In Search Of Britain Flashcards
Why were lots of people taking journeys in the 20s 30s?
Cars becoming available mass produced
What did the war significantly question the definition of?
Englishness and Britishness
Did people tend to look to the past or the future to define britishness?
The past - comforting
What did people mean when they critiqued Britain as ‘blackpooling’ itself?
Selling itself out, commodification and cheap culture, americanisation
In which of the three Englands he describes does J.B.Priestley find home?
None - he is dissatisfied with all of the areas he describes, although he does call the rural england the “real enduring england”.
Why does it affect us that landscapes are often made historical and have histories?
We place ourselves as part of the history of the nation, get embarrassed by our nation’s past and get excited about their future, we are patriotic and aligned
What does Priestley fear happening to english character?
Values from the past will get lost in modernity
Which of Priestley’s England’s are English?
The first two, the third he sees as American
What does Priestley argue is still in Britain?
the old “real enduring england”
What does Priestley’s 3 visions of England tell us about notions of Britishness?
There is not one single image of Britain in this time, and we can’t see it as a blanket approach.
What were railway posters for?
informed people about excursions, only way they could find out about areas to visit, also made money for the government
What style were a lot of the new posters made in?
An art deco, bright style that can be mass produced
What are cars and railways becoming in the 1920s?
Part of old england, been around for quite a while now
Why was their a preoccupation with the term ‘Englishness’?
Need to find a new national identity, wanting to make things smaller, not think on a big global, empirical stage, making England seem like it was worth fighting for
What does Benedict Anderson argue about communities?
That the nation is an imagined community
How does Stanley Baldwin want to present the countryside?
As unchanging and timeless, rural perfection
Who is Baldwin’s England for?
Only a certain few, only the rich have access
What does J.B Priestley say about Jack and Jill in English Journey?
“for the first time in history Jack and Jill are nearly as good as their master and mistress; they may have always been as good in their own way, but now they are nearly as good in the same way.”
What were politicians trying to do in the 1920s?
unite the nation and bring everyone together
What did preservationists, planners and ramblers contrast the freedom and order of the countryside to?
Their urban lives
What did the campaign for access to the countryside cast itself as?
A politically liberal cause appropriating a local history of civic struggle against central government and traditional aristocracy
What were ramblers campaigning for open access not?
Politically affiliated
What did ramblers campaigning for open access understand freedom as?
A moral category bound up with behavioural codes and practices
What did lots of young, working people utilised in the 1930s?
Newly gained leisure time and declining rail fares
What does Ben Anderson argue historians often do with rambling?
Don’t pay any attention and have a tendency to describe it as escapist anti modern and extra urban.
What does Ben Anderson argue cultural histories around rambling can actually show?
Theme of national identity, in which the English landscape represented a conservative, anti modern and anti urban Englishness
What does Ben Anderson say Englishness if not a useful construct for analysing?
Aims and aspirations of the Manchester ramblers federation
Why does Ben Anderson argue Englishness is not a useful construct through which to view the MRF?
Leaders of MRF not anti-modern, nor did they emphasise the national character of the landscapes they visited
How many affiliated clubs did the MRF have? And how many ramblers?
150 clubs and 10,000 ramblers
What does Ben Anderson argue the language used by the MRF is reminiscent of?
Romantic socialist tradition of William Morris, John Ruskin etc, within these critiques of urban life were common
Was the MRF a anti-modern? Did it advocated back to the land solutions to urban problems?
No
What did Cyril Joad say about rambling and living in the country?
Rambling does not imply a desire to live in the country
What did the MRF along for?
Freedom
What is the famous line from Ewan maccoll’s song revolving around wages?
I may be a wage slave on Monday, but I am a free man on Sunday
What did the federation witness in the early 1930s?
A sudden increase in trips to the countryside
What made the countryside a viable recreational option?
Cheaper transport and paid holidays
What issues did these new ramblers bring with them?
Crowding, noise and litter
Who used the word hiking and why?
The MRF used the term to define a distinction between new members and old
What kind of culture was the word hiking associated with?
Low brow, Americanism associated with youth culture and fashion trends
What did the MRF introduce to try to prepare people for a visit to the outdoors and restore order?
Warden guides
What did the 1932 mass trespass produce for the ramblers rights movement?
Invaluable publicity and inspired copy cat direction also a great amount of support for those arrested
What happened two months after the 1932 mass trespass?
200 sheffield ramblers tramped across the duke of norfolk’s estate
What happened in 1936 that gave hope to the ramblers rights movement?
