Featured reviews

The article examines the political origins and impact of recent managerial reform (the shift from the professional bureaucracy model of public administration to the new public management [NPM]) in UK local government. Two key drivers of managerial reform are identified: central–local relations and labour management. The former are historically complex due, partly, to the Victorian expediential justification of local government, and the tenuous constitutional status of local government in the British polity. These factors necessitate and permit central control with models of public administration a key mechanism for achieving this. In addition, as 70% of overall sector costs are made up of centrally funded labour costs, the centre's attempts to control labour management (pay and performance) is a second key driver of managerial reform. And models of public administration, again, are a major mechanism for achieving central control. The analysis is rooted in a brief historical examination of developments from the 1880s, and a longitudinal case study examining more recent developments to illustrate the general case made. Empirical findings show councillor, union and worker resistance to managerial reform. They also show job loss, work intensification, job insecurity and demoralisation of staff. Another key finding is that NPM is not new, but a regression to the Victorian era.     

Book reviews

The paper discusses two well-organized Nordic gender conferences—one in Bergen and one in Gothenburg—which, however, were remarkably different in character. While the local Norwegian conference opened windows to the world outside the Global North, the windows were kept only ajar at the national Swedish meeting.     

Book reviews

Of Camel Kings and Other Things: Rural Rebels against Modernity in Late Imperial China, by Roxann Prazniak. Lanham, MD and Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999. Pp.xiii + 305. £50/US$69 (hardback); £18.95/US$24.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 8476 9006 7 and 9007 5

Images of the Medieval Peasant, by Paul Freedman. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1999. Pp.xix + 459. £37.50/US$65 (hardback); £13.95/US$22.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 8047 3372 4 and 3373 2

’Ir aigen libertet’: Waldburg, Habsburg und der bäuerliche Widerstandan der oberen Donau 1590–1790, by Martin Zürn (Oberschwaben ‐ Geschichte und Kultur 2). Tubingen: Bibliotheca Academica, 1998. Pp.814. DM78 (hardback). ISBN 3 928471 15 5

Economics of Marketable Surplus Supply: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis for China by Ping Zong and John Davis. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998. Pp.xiv + 206. £42 (hardback). ISBN 1 84014 335 5

Cadres and Kin: Making a Socialist Village in West China, 1921–1991 by Gregory A. Ruff. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1998. Pp.xix + 249. £30AJS$49.50 (hardback). ISBN 08047 3377 5     

Book reviews

Moral Economy and Popular Protest: Crowds, Conflict and Authority, edited by Adrian Randall and Andrew Charlesworth. Basingstoke/New York: Macmillan/St. Martin's Press, 2000. Pp. xiv + 280. £47.50 (hardback). ISBN 0 333 67184/0 312 22592 X.

French Peasant Fascism: Henry Dorgeres's Creenshirts and the Crises of French Agriculture, 1929–1939, by Robert O. Paxton. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997. Pp.xii + 244. US$45 (hardback). ISBN 0 19 511188 5 and 89 3.

Intrahousehold Resource Allocation in Developing Countries: Models, Methods and Policy, edited by Lawrence Haddad, John Hoddinott and Harold Alderman. Baltimore, MD and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997, on behalf of the International Food Policy Research Institute. Pp.xii + 341. US$66 (cloth). ISBN 0 8018 5572 1

The Chiapas Rebellion: The Struggle for Land and Democracy, by Neil Harvey. Durham NC and London: Duke University Press, 1998. Pp.xviii + 292. £34 (hardback): £11.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 8223 2209 9 and 2238 2

Shining and Other Paths: War and Society in Peru, 1980–1995, edited by Steve J. Stern. Durham NC and London: Duke University Press, 1998. Pp.xiv +532 pages. £44 (hardback); £14.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 8223 2201 3 and 2217 X

Services and Quality of Life in Rural Villages in the Former Soviet Union: Data from 1991 and 1993, by David J. O'Brien, Valerie V. Patsiorkovski, Larry D. Dershem, Alessandro Bonanno and Charles Timberlake, Lanham, MD and Oxford: University Press of America, 1998. Pp.289. Hb. ISBN 0 7618 0954 6. No price.

Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, by James.C. Scott. New Haven, CT and London: Yale University Press, 1998. Pp.xiv + 445. US$35 (hardback). ISBN 0 300 07016 0

Kinship, Honour and Money in Pakistan: Subsistence Economy and the Effects of International Migration, by Alain Lefebvre. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 1999. Pp.xiv + 303. £40. ISBN 0 7007 0984 3

Controlling Misbehaviour in England, 1370–1600, by Marjorie Keniston McIntosh (Cambridge Studies in Population, Economy and Society in Past Time). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Pp.xviii + 289. £40/US$59.95 (hardback). ISBN 0 521 62177 1     

Book reviews

Women, War, and Work: The Impact of World War I on Women Workers in the United States. By Maurine Weiner Greenwald. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1980. xxvii, 309 pp. $20.00.

War and Welfare: Social Engineering in America, 1890–1925. By John F. McClymer. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1980. xvi, 248 pp. $20.00.

