Building A Better World Flashcards
What does Jenny Hazelgrove in Spiritualism and British Society between the Wars (2000) argue that Spiritualism did no do after the Victorian and Edwardian period?
Die out, it lasted long after these periods and flourished particularly in between the wars
Who does Jenny Hazelgrove in Spiritualism and British Society between the Wars (2000) argue Spiritualism gave comfort to?
Many people who had lost loved ones in WW1
What presumption do most historians have of the period between the wars?
That secularism was dominant during it
What idea does Jenny Hazelgrove in Spiritualism and British Society between the Wars (2000) challenge?
Te idea that there was a steady decline of popular religious belief in the interwar period
Why does Jenny Hazelgrove in Spiritualism and British Society between the Wars (2000) argue spiritualism was of great interest during the wars?
It was able to adopt to modern ideas, which it incorporated with traditional beliefs and superstitions
Due to declining birth-rates after WW1 what emphasis began to be placed on women?
Women as mothers, rather than wives, domestication
What does Jenny Hazelgrove in Spiritualism and British Society between the Wars (2000) argue post-Victorian spiritualism was not?
A pathological response to the late nineteenth century crisis of faith
What does Jenny Hazelgrove in Spiritualism and British Society between the Wars (2000) argue spiritualists relationship to modernity was?
It was buried in, but not undone by, modernity
What did the British consistently believe in?
Banshees, guardian angels, and haunting, namely he proof of communication between spirits and humans
What have historians previously done with British spiritualism?
Ignored it
What classes did spiritualism usually appeal to?
Working classes
When was the Panacea Society founded? And by who?
1919 by Mabel Barltrop
Why did Mabel rename herself Octavia?
She believed she was the daughter of God
How many people did the Panacea’s healing ministry reach out to?
130,000
What was the main belief of the Panacea community? And what was its main aim?
Main belief was understanding God as feminine as well as masculine
Main aim was to prepare for immortal life and Jesus’ rebirth
What is the Panacea Society an example of?
A closed and inward looking community
What question did the Panacea face about modernity?
How much to conform to the modern world and modernity
Why does Jane Shaw in Octavia, Daughter of God (2011) argue the Panacea society represented modernity itself?
The opportunities they offered to women, their theology and eclectic mixture of beliefs
What was Mabel’s chief concern about the teachings of the CofE?
Taught the salvation of the soul but not of the body
What was Mabel diagnosed with when she went into a mental hospital before her husbands death?
Melancholy and domestic worry
What role did Southcott give women in the redemption of the world?
A distinctive role as the final redeemer, because Eve had been the original cause of the fall
What was the name of the leader of the earlier movement and the Book of Revelation that inspired the Panaceans?
Joanna Southcott
What did the war give impetus to? And why?
Southcottian revival - thought this was a time of national trial and tribulation
What was a common reason for sectioning women in late 19th century?
Religious reasons
What did Doctors argue spiritualism was causing?
Mental illness and hysteria
What happened to many women liberated by their involvement in new religions, who were frustrated by Christianity’s subjugation of women?
They were sectioned
Who was Mabel thought to be?
Shiloh and spiritual child of Southcott
Why was the popularity of the Panacean movement not surprising?
No NHS and many illnesses untreatable, also aftermath of flu
Were there many other popular spiritual healing groups around?
Yes, C of E had one
Where did the Panaceans unusually have quite a few healing patients?
India, but all over the Empire
What did the healing mission provide?
Hook and bait to the movement
What were reports in newspapers like of the Panaceans?
Were unfavourable but caused great interest
What did the water takers end up doing to the Panacean movement?
Diluted it
What was the Panacea museum an important vehicle for?
Publicising the healing and movement
How did the Panacea society feel about birth control?
Condemned it, cessation of intercourse was preferable
What did war mean for sex?
Sexual freedom, because of an urgency to marry and have sex people were freer, this freedom did not disappear after the war
What did letters to the Panacea Society in Jane Shaw’s Octavia, Daughter of God (2011) show the ideal of marrying for love and companionship was?
Popular, utopian ring to it, people imagining new possibilities for married life
Which two countries vied with one another to be known as the homeland of the industrial revolution?
Britain and Germany
What was Britain a wellspring for?
Modernity
What does Bernhard Rieger in Technology and the Culture of Modernity (2005) say debates about technologies always carried with them?
An undercurrent of tribulation, heralded the advent of a new age but also threatened new dangers
What did Germany and Britain compete with each other to produce?
Fastest ships, highest flying planes, most popular films
Why did the British support technological advancement?
Because they thought it would ensure the status quo of imperial dominance and head off decline and disintergration
What received a crippling below in WW1 according to Kees Gispen?
Nineteenth century belief in progress
What remained exempt from the loss of belief in progress and pessimism?
Technology
How does Kees Gispen describe the mixed tensions between technological optimism and fears of decline and cultural pessimism?
