Borough Government and Politics

Reading 1835-1985

Alan Alexander

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9781032858470
• eBook ISBN: 9781040130742
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Economic Conditions
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Originally published in 1985, this book was a study of one example of an all-purpose, unitary, borough council in the UK. It covers the years since the democratization of the borough councils in 1835, through the attainment of county borough status in 1888, the major expansion in local government services in the first six decades of the 20th Century, and the decline, after reorganization, of both the boroughs in particular and local government in general. The book assesses the impact of the Borough Council on the town of Reading and its inhabitants, dealing with the politics of territorial expansion, the attempts to make a coherent education and the process by which local politics became dominated by political partisanship. The book's examination, largely based on original sources, of government and politics in one English town, is of broader relevance to fields such as political history and the development of the party system. It will be of interest to local and urban historians and students of politics and public administration.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Plates
• Dedication
• Preface
• Original Half Title
• 1 Clearing the Roost
• 2 ‘A Clean, Orderly and Well-Governed Town’?
• 3 ‘Democracy and Proper Drains’
• 4 ‘Earth Hunger’
• 5 Education and the Politicians
• 6 Party Politics and the Business of the Corporation
• 7 ‘Having Powers in All Matters . . .’
• 8 The End of Independence
• A Note on Sources
• Bibliography
• Index