Sheffield corporation granted limited public access to parts of the Peak District
Why did the access bill in November 1938 meet smooth passage?
War looming physical fitness huge national priority
Why was music so integral to rambling culture in the 1930s?
Outdoor singing was banned, and the right to sing like the right to ramble became a politicised issue
What did maccoll’s song immediately feed into?
Instant mythology of the demonstration, called the mass trespass before it even occurred, was a highly orchestrated publicity stunt
Whose argument was Priestley a frequent contributor to?
Preservationist
Why did preservation of the country seem point less without economic revival?
Several decades of agricultural depression, picturesqueness of the country an expression of decay
What does Peter mandler suggest about national character in the English national character?
That there were questions about Englishness but that rather than reforming it people perhaps had a new determination to do without it as to a large number of people the idea of the Englishman no longer satisfied their self image
What did Peter mandler argue in the English national character was deepened by the experience of war?
The consciousness of national difference, particularly the differences between peoples
How did the war come to affect the consciousness of national difference according to Peter mandler?
Unusually high levels of cross cultural contract experienced by all classes in the course of fighting and at the peace negotiations in Versailles
Which England does Peter mandler describe as easier to swallow for the mass audience in the English national character?
The old English countryside as a fantasy or compliment to modern life
What did romantic celebrations of the old English countryside and its traditional social structures become?
Stock items in certain circles
What does Peter mandler say about imperial consciousness in the inter war years?
The historic constraint of imperial consciousness on English national character loosened
Why were many aristocratic families forced to give up land in 1920s?
Massive loss of life (heirs gone), high wartime taxation
What does Birmingham build more of than any other city in 1920s?
Houses
Where do houses begin to be built in the 20s and where did they used to be built?
Begin to be built in outer areas and not in cities/towns
What did the metro-land ideal encapsulate?
What it means to be ‘English’
What happened to a lot of old houses in the 20s30s?
Cut up into flats/affordable housing in inner urban areas for immigrants and migrants
What did Britain hate in terms of buildings in the 20s and caused lots of discontent?
Flats, but some people did find flats fashionable in 20s 30s
Name three elements that new houses had that were better than the old 19th century houses?
Bigger in size, further back from the road (had a front garden) and had better plumbing
What did rising mortgage prices mean in the period?
People having less children
What kind of family space did people move towards?
Nuclear - people wanted just their little family, whereas before the whole family tried to live together
What did new houses often contain to account for the lack of live in servants?
modern appliances
How were the estates built by councils often different to private ones?
Smaller, less rooms, less mod cons
What kind of ideal did the suburb come to present in the 20s 30s?
Utopian domestic and rural ideal
What made Britain seem more connected than ever before?
People began to commute, transport links improving
What did the suburban houses offer along with themselves?
The ‘Suburban Lifestyle Package’ - peace and health and happiness
How was London portrayed in opposition to the suburbs?
crowded, dirty and threatening
What kind of impression do Joad, Duff and Lancaster give of British people in the 1920s?
1920s hipster, trying to be individual but in doing so all becoming the same
What does Lancaster see in the way 1920s houses are built?
Sees a rejection of progress, he says they are just a cheap version of old English houses
What was the disease The Lancet suggested many women living in suburban were coming down with?
Suburban neurosis - women becoming anxious because of the mundane boredom of their everyday lives
Who wrote My Little Metro Land Home and when?
Boyle Lawrence and Henry Thraile in 1920
What was the term metro-land given to?
suburban areas built in north west of London in early 20th century, served by metropolitan railway
Who had spare land in 1919 that was turned into houses?
The railway companies
Who coined the Metro land term?
Marketing department of the railway companies
Did many people use the word metro land?
Yes, frequent references to it in literature, really ingrained in consciousness of the people
What was produced which further established the term metro land in peoples minds?
The song!
What did metro land inspire, other than the song?
Films (in 1997) and novels
What line of the metro land song ties the suburban movement to the kinder trespass movement?
“Awaiting me there at the close of the day” “Each evening at 7 she is looking for me”- freedom compared to work
What line from the metro land home song gives a really rural image?
“Hum of bees, and whisper of trees”
What line ties the metro land song to the railway?
“The day has begun on the 8.15 train” “as I get back to her by the 5.53”
What is the line in the song that compares metro land to paradise?
“It is happiness crowned, It is paradise found, in my little metro-land home”
What is the “England Myth” that Joad warns about in the Horrors of the Countryside?
the idea that there is a misconception or an untruth being seen about English countryside that it is beautiful
What does Joad argue that people think the home counties and the South of England in particular have in The Horrors of the Countryside?
