Interwar Years - Historiography Flashcards

Question

What was Baldwin's motion behind protectionism?

Answer 1

* Industrial protection was reduction of unemployment which remained stubbornly persistent

Answer 2

* Underestimating the hold of free trade upon popular thought

Answer 3

* ’Truce of God’ and ‘peace in our time’ for ‘a better and happier condition” of the country. Invoked notions of sacrifice, selflessness and Christian ideals.

Answer 4

* Took huge political risk in 1925 by offering temp. government subsidy whilst the **Samuel report** adjudicated on the validity of coal miner agitations for wage increase.

Answer 5

* General strike and prolonged coal stoppage temporarily disrupted Baldwin's hopes of social reconciliation and co-operation in industrial regeneration.

Answer 6

* 1927 Trades Disputes Bill due to GS + collapse of Locarno

Answer 7

The reality was more complicated. 1. Cabinet momentum increase in 1928 2. Baldwin reassertion of control of cabinet, alongside electoral campaigning 3. Churchill rating relief for agricultural and industrial ventures. 4. Baldwin convinces Chamberlain to accept ' derating' scheme - showed to be compatible with large-scale reform of local government. 5. Mond-Turner Talks, TUC industrial cooperation - general arbitration improved. 6. Cabinet divisons and backbench rebellion assailed w/ regards tariffs, but industrial safeguarding was promised for the future. 7. Persuaded Churchill that colonial development would benefit trade.

Answer 8

* 'non-flationary'* * Conventional wisdom dictated that inflation nor deflation, but stability, should be pursued.

Answer 9

* Dominance held accountable to ‘character’ and ‘new leadership’ * Narrative of Englishness - combining all people from Durham miners, Worcester farmers and city financiers.

Answer 10

LG funded it personally, at great cost

Answer 11

Safety First (Tories)

Answer 12

* Democratically correct * Respect for Labour * Belief that a minority government would flail

Answer 13

Churchill called for anti-socialist alliance, Chamberlain for imperial preference

Answer 14

* Beaverbrook + Rotheremere - anti-Baldwin - hate campaign from 1923 onwards * Attempted to force removal in 1929 - Beaverbrook promoted Empire Free Trade * Rothermere joined in with imperial unity pledges - Baldwin successfully defeated challenges from Churchill and Beaverbrook

Answer 15

* Yes - Baldwin did not want the national government to be the conservatives in disguise - more so a consensual government. A non-party solution would blight socialism

Answer 16

* Most serious conservative dissent was led by Churchill in 1929-1934 over India. * Churchill and diehards did not want to concede dominion to India - Baldwin did. Pressing issue was the challenge to party identity. Indian affair destroyed the prospects for a fused national party

Answer 17

Baldwin was not reactionary or diehard - inherently progressive and modern

Answer 18

co-ordination, arbitration and troubleshooting

Answer 19

* Considered dictatorial in opposition to protectionism in 1928, and in 1925 over the Macquisten Bill

Answer 20

* Party management was a collective affair conducted by Baldwin with senior colleagues, whigs, and party officials; that he usually received excellent advice, and that his own contribution lay chiefly in well-timed delivery and well pitched speeches

Answer 21

Baldwin good at utilising mass media - i.e. BBC in 1924 for first broadcast political speech “*Chief contribution was to become the first politician to master radio broadcasting*" “*National spokesperson*”, first person to give film *“serious attention"*

Answer 22

Outreach of BBC - 33million, 70% nation

Answer 23

“*Two or three rules- cut your losses, cut down your expenditure,; enter into no new commitments, and hope for the best*" Baldwin believed business should and could respond positively to economic depression, exercising the kind of enterprise which had enabled the Baldwin firms to adjust to new conditions"

Answer 24

Far from having been isolated from ‘modern’ industrial relations, the prime minister had one been exercised by the problem of how to retain industrial peace amid changing economic and social condition.

