Centre for European and International Studies Research (CEISR)

Profile

Brad Beaven is a Principal Lecturer in Social History and joined the University of Portsmouth in 1994.  He has been History Subject Leader since 2001.  He is currently researching the relationship between British popular culture and imperialism that will culminate in a book entitled ‘Imperial Citizens: The City, Popular Culture and Empire in England 1870-1939’ (Manchester University Press).

He has published on both workplace culture and popular leisure patterns and has recently completed a book entitled Leisure, Citizenship and Working-Class Men in Britain, 1850-1945 (Manchester University Press, 2005).  He has been Director of Studies for a number of PhDs on British social and cultural history between c. 1850-1960.  Recently supervised PhD titles include ‘Crown, Empire and Home Rule: The Irish in Portsmouth c 1880-1923’ and ‘Patriotism, Pride and civic culture in Portsmouth in the 1890s’. 

Brad has peer reviewed book proposals and articles for international publishers, refereed AHRC grant bids and reviews regularly for international journals such as Economic History Review, Institute of Historical Research, Journal of Social and Cultural History and Journal of British Studies.  He has also appeared on BBC Radio 4 programmes discussing the nature of working-class leisure in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. 

Research Clusters

• Social, Historical and Cultural Change in Europe

Discipline Areas

• History

Research CV

Current Research Projects 

• Port Towns and Urban Cultures project [visit pages]. 

Authored Books

• Visions of Empire: Patriotism, Popular Culture and the City, 1870-1939 (Manchester University Press, 2012), ISBN 0719078563, pp240
• Leisure, Citizenship and Working-Class Men in Britain, 1850-1945 (Manchester University Press, 2005), ISBN 0719060273, pp258

Journal Articles

•  The Provincial Press, Civic Ceremony and the Citizen-Soldier during the Boer War, 1899-1902: A Study of Local Patriotism,’ Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 37,2, June 2009, ISSN: 0308-6534, pp.207-228.
• 'Creating the Exemplary Citizen: The Changing Notion of Citizenship in Britain 1870-1939’, with John Griffiths, Contemporary British History, 2, 22, June 2007, pp1-23,  ISSN 1361-9462
• 'Challenges to Civic Governance in Post-War England: The Peace Day Disturbances of 1919’, Urban History 33, 3, Dec 2006, pp369-392, ISSN 0963-9268, DOI 10.1017/S0963926806004032 
• 'Urban Elites, socialists and notions of Citizenship in an Industrial Boom Town: Coventry c. 1870-1914', with John Griffiths, Labour History Review, 69,1, Apr 2004, pp3-18, ISSN 0961-5652
• ‘Citizenship in the Industrial Boomtown: Narratives of work and leisure in Britain 1880-1914' with John Griffiths, Proceedings of 2003 Hawaii International Conference on Social Sciences (2003), ISSN 1539-7300.
• ‘Business Archives’, Association of Business Historians, October (2000) 
• ‘Reconstructing Civilian Morale. The Blitz in England, 1940-2' with J. Griffiths, QWERTY (France), 1996, ISSN 1169-2111 
• ‘The Blitz, Civilian Morale and the City: Mass Observation and Working-Class Culture inBritain, 1940-41', with J. Griffiths, Urban History, 26, (1999).
• ‘Reconstructing the Business Community: The Case of the Coventry Motor Industry, 1896- 1939', Business Archives: Sources and History, 1996, ISSN, 0007-6538. 
• 'Civilian Morale in Three Northern Cities, 1940-42', with D. Thoms, Northern History, 1996, ISSN 0078-172x. 
• 'The Growth and Significance of the Coventry Car Component Industry 1895-1914', Midland History, 18, 1993. 
• 'Custom Culture and Conflict: A Study of the Coventry Ribbon Trade during the first half of the Nineteenth Century', Midland History, 15, 1990, (Midland History Prize Essay 1989).

Book Chapters

• 'Mass Commercial Leisure and Working-Class Cultures in 1930s Britain' in B. Berber (ed) Leisure and Cultural Conflict in Twentieth-Century Britain (Manchester University Press, July 2012).
• ‘The British Motor Industry’, in D. Loades (ed) Reader in British History, Fitzroy Dearborn (2003) ISBN 1-57958-242-7
• 'Shop-floor Culture in the Coventry Motor Industry’, in Claydon. T,  Holden. L, and Thoms. D (eds), Popular Culture and the Motor Car in the Twentieth Century Car, (Scolar Press, 1998). ISBN 1859284612

Other Publications

•  Mass Observation and Civilian Morale: Working-Class Communities during the Blitz 1940- 41, with J. Griffiths, (University of Sussex, 1998) ISBN 85087039 9

Grants Received

• British Academy Overseas Conference Travel Award June 2003.
• Awarded travel expenses to visit the Hawaii International Conference on Social Sciences June 2003

Consultancy

•  Brad has appeared on variety of history BBC Radio 4 programmes discussing the nature of working-class leisure in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.