He says they formed ‘a witch’s brew of positive and neative energies’
If technological innovation was the underlying cause of most fears about modernity, what does Bernhard Rieger in Technology and the Culture of Modernity (2005) wonder?
How technology escaped criticism and remained the idol of European civilization
What aura does Bernhard Rieger in Technology and the Culture of Modernity (2005) argue surrounded new technologies and why?
An aura of “modern wonders” mysterious by definition, creating both excitement and insecurity - people did not fully understand how technology worked
What were anxieties about technological innovation encouraged by?
Spectacular calamities such as the titanic in 1912 and The Hindenburg in 1937
When did fear of technology really become dominant?
1945
What three conditions does Bernhard Rieger in Technology and the Culture of Modernity (2005) say caused public support for technology?
1 - cacophonous chorus - public debated pros and cons of modern technology producing a basic “social consensus” about its importance
2 - powerful social fantasies about heroism of pilots and glamour and luxury of ocean liners
3 - Belief that new technology was the key to national strength
What were the Panaceans an example of?
Seekers in society, seeking a better future
What characteristic figure of modernity in 20s 30s seemed to encapsulate the spirit of the age?
The flyer
What were the two contrasting feelings towards flying in the period?
Excitement and fear, freedom vs safety
What kind of welcome was Amy Johnson given when she landed?
A hero’s welcome
What does Amy Johnson become a figure that mobilises?
National pride
What does Amy Johnson ask to be called?
Johnie
What is Amy Johnson singled out as?
One woman who achieved something amazing, do not want other women to follow suit
What were female firsts to newspapers?
Newsworthy stories
What could flying be used to bring together?
The Empire, people could go to visit other countries in the Empire
Could anyone travel by plane in the 1930s?
No it was a privilege and was expensive
What kind of image did the airways have, particularly encouraged by their marketing campaigns?
A glamorous image
Who gave ‘The Bomber Will Always Get Through’, speech to the House of Commons in 1932?
Stanley Baldwin
What does Britain use airplanes to do in terms of Empire and war?
To bomb and to bring landscapes under control, for aerial photography and spying
What does there become an obsession with, related to flying?
Obsession with seeing Britain from above - seeing your town from above
What did most popular flying shows give the opportunity for people to do?
To go up in a plane and see your home town from the air
What did lots of women do in the 1920s at flying shows for fun?
Parachute jumps
What is the name of the woman Matt talks about in ‘A very 1920s demise’ who jumped out the plane and her parachute didn’t open?
Dorothy Cain
How many people witnessed Dorothy Cain’s ‘parachute tragedy’ according to Matt’s ‘A Very 1920s Demise’?
20,000 people
When Did Dorothy Cain have her parachute tragedy?
1926
What can 1920s 30s people’s visions of the future tell us about their present?
In what they want to change in the future, can see the fears of the current world
What does Housing Problems show differently to the documentary films like Coalface?
Shows a solution to the problems working class people are facing
What exit strategy does Orwell offer in The Road to Wigan Pier?
Socialism
What is the difference between Housing problems solution and Orwell’s solution?
Housing problems is less revolutionary and therefore more probable and immediate
What is an in built assumption shown in Housing Problems about working class people?
That if they get new houses they will become more clean
What dystopian concerns could be shown about the state getting involved in housing?
The state have more control over the poor and the poor become more reliant on them for a better future
In what ways is Housing Problems more radical than Orwell’s Road to Wigan Pier?
Gives the working classes an actual voice, first time they’ve been in front of camera.
What does Housing Problems do to the working classes?
Politicises them, shows them they have a political voice, man asks the council to make change ‘ get going with the flats’
What do the houses in Housing Problems contrast to?
The modern image of Britain, primitive, lacking water in the houses, lack of basic amenities ALSO the suburbs
What can rats and cockroaches in the house be linked to?
The trenches
What were working classes worried about in terms of rapidly changing modern society?
Being left behind, want to be on the modernity ‘airship’ material inequalities can disenfranchise them
Does it matter that Housing Problems is scripted?
No, we can see its true by its surrounding, scripting gives them voices and allows them to know what to say, makes them more comfortable, documentary a new form
Which moment in Housing Problems do the edges begin to fray and we see a more realistic picture of the working classes?
When the wife talks about the rat and gets really into it, her husband looks at her and laughs
What solution does Housing Problems offer to slum conditions?
New phase of architecture and slum clearance
How were houses built in 1930s?
Built out of steel, easy to put up and fast to replicate
What is the irony in that houses were built really quickly?
This was what caused the slums in the first place, repetition of old solutions and not really that modern
What was there a big emphasis on that came with the new houses in housing Problems?
Emphasis on health and hygeine
What was there a mass of unease about in English culture in terms of housing?
High rise living - associated with americanisation and sexual immorality
In what ways is Kendall House similar to suburban housing?
Both focus on clean air, amenities, own space, communal living, building little communities, things to entertain people
Were all social housing projects flats?
