Interwar class 2

Question 1

Decline in the richest of society

Answer 1

Those who earned in real terms net of tax £10,000 a year had fallen from 4,000 in 1914 to 1,300 in 1925

Question 2

Fall of landed millionaires

Answer 2

Only 29 between 1920 and 1939 compared to 153 non-landed millionaires who were represented most strongly in commerce and finance as well as manufacturing

Question 3

McKibbin - UC fall

Answer 3

‘had collapsed into the middle class’

Question 4

Wage divergence of MC and WC

Answer 4

Increases in wages of foremen to over 50% more than those of skilled workers by 1922, representing a considerable historical departure

Question 5

Skilled wage fall

Answer 5

28% 1912-1922 compared to unskilled and semi-skilled

Question 6

Mass unemployment levels and effect

Answer 6

3.4 million in 1932

Unified and galvanised the working class as both skilled and unskilled were affected heavily

Question 7

Gazely and Langhamer - wealth and happiness

Answer 7

Survey of Boltonian Mass Observation respondents in 1938

Showed many members of WC saw no correlation between great riches and ‘true happiness’

Question 8

Those below poverty line

Answer 8

Labourers and male textile workers

Wages still fell below Rowntree’s revised poverty line in the 1930s

Question 9

Davies - gendered leisure inequality

Answer 9

Manchester and Salford WC families

Men had ‘considerable financial power’ due to cash wages

Men had ‘spends’ for leisure whereas women expected to prioritise the family

Question 10

Male dominated leisure

Answer 10

Sphere of leisure mainly dominated by men

Some women only participated annually, when the local pub organised a day trip for women

Question 11

Gendered differences in leisure among youth

Answer 11

General greater level of financial and social independence for young working-class women - consumers of new leisure forms

Young men consistently given more money by their families

Question 12

Lawrence - class ‘misdescription’

Answer 12

Consistent class ‘misdescription’ by survey respondents suggests influence of cultural values also

Question 13

Hinton - mass observation cultural importance

Answer 13

MO responses in 1939 saw most regarding ‘cultural factors’ as equally important as income

Constant fusion of class and culture

Question 14

Hinton - MC definition

Answer 14

Identified with ‘high culture’

Committed to intellectual life and certain types of offerings (e.g. opera) to distance themselves from WC

Question 15

Hinton - MC contradiction

Answer 15

Desire to distance itself from working class ‘grubbiness’ involved with industrial production

However, also lack of desire to identify as MC - identity more problematic

Question 16

Technology

Answer 16

Infiltration of radio, ‘pictures’ and magazine photography as never before

Question 17

Light - MC language

Answer 17

‘speaking a kind of stage English’ in the period - ‘BBC English’

Spread of mass media enabled differentiation of classes

Question 18

Technology lessening UC

Answer 18

Unanchoring of gentility form older forms of ownership and community

Voice could be considered genteel without having other means of gentility

Question 19

Erosion of traditional employment

Answer 19

Less cross-class interaction in areas like agriculture

More manufacturing, trade and transport

Question 20

Labour market change

Answer 20

Widespread bureaucratisation, served to politicise large sections of the working class

Question 21

TU increase

Answer 21

8 million members in 1920

This was 4 times higher than in 1910

Question 22

Strike

Answer 22

1926 General Strike would have seemed inconceivable in former years and showed heightened solidarity

Question 23

McCarthy - LNU principle and reality

Answer 23

Universal participation

Belied by the middle-class nature of its membership and attempts too shore up anti-socialism

Question 24

McCarthy - effect of LNU

Answer 24

‘entrenchment of social class cultures’

Question 25

TUs as a minority

Answer 25

Never managed to bring more than a minority of the population into their orbit

Question 26

Labour membership

Answer 26

Peaked at 4.36 milion in 1920

In a working class of up to 32 million

Question 27

Increasing MC political action compared to UC

Answer 27

Only 13 landed men ennobled 1921-30

Compared to 24 industrialists

Question 28

MC as more powerful

Answer 28

Far greater political entity, with politicians making policies largely for them

Part of a confident, modern progressive time for them

McKibbin - ‘golden age’ for the middle classes