Do you have an interest in the history of the UK either as a researcher or a general reader ? If so, you will find that one of our latest digitised acquisitions – the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers is a fascinating repository of primary sources of the history of Great Britain from 1700 onwards. These papers are the working documents of government covering social, political, economic and foreign policy.
Many contributors to the papers were not politicians but famous names such as Matthew Arnold, Michael Faraday, Edwin Chadwick, and William Beveridge and many others. If you search by subject you can find examples of papers on the abolition of the slave trade or the unrest in the framework knitters and hosiery industry in Leicester in 1819 or find out how some contemporary issues were also a cause for concern in the late nineteeth century Eastern European Immigration and the Irish question. The coverage of the papers contintues until 2004 so for those of you who are following a current issue like the proposed legislation on detention powers or want some information on MPs’ allowances please go to www.parliament.uk
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