Vanishing for the vote : suffrage, citizenship and the battle for the census / Jill Liddington ; with Gazetteer of campaigners compiled by Elizabeth Crawford and Jill Liddington.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Liddington, Jill, 1946- author, compiler.

Contributor:

Crawford, Elizabeth, compiler.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women--Suffrage--Great Britain--History.

Women.

Women--Suffrage.

Great Britain.

History.

Great Britain--Census, 1911.

Great Britain--Census.

Great Britain--Politics and government--20th century.

Politics and government.

Genre:

Census data.

Physical Description:

xv, 403 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Distribution:

New York : Palgrave Macmillan.

Place of Publication:

Manchester, UK ; New York, NY : Manchester University Press, 2014.

Summary:

Vanishing for the vote tells the story of what happened on census night, Sunday 2 April 1911. The Liberal government which still denied women the vote, ordered every household to comply with its census requirements. So suffragette organizations urged women, all still unenfranchised, to boycott this census. Many did. Mary Howey inscribed BET schedule with the words 'Votes for Women'. Others evaded the enumerator by sheltering in darkened houses or, in the case of Emily Wilding Davison, by hiding in a cupboard inside the Houses of Parliament. Some of the more adventurous evaders even adapted gypsy caravans, used earlier for suffrage propaganda, turning them into 'arks of refuge'-which vanished on census night. Yet many decided against boycotting. Even some suffragettes, who might have been expected to rebel, decided to comply with the census - and handed over a perfectly accurate schedule. Why? Vanishing for the vote investigates the 'battle for the census' arguments that raged across Edwardian England in spring 1911. It explores why many committed campaigners decided that tins civil disobedience tactic would be highly effective propaganda; and why others decided to prioritize, not 'Votes for Women', but providing cite government with accurate census data for its health and welfare reforms. This hook plunges the reader into the turbulent world of Edwardian politics, recorded so vividly atone dramatic moment census night 1911. It is based upon a wealth of brand new documentary sources, written in participants' own hand. Interrogating this evidence, the book offers compelling reading for history scholars and general readers alike. It includes a substantial Gazetteer of 500 campaigners' census schedules, compiled jointly with Elizabeth Crawford. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part I Prelude: people and their politics

1 Charlotte Despard and John Burns, the Colossus of Bactersea 13

2 Muriel Matters goes vanning it with Asquith: campaigning cross country 24

3 Propaganda culture: Clemence and Laurence Housman 36

4 Parallel politics: Lloyd George plus Midlands suffragettes 48

Part II Natrative: October 1909 to April 1911

5 Plotting across central London: census and tax resistance 63

6 The battle for John Burns's Battersea revisited 71

7 The Census Bill and the boycott plan 78

8 Lloyd George goes a-wooing versus Burns's Vixens in velvet' 86

9 The King's Speech: Jessie Stephenson parachutes into Manchester 97

10 Battleground for democracy: census versus women's citizenship 108

Part III Census night: places and spaces

11 Emily Wilding Davison's Westminster - and beyond 125

12 The Nevinsons' Hampstead - and central London entertainments 132

13 Laurence Housman's Kensington, with Clemence in Dorset 145

14 Annie Kenney's Bristol and Mary Blathwayt's Bath 154

15 Jessie Stephenson's Manchester and Hannah Mitchell's Oldham Road 169

16 English journey: sweeping back down from Teesside to Thames 183

Part IV The census and beyond

17 After census night: Clemence's resistance, Asquith's betrayal 197

18 Telling the story: suffrage and census historiographies 209

19 Sources and their analysis: vanishing for the vote? 219.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 389-394) and index.

ISBN:

9780719087493

071908749X

9780719087486

0719087481

OCLC:

861673182