(Class & Values) Class, social change and impact of the wars, 1918-51

Question 1

Context - what were the 4 prominent class groups?

Answer 1

Industrial working class

Lower middle class

Upper middle class

Upper class

Question 2

Context - what characterised the industrial working class?

2

Answer 2

Manual labourers or skilled craftsmen in factories etc.

Mostly live in tight-knit communities.

Question 3

Context - what characterised the lower middle class?

2

Answer 3

Workers in semi-skilled clerical jobs, eg small businesses.

Tended to own their own homes.

Question 4

Context - what characterised the upper middle class?

Answer 4

Professionals, eg doctors.

They did highly specialised/specific tasks.

Question 5

Context - what characterised the upper class?

Answer 5

Families who inherited wealth, land & titles, often represented in the house of lords.

Naturally supporters of tories.

Many senior army officers from WW1 were of this background, as well as ministers in Asquith’s and GLD’s cabinets.

Question 6

WW1 impact - what were the 3 main impacts of WW1 on class?

Answer 6

Some decline in deference

Decline in upper classes

Greater equality

Question 7

WW1 impact - explain the decline in deference as an impact of WW1 on class.

(2)

Answer 7

High death toll shook confidence of WC towards UC generals.

Life in trenches increased interactions between WC & MC men.

Question 8

WW1 impact - explain the decline in upper classes as an impact of WW1 on class.

(2)

Answer 8

High death toll meant many families had to pay death duties for those killed; sons had to sell land or homes to pay.

Many couldn’t afford to pay for their homes so sold them to the National Trust or became schools or hotels - others fell into disrepair.

Question 9

WW1 impact - explain the greater equality as an impact of WW1 on class.

Answer 9

ROPA, 1918.

People in work improved living standards and even in the Depression, prices fell faster than wages. Therefore, people felt more equal; they had surplus income and could aspire to more.

DLG’s commitment for a ‘land fit for heroes’ was never fully achieved but made improvements.

Question 10

WW1 impact - give evidence of DLG’s ‘land fit for heroes’ being effective in creating equality.

Answer 10

Improved long-term living standards - construction of houses for owners grew by 750,000 in early 1920s to 3.25 million by 1938.

Question 11

Context - what was feared in the interwar years?

Answer 11

Revolt due to Russian Revolutions in 1917 and the growing power of industrial working class.

Question 12

Context - what was rare in the interwar years?

Answer 12

Class conflict; strikes declined mid-late 20s and Conservative party attracted voters from across the class spectrum.

Question 13

Context - what happened as a result of the experience of the Depression in the interwar years?

Answer 13

Working-class solidarity was undermined - union membership declined as a result of unemployment.

Question 14

Briefly summarise the class system & society between 1918-1939.

Answer 14

It didn’t change as drastically as the years following WW2.

Question 15

Impact of WW2 + Attlee - there was a sense of _______ ________ and the government ________ all sections of _______.

Answer 15

a) shared
b) hardship
c) mobilised
d) society

Question 16

Impact of WW2 + Attlee - what may have created a sense of shared hardship within society?

(2)

Answer 16

The Blitz

Rationing

Question 17

Impact of WW2 + Attlee - what did many aspire to after the war? Why?

What exemplified this?

Answer 17

A more integrated and egalitarian society, largely inspired by the hardships of the 1930s and exacerbated by the 1942 Beveridge Report.

Exemplified by Attlee’s labour government in 1945 that committed to wholesale reform.

Question 18

Impact of WW2 + Attlee - what did the class system look like by 1951?
Give an example.

Answer 18

It was largely still intact.

There was no attempt from Attlee’s government to abolish private schools.

Question 19

Impact of WW2 + Attlee - what was there a greater emphasis on?

Answer 19

Greater equality of opportunity and state support, as opposed to total class equality that might be expected a socialist government.

Question 20

Trade Unionism - how did TU membership change?

Answer 20

4.3 million in 1915 to 8.3 million in 1918

Question 21

Trade Unionism - what did trade unionism suffer in the interwar years?

