Improvement, pauvreté, évictions et émigration dans la presse d'Inverness de 1845 à 1855
Institution:
Université Marc Bloch (Strasbourg) (1971-2008)Disciplines:
Directors:
Abstract EN:
During the first half of the nineteenth century the history of the highlands of scotland experienced a sudden phase of acceleration. A society that had been based on tradition for centuries went through a deep and painful mutation caused by various cultural and economic factors. The potato disease which appeared in 1846 dealt a fatal blow to the economy of the highlands. A large number of landowners adopted radical strategies in order to get rid of the tenants that had become a burden for them. The scottish press, particularly the press of inverness, followed these changes with great attention. The inverness journal and the inverness courier, which had been created respectively in 1807 and in 1817, had similar ideas and very often acted as the landowners' faithful spokesmen. Thus consensus and moderation were the key-words up to 1849 when the inverness advertiser brought a new dynamism by adding a dissenting voice to the debates of the time. The object of this work is to study how the press of inverness in the years 1845-1855 presented and analysed the themes on which our research is based - improvement, poverty, evictions and emigration. This work shows very clearly that the inverness courier and the inverness journal on the one hand and the inverness advertiser on the other hand offered very different views of the mutations experienced by the society of the highlands and of the consequences brought about by the landowners' economic strategies.
Abstract FR:
Au cours de la premiere moitie du dix-neuvieme siecle, l'histoire des highlands d'ecosse s'accelera subitement. Une societe, qui pendant des siecles avait vecu selon des schemas bases sur la tradition, connut une profonde et douloureuse mutation sous l'impulsion de divers facteurs culturels et economiques. Le mildiou, qui fit son apparition en 1846, porta un coup fatal a l'equilibre d'une economie pourtant deja considerablement affaiblie. De nombreux proprietaires adopterent alors des strategies radicales afin de se debarrasser d'une population devenue encombrante et inutile. La presse ecossaise, et en particulier celle d'inverness, suivit ces bouleversements avec la plus grande attention; le inverness journal et le inverness courier, crees respectivement en 1807 et en 1817, defendaient des theses relativement identiques et se firent les porte-parole fideles et reguliers des elites foncieres. Le consensus et la moderation regnerent jusqu'en 1849, date a laquelle apparut le inverness advertiser qui apporta un veritable dynamisme et un souffle nouveau a une presse qui s'etait jusqu'alors montree bien timide et complaisante. L'objectif de cette these est d'etudier comment la presse d'inverness des annees 1845-1855 presenta et analysa les themes sur lesquels porte notre recherche, l'improvement, la pauvrete, les evictions et l'emigration. Au terme de notre etude, il apparait clairement que le inverness courier et le inverness journal d'une part et le inverness advertiser d'autre part proposerent des lectures radicalement differentes des mutations que vivait la societe des highlands et des consequences qu'entrainerent les strategies economiques mises en Œuvre par les elites foncieres.