British state. It fostered communication, encouraged business, provided employment and generated revenue for the Treasury. Efficiency and economy were paramount considerations for the Post Office authorities, keen to maintain the government's trust in good management. Maintaining public trust to deliver mail and messages speedily and securely also underpinned its operations. When trust was called into question, often due to theft of mail by postal workers themselves or the rising costs of sick leave, the Post Office was keen to act. In this article we examine two critical points of tension in the Post Office that tested trust in the institution. The first relates to the incidence of mail theft by its own workers and the actions taken by the Post Office authorities to catch and prosecute the perpetrators. The second relates to the incidence of sickness and the attempts to monitor the legitimacy of claims for sick pay. Both instances lay bare the workings of the Post Office and the critical importance of trust in its operations and, more widely, in late nineteenth-century urban society.</p>","PeriodicalId":21866,"journal":{"name":"Social History","volume":"50 1","pages":"85-109"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11934950/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143721534","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Social HistoryPub Date : 2024-07-04DOI: 10.1080/03071022.2024.2352247
Andrew Burchell
{"title":"Our NHS: a history of Britain’s best-loved institution","authors":"Andrew Burchell","doi":"10.1080/03071022.2024.2352247","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03071022.2024.2352247","url":null,"abstract":"Published in Social History (Vol. 49, No. 3, 2024)","PeriodicalId":21866,"journal":{"name":"Social History","volume":"13 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141614303","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Social HistoryPub Date : 2024-07-04DOI: 10.1080/03071022.2024.2352236
Frances Houghton, Kesewa John, Eloise Moss, Michael Sanders, Julie-Marie Strange, Benjamin Thomas White
{"title":"Social History Book Club: Lyonel Trouillot, Antoine of Gommiers","authors":"Frances Houghton, Kesewa John, Eloise Moss, Michael Sanders, Julie-Marie Strange, Benjamin Thomas White","doi":"10.1080/03071022.2024.2352236","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03071022.2024.2352236","url":null,"abstract":"Published in Social History (Vol. 49, No. 3, 2024)","PeriodicalId":21866,"journal":{"name":"Social History","volume":"22 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141614310","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Social HistoryPub Date : 2024-07-04DOI: 10.1080/03071022.2024.2352243
Talia Zajac
{"title":"Radegund: the trials and triumphs of a Merovingian queen","authors":"Talia Zajac","doi":"10.1080/03071022.2024.2352243","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03071022.2024.2352243","url":null,"abstract":"Published in Social History (Vol. 49, No. 3, 2024)","PeriodicalId":21866,"journal":{"name":"Social History","volume":"30 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141608295","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Social HistoryPub Date : 2024-07-04DOI: 10.1080/03071022.2024.2351752
Christian D. Liddy
{"title":"The household, the citizen and the city: towards a social history of urban politics in the late Middle Ages","authors":"Christian D. Liddy","doi":"10.1080/03071022.2024.2351752","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03071022.2024.2351752","url":null,"abstract":"Histories of politics in the late medieval European town present a struggle between town oligarchs and town citizens. While the conclusions that historians draw differ, the stakes of politics are t...","PeriodicalId":21866,"journal":{"name":"Social History","volume":"38 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141608296","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Social HistoryPub Date : 2024-07-04DOI: 10.1080/03071022.2024.2352237
Freddy Foks
{"title":"Artisans Abroad: British migrant workers in industrialising Europe, 1815–1870","authors":"Freddy Foks","doi":"10.1080/03071022.2024.2352237","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03071022.2024.2352237","url":null,"abstract":"Published in Social History (Vol. 49, No. 3, 2024)","PeriodicalId":21866,"journal":{"name":"Social History","volume":"21 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141608298","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Social HistoryPub Date : 2024-05-10DOI: 10.1080/03071022.2024.2311568
Barry Godfrey
{"title":"‘Star Men’ in English Convict Prisons, 1879–1948","authors":"Barry Godfrey","doi":"10.1080/03071022.2024.2311568","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03071022.2024.2311568","url":null,"abstract":"Published in Social History (Vol. 49, No. 2, 2024)","PeriodicalId":21866,"journal":{"name":"Social History","volume":"137 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140938162","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Social HistoryPub Date : 2024-05-10DOI: 10.1080/03071022.2024.2311588
Eloise Moss, Frances Houghton, Kesewa John, Sheena Kalayil, William Pooley, Michael Sanders, Benjamin Thomas White
{"title":"Social History Book Club: Zadie Smith, The Fraud","authors":"Eloise Moss, Frances Houghton, Kesewa John, Sheena Kalayil, William Pooley, Michael Sanders, Benjamin Thomas White","doi":"10.1080/03071022.2024.2311588","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03071022.2024.2311588","url":null,"abstract":"Published in Social History (Vol. 49, No. 2, 2024)","PeriodicalId":21866,"journal":{"name":"Social History","volume":"152 3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140938274","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Social HistoryPub Date : 2024-05-10DOI: 10.1080/03071022.2024.2311566
Bruce E. Baker
{"title":"Freeman’s Challenge: the murder that shook America’s original prison for profit","authors":"Bruce E. Baker","doi":"10.1080/03071022.2024.2311566","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03071022.2024.2311566","url":null,"abstract":"Published in Social History (Vol. 49, No. 2, 2024)","PeriodicalId":21866,"journal":{"name":"Social History","volume":"99 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141152046","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Social HistoryPub Date : 2024-05-10DOI: 10.1080/03071022.2024.2311577
Stefan Hanß
{"title":"Knots: or the violence of desire in Renaissance Florence","authors":"Stefan Hanß","doi":"10.1080/03071022.2024.2311577","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03071022.2024.2311577","url":null,"abstract":"Published in Social History (Vol. 49, No. 2, 2024)","PeriodicalId":21866,"journal":{"name":"Social History","volume":"42 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141152014","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}