No were some cottage estates
What did the new kitchen and indoor amenities bring back a sense of in the working classes in Housing Problems?
A sense of pride
Does it matter that Housing Problems was sponsored by the gas companies?
No, nowadays we approach advertising with cynicism but we shouldn’t, not obvious marketing only very vague mentions
Who has the power to define what new Britain looked like?
Future is defined by elites, modernist architects hearing their voices but not building new world for themselves
Which individual bodies developed social housing in their regional areas?
Local authorities
What is this new kind of municipal housing symbolic of?
The sate taking control/responsibility for the social situation and providing welfare for people, plays into the script of social democracy
What does Elizabeth Darling in Reforming Britain (2007) say is often forgotten in considerations of architectural modernisation?
The role of the clients in demanding new forms of architecture
What does Elizabeth Darling in Reforming Britain (2007) argue architectural modernism must be considered within?
A wider context of social political economic and technological implications
What revisionist argument does Elizabeth Darling take in Reforming Britain (2007)?
Says that by 1939 modernism well established in Britain and its principles and practice were linked with some of the most significant social problems of the day
What did Elizabeth Darling in Reforming Britain (2007) argue made the needs of the working classes harder to ignore?
Mass democratisation
What was the DIA?
Design and Industries Association
What did the DIA quarterly journal provide for its readers?
Lessons to be derived from exemplary buildings and ideas in Europe
What did the DIA want to stop and prevent?
Wanted to preserve the English landscape against untrammeled suburban development
What was formed in 1920s to campaign for the resolution of a slum problem overlooked by central government?
The Voluntary Housing Association
What did the Voluntary Housing Associations each architects like Fry and Coates?
Understandings of the moral purpose of reform
Why did the government take partial responsibility for the provision of working class housing?
Realization of politicians that soldiers were returning from the war to slums
What was the programme of house building for rental by working classes supposed to be, what did it become?
A one off subsidy and a stop gap measure but became a permanent part of successive inter war government policy
What began to decline according to Elizabeth Darling in Reforming Britain (2007) due to the new interventionist approach of the state?
Philanthropic voluntary organisations
What two fold approach to reform did Elizabeth Denby have?
Wanted material reform ie well built houses, and social environments to facilitate citizenship ie social clubs and shops
What began to marry together according to Elizabeth Darling in ‘The star in the profession she invented for herself’ (2005)
Holistic philosophy of housing and planning of the voluntary sector, and the emerging modernist movement and its progressive approach to design
What link can be made with the Sassoon House, the first modernist dwelling for workers in Britain, designed by Fry and Denby?
Can be linked to famous shell shock victim and war writer, Siegfried Sassoon, idea of housing for war veterans
What did Denby describe Kensal House as?
An “urban village”
What were the 3 main themes in Denby’s approach to housing?
1) The need for research and planning, 2) adopting low cost production with new tech, 3) need to develop new types of flattened accomodation
What did Elizabeth Denby advocate instead of sprawling suburbs?
Pro-urban space, wanted families to be close to where the work was
How many films did Bermondsy Borough Council’s public health department make in 1923-1948?
30
Why did Bermondsy LA show its films about public health?
Part of a campaign of public health and personal hygeine and an advert for its municipal achievements and services
In 1933 how many of Bermondsy’s population watched the films?
over a third
What does Elisabeth Lebas in “When Every Street Became a Cinema” (1995) say the films were an original example of?
Collective re-appropriation of urban space, cleansing, opening it up and also places of entertainment and political engagement
What does Elisabeth Lebas in “When Every Street Became a Cinema” (1995) say the project was part of?
An attempt to formalise working class life
Were the Bermondsy public health LA taking responsibility for public health there?
Not exactly trying to educate people to be able to know the symptoms themselves and better be able to cure themselves
What kind of exhibition did Bermondsy hold in 1929? How many attended?
Health Week exhibition, 51,000 attended
What was the beautification committee in Bermondsy?
Major attempt to give the borough a suburban appearance by planting several thousand trees and turning churchyards into children’s playgrounds
What does Elisabeth Lebas in “When Every Street Became a Cinema” (1995) see Bermondsy’s public health as part of?
An attempt at a kind of socialism for the twentieth century
When was Housing Problems produced?
1935
What did a concrete firm organise a competition for?
The designing of new flats in Housing Problems
What does the BFI call Housing problems?
“A document of optimism”
Where is the good example shown in Housing Problems?
Stepney
What did Berthold Lubetskin say when he opened Finsbury Health Centre in 1938?
“Nothing was too good for the ordinary people”
What was Finsbury when Finsbury Health Centre was opened?
A dire place to live
What did labour politics attempt to make Finsbury?
A model of social progress
What was different about Finsbury Health Centre to other health centres?
It was free, it located all services in one building and i looked very nice, full of light and modern
Who were the Kensal House Flats financed by?
Gas Light and Coke Company
What was Kensal House hailed as in 1937?
A prototype for modern living