Labor Education for Women Workers, Edited by Barbara Mayer Wertheimer. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1981. xix, 284 pp. $22.50.

Film on the Left: American Documentary Film From 1931 to 1942. By William Alexander. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981. 355 pp. $27.50 cloth; $12.50 paper.

Cinema Strikes Back’. Radical Filmmaking in the United States, 1930–1942. By Russell Campbell. Ann Arbor: UMI Press, 1982. 300 pp. $44.95.

Masters, Unions, and Men: Work Control in Building and the Rise of Labour: 1830–1914. By Richard Price, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980. 355 pp. £15.00.

Workers Without Weapons. By Edward Feit. Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1975. 230 pp. $12.50.

Slavery in Russia, 1450–1725. By Richard Hellie. Chicago &; London: The University of Chicago Press, 1982. xix, 776 pp. $45.00.     

Book reviews

“Poor Carolina”: Politics and Society in Colonial North Carolina, 1729–1776. By A. Roger Ekirch. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1981. 305 pp. $23.50.

Violent Death in the City: Suicide, Accident and Murder in Nineteenth‐Century Philadelphia. By Roger Lane. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 1979. ix, 193 pp. $22.00.     

Book reviews

Conversations with lillian hellman edited by Jackson R. Bryer‐Jackson and London: University Press of Mississippi, 1986, 298 pp. $19.95 (cloth), $9.95 (paper).

PROVINCE OF REASON: AMERICAN LIVES IN A NEW AGE OF SCIENCE by Sam Bass Warner, Jr. Harvard University Press, 1984. (cloth, $20.00)     

Book reviews

The following books are reviewed.

Kateryn parr: the making of a queen, SUSAN E. JAMES, 1999 Aldershot: Ashgate. 480 pp., ISBN 1 84014 683 4, £47.50

Mary Queen of Scots: romance and nation JAYNE ELIZABETH LEWIS, 1998 London: Routledge. 260 pp., ISBN 0 415 11480 2, hardback, £45; ISBN 0 415 11481 0, paperback, £15.99

Exile: a memoir of 1939 BRONKA SCHNEIDER, 1998 (Erika Bourguignon & Barbara Hill Rigney, Eds) Columbus: Ohio State University Press. xxi + 132 pp., ISBN 0 8142 0808 8

Speeches and Trials of the Militant Suffragettes: the Women's Social and Political Union, 1903-18 CHERYL R. JORGENSEN-EARP, 1999 Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses. 400 pp., ISBN 0 8386 3788 4, hardback, £38.00

Women in Britain since 1900 SUE BRULEY, 1999 Basingstoke: Macmillan. vii + 227 pp., ISBN 0 333 61838 6

Working Out Gender: perspectives from labour history MARGARET WALSH (Ed.), 1999 Aldershot: Ashgate. xi + 235 pp., ISBN 0 7546 0058 0

The Contest for Social Science: relations and representations of gender and class EILEEN YEO, 1996 London: Rivers Oram Press. xx + 396 pp., ISBN 1 85489 068 9, £30

Girls and Women, Men and Boys: gender in Taradale, 1886-1930 CAROLINE DALEY, 1999 Auckland: Auckland University Press, viii + 216 pp., ISBN 1 86940 211 1, NZ$39.95

Politics and Society: the Journals of Lady Knightley of Fawsley, 1885-1913 PETER GORDON (Ed.), 1999 Northampton: Northamptonshire Record Society. x + 535 pp., ISBN 0 901275 61 1, hardback, £20

Reading Witchcraft: stories of early English witches MARION GIBSON, 1999 London: Routledge. 242 pp., ISBN 0 415 20646 4, £14.99

Music and Gender PIRKKO MOISALA & BEVERLEY DIAMOND (Eds), 2000 Urbana: University of Illinois Press. xiii + 376 pp., ISBN 0 252 06865 3, $24.95

Parrot Pie for Breakfast: an anthology of women pioneers JANE ROBINSON, 1999 Oxford: Oxford University Press. xiv +177 pp., ISBN 0 19 288020 9, paperback, £8.99

Gender and Power in Britain, 1640-1990 SUSAN KINGSLEY KENT, 1999 London: Routledge. xii + 364 pp., ISBN 0 415 14742 5, £14.99

The Diary of Elizabeth Richards 1798-1825: from the Wexford Rebellion to family life in The Netherlands MARIE DE JONG-IJSSELSTEIN (Ed., with an Introduction by Kevin Whelan), 1999 Hilversum: Verloren. 171 pp., ISBN 90 6550 169 X, Fl. 35.26/Euro 16.00

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu: comet of the Enlightenment ISOBEL GRUNDY, 1999 Oxford: Oxford University Press. xxiii + 680 pp., ISBN 1 19 811280 0, £30

Defining the Victorian Nation: class, race, gender and the Reform Act of 1867 CATHERINE HALL, KEITH MCCLELLAND & JANE RENDALL, 2000 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. xiii + 303 pp., ISBN 0 521 57653 9