Answer 21

A loss of membership but gained power after WW2.

Question 22

Trade Unionism - what was the purpose of Trade Unions?

Answer 22

To protect the wages and rights of the working class - but only those with jobs.
This aided the rise of the labour party.

Question 23

Context - why didn't much of the working-class fight in WW1?
Give evidence.

Answer 23

Poor health and certain jobs were ‘reserved occupations’, eg coal miners.

31.3% of men were classed as too ill for combat in 1918.

Question 24

WW1 impact - what was the impact of rationing on the working-class?
Give evidence.

Answer 24

Improved their health.

Average life expectancy rose by 7 years between 1911-1921.

Question 25

Impact of WW2 + Attlee - how did WW2 unite GB?

Answer 25

Created a sense of unity and equality was created.

Question 26

Impact of WW2 + Attlee - what was the impact of evacuation?

Answer 26

Increased the degree of sympathy for working-class.

Question 27

Impact of WW2 + Attlee - how were traditional working-class industries changed by WW2?
(2)

Answer 27

They were restored to full employment.

They were maintained with post-war nationalisation.

Question 28

Home ownership - what did interwar contemporaries speak of?

Answer 28

The ‘new middle-class’ who had bought homes since 1920.

Question 29

Home ownership - how had home ownership changed by 1939?

Answer 29

60% of middle-class owned homes, compared to 20% of working-class.

Question 30

Home ownership - what, regarding the workplace, had become a defining feature of middle-class home ownership?

Answer 30

The suburban lifestyle and geographical location separation of men from their workplace.

Question 31

Home ownership - what had home ownership become?

Answer 31

A defining feature of the middle-class.

Question 32

WW1 impact - what led the middle-class to fear merging with the working-class?

Answer 32

False perception that working-class wages were rising while theirs was stagnant.

Wartime inflation impacted middle-class savings and income

Question 33

WW1 impact - Give evidence of middle-class savings and income impacted by wartime inflation.
What was it unfairly blamed on?

Answer 33

£100 in 1914 to £276 in 1920.

Strength of the trade unions for pushing up wages and prices.
Reality = strain of wartime economy.

Question 34

Middle-class - how was there a rise in middle-class jobs?

Answer 34

WW1 spared middle-class jobs.

There was a 34% growth in commercial & financial jobs between 1911 and 1921.

Question 35

Middle-class - how were middle-class women impacted by the rise of middle-class jobs?

Answer 35

Rise of clerking jobs for women from 170,000 in 1911 to 1.4 million in 1954.

Question 36

Middle-class - there was a rise in middle-class jobs. What are some examples?

Answer 36

Growth in salaried jobs in science, technology and engineering.
Rise in administration jobs - 700,000 in 1911 to 1.75 million in 1951.

Question 37

WW1 impact - how did the cost of war impact the upper-class?

Answer 37

Increased taxes and death duties.
Estates over £2 million were subject to 40% increase duty.
There was financial pressure as it was harder to pay off their harder country estates.

Question 38

Upper-class - how is it evidence that the upper-class were declining in numbers and power.

Answer 38

The gentry (UC) sold off lots of land: 1/4 of all land in England sold between 1918 - 1920.

Question 39

Upper-class - how did political change impact the upper-class?

(2)

Answer 39

In the House of Lords, from 1958 onwards, hereditary peers were replaced by ‘politically nominated life-peers’.

The Parliament Act of 1911 meant Lords could only delay, not block, legislation.

Question 40

Upper-class - how can it be argued that there was no decline in the upper-class?

(3)

Answer 40

There was a rise in upper-class more defined by ancestry than wealth.

There was no real decline in elite dominance of politics before 1951.

Macmillan’s government was made up of 40 Etonian cabinet members.

Question 41

Politics - how did the rise in labour change the look of government?

Answer 41

In 1920, wealthy landowners made up 40% of MPs.

In 1945, this was 5%.

Question 42

Politics - what did the rise in labour accelerate in government?

Answer 42

Declined land-elite power in the House of Commons.

Labour MP’s were mostly working/middle-class.