“Tranquil charm” - he says people think they live in on as memory of quite loveliness from which we never should have been parted
What does Joad argue the English man’s thoughts inevitably return to?
Wistful longing for the quiet loveliness of real countryside
What does Joad say the southern home counties are actually like in The Horrors of the Countryside?
Drab, squalid and cheap - he has particular disdain for the southern suburbs
What does Joad say is sprawled across the Surrey Hills?
“cheerful villas”
What does Joad describe suburbs as in The Horrors of the Countryside?
Says towns surround themselves with “municipal dustbins” (suburbs, ouch!)
What is the line used on the poster advert for the Charmandean Estate that links to the way houses were quickly and cheaply built?
“Built up to a standard, not down to a price”
What did Stephen Taylor in The Lancet describe suburban areas as doing to the mind?
Said “the slum which stunted the body” had been “replaced by the slum which stunts the mind”
What did Stephen Taylor in The Lancet suggest could help the problem of suburban neurosis?
Social clubs, pubs, health centre etc.
What did Stephen Taylor in The Lancet warn that people with suburban neurosis could be easy targets for?
Possibly dangerous political ideologies
What did the anthropological report on London Suburbs say there was a high degree of in suburbs?
People imitating and mimicking each other, like Priestley said they lack individual character
What does the advertising film for Davis estates in 1935 say about suburban estates?
“few can choose to live so peacefully in the heart of london”
What does the advertising film for Davis estates in 1935 show a map of?
Links from the houses to trains and which train stations are near to which areas of housing - commuting really popular
How many people viewed the new houses at the Ideal Home Exhibition in 1935?
175,000
What does Stephen Taylor in the Suburban Neurosis say suburban life is lacking?
“Real live people”
What did the underground encapsulate the spirit of?
The 1920s and 30s age, symptomatic of interwar modernity
In the film Underground what shots showed the height of technology?
The opening and closing scenes where a camera was attached to the front of the tube train coming through the tunnel and into the platform
Why was the film Underground set in the underground?
A new place of encounter, lots of people meet up and are forced into a small space
Is the tube new in the 1920s?
No, but expands rapidly in the 20s 30s
What disappears in the 20s 30s which makes a big difference to the railway?
The workman’s carraige, a democratic social space now
What do the Escalators in Underground provide?
another space in which people don’t quite understand the rules, shows the point of transition into modernity and a nervous excitement, calamity waiting to happen
What does the tube map show about the tube in comparison to the outside world?
The new tube map is not real, shows tube has its own logic.
How does the tube map link with the man who helps people on the escalators?
Both easing the transition into modernity, and bringing people into it
Which famous poem do Cyril Power’s paintings seem to replicate?
Ezra Pound’s In a station of the metro
What does vorticism mean?
A style of art, converging to a certain point
What does Lunt Roberts poster ‘A Fair Average Conduct Helps the Service’ show about the underground?
Again shows its a place in a transition period between modernity and traditional, also shows that the underground is busy/crowded space and popular.
What does the Lunt Roberts poster ‘A Fair Average Conduct Helps the Service’ have in common with the film ‘Rambling with Reason’?
Both trying to order and control society, also links to the dance videos which set things out in a certain way - this is a coping mechanism for the amount of change in the period
Why did Harry Beck change the tube map in 1933?
Wanted to make the system seem modern, quick and efficient and easier to navigate to attract much needed new passengers
What other kind of map did Harry Beck draw the tube map like?
A circuit board map
What does the fact that Harry Beck’s map was at first dismissed and he was sacked show about modern britain?
Still very class based - Harry was just an engineer working for the company, its all about who gets to decide what new modern britain is like and who gets to help transition people?
How many tube maps were in circulation 6 months after it was commissioned?
more than a million
Towards the end of the war what key post war policy does Peter Scott argue was the focus of the government in The Making of the Modern British Home?
‘Homes for Heroes’
What does Peter Scott argue the government hope homes for heroes would diffuse?
Anticipated social unrest or revolution as the troops returned home to a job market that did not have enough room for them
What did the 1918 Tudor Walters report advocate?
A low density suburban solution to post war housing problem. Set out a blueprint for new suburban home
What did the 1918 Tudor Walters report think its blueprint for suburban housing could improve?
Improve economic and social conditions by creating healthier and better designed houses and communities
What did people want to move away from in 1920s housing?
Municipal housing which was widely viewed as being grimly uniform in appearance
What does Peter Scott in The Making of the Modern British Home argue that developers sought to build down to?
Lower income groups particularly in mid to late 1930s
How many suburban houses were built in interwar Britain?
4 million
What did the new housing however mean the old housing began to be seen as?
“obsolecent and less attractive to tenants”
How many new council houses were built in suburban estates by 1938?
1.1 million
What did the government rise as in the interwar period?
A house provider of new rented housing, municipal housing expanded from less than 1 per cent in 1914 to 10 per cent in 1939
Over the interwar period how much did the urban area of England and Wales increase?
26 per cent
Who constituted the majority of new suburban residents classwise?
Middle class households, but working class were important participants
How were suburban homes so popular even in the depression?
Those who could sustain a job for a long time had the money to take on the extra costs associated with renting a new suburban council home or buying a mortgage
What happened to council estates in the interwar period?
Originally they were dominated by the upper strata of the working class but reduction in rents and slum clearance programmes meant they became overwhelmingly working class, encompassing a broad range of incomes
What does Peter Scott in The Making of the Modern British Home argue really took off in the 1930s in terms of building houses?
Building houses speculatively without building them directly for someone
What does Peter Scott in The Making of the Modern British Home argue emerged in the suburbs for the working class?
A new form of working class respectability based around an increased commitment of resources to the welfare and material advancement of the next generation and restrained speech and behaviour, maintaining hygeine
What kind of family life does Peter Scott in The Making of the Modern British Home argue the suburban semi played a key role in promoting?
A domesticated and privatised model of working class family life
What kind of new ideals were health professionals and other social commentators promoting that were used by marketing firms connected with the house building industry?
Ideals of family life, maternity, childhood and respectability
What did the reinforcement of new ideals of family life, maternity and childhood mean for married women?
Pressure on them to focus exclusively on housework rather than engaging in paid labour
What does Peter Scott in The Making of the Modern British Home argue was a huge part of the marketing campaign for the house builders of suburban houses?
‘lifestyle marketing’ asserting that a modern suburban semi was a passport to a better life, for both the purchaser and their children
What did the building industry and building society movement launch an intensive campaign to sell the virtues of?
Owner occupation
What were they key marketing messages that building societies used to sell owner occupation?
The ease and low cost of house purchase on mortgage, superiority of owner occupation to renting, the investment value of a house, and the health and other lifestyle advantages
How did building societies and housing developers collaborate to extend the market? What did they offer?
Mortgages on ‘easy terms’ with 5 per cent deposits and 25 year repayment terms
What does Peter Scott in The Making of the Modern British Home argue was the reality of lots of suburban housing?
Owners could not afford mortgage payments so had to cut back on expenditure less easily observed by neighbours such as food and heating - big emphasis on keeping up with the Joneses
What did owner occupation also promote the adoption of?
Longer term planning horizons and strategies
How many houses does Juliet Gardner suggest were owner occupied in early 1920s and how many by 1938?
Three quarters of a mil in early 1920s and three and a quarter mil in 1938
What does Juliet Gardner in The Thirties argue is happening for the first time?
New homes being built speculatively rather than commissioned
Although people had cars why did most use public transport to get to and from work?
It was cheaper, money was tight and cars were expensive
Why were mortgages so easy to obtain after the financial crash?
There was unease about foreign investment so those who wanted to invest did so in building societies
Why does Juliet Gardner say that owner occupation was still a largely middle class pattern?
Less than 20 per cent of working class were owner occupiers in 1939
What does Juliet Gardner say that Grace Foulkes says about her new house?
“We were all so very proud of our new houses and each occupier named his house… Ours was called Arcadia which means Simple Happiness. This is what we had; this is all we wanted”
What does David Pike describe the Underground space as in ‘London on Film and Underground’?
“a technological space of controlled normality ostensibly divorced from the disorderly past of the Victorian city”
What contradictions can David Pike see in the Underground space in ‘London on Film and Underground’?
Describes a coexistence between qualities attributed to modern infrastructure such as controlled, ordered and qualities attributed to the archaic underground and the mythic underworld such as adventure, atavism, danger
What is the opening title of Underground?
“our story of ordinary work-a-day people”
What does David Pike in ‘London on Film and Underground’ describe the average tube carraige as like as depicted in Underground ?
“a tense but close-knit community in which gestures, eye contact and clever manoeuvring allow mixed classes and genders to coexist at close quarters”
Why is the closing scene of Underground repeating the opening scene so important?
It stresses the comforting regularity of work and the train always the same every workday