Answer 25

* *"a fully fledged democracy before we are ready for it*" Requires education * "*democracy has arrived at a gallop in England, and I feel all the time that it was a race for life: can you we educate them before the crash comes?*"

Answer 26

Could not safeguard - dire straits in 1928

Answer 27

* conventional wisdom of sound finance would communalise capitalism thus extending conservative appeal. * Presentation of capital helped to provide economic permanence - the wc had substantial savings, which undermined arguments from socialists about the hoarding of capital. * Baldwin - Tory weapon was the ‘*multiplication of capitalists*’ - ‘not to depress people’ with state ownership, but a property owning democracy. * Individualism, voluntarism and private enterprise were tenets of property owning democracy, deployed effectively to meet contemp. demands.

Answer 28

Feeding the people was, he declared as PM, “t*he great mission’ of masters of men*“ and "no higher and finer mission can be found on earth"

Answer 29

“B*uying off the strikes in 1925 had been the cost of teaching democracy*"

Answer 30

TUC presented as having despotic power, ‘civil war’ power

Answer 31

dislike for urbanity was not part of a rejection of modernism - tranquility was to assist the execution of urban functions

Answer 32

Present it as foreign import

Answer 33

“effective politics had to be a christian politics, defending and stimulating the springs of individuality, spirituality and morality" Baldwin did not identify Christianity with Britishness. Nevertheless, expressed a common British belief that Protestantism – Still, in semi-secularised forms, Central to national ideology–that the Lord peculiarly favoured the English and charged them with special tasks.

Answer 34

When he spoke, a cross appeared above his head

Answer 35

- independent working class politics might condemn Tories to permanent minority

Answer 36

Celtic fringe, mining communities

Answer 37

Nationalisation important 1918-1940, then important rhetorically till 1990s

Answer 38

Snowden - Capitalism would evolve to be more social democratic- shattered by unemployment of 1920s

Answer 39

1930s saw the removal of the pillars of the unmanaged economy - free trade and gold standard

Answer 40

* Labour was heavily reliant on foreign policy advice on the so-called foreign Legion – the coterie of veterans from the pre-1914 ranks of radical liberalism * Belief in self determination * Henderson dominated 1930s foreign policy thought in the Labour Party – Repudiation of pacifism * The webb's argued for a completely reorganised government structure * Focal point remained improving the machinery of government * Constitutional reform was increasingly set by the moderates and not the radicals within the party

Answer 41

* Labour never managed to poll more than 37-38% of the vote between 1918 & 1935

Answer 42

As miners voted Labour, Labour had a strong phalanx of support when the Liberals were floundering

Answer 43

Working class culture - scurrilous newspapers, gambling, football, horse racing - tory in nature. Political outlook - monarchy good, improving legislation bad, union good, immigrants, bad

Answer 44

Mackenzie emphasised the continuing vitality of popular imperialism and monarchism during the inter-war period, whilst McKibbin argued that Conservative support during this period extended well beyond those who were the objective beneficiaries of deflationary government policies

Answer 45

Popular conservatism of the 1920s: * mass organizations * propaganda * educational activities * electioneering involving three sectors: * women * youth * wage earner. The second element of the popular conservatism thesis focuses on youth, the **Junior Imperial League,** and **Young Britons**. - The third component of 1920s popular conservatism was the party's response to the full-scale enfranchisement of the male working class and the rise of the Labour party. The party sought to develop a mass organization- the Labour Committee-with which to offer wage earners a "different political identity

Answer 46

- 'Autumn cleaning, like industrial relations, becomes easier when people cooperate' - 'Hanging out close during changeable weather is as risky as voting liberal'; - ' Free trade means allowing strangers to steal flowers from your garden'.

Answer 47

Target women with propaganda to win support against socialism - Feminism was the pictured as inextricably linked with socialism. Furthermore, the service Republic was represented as a full storm of the feminist utopia. "The mother, instead of cooking for herself, her husband and children at home, maybe ordered by the Socialists to cook or wash up the dishes in some public restaurant where are the families take their meals. "

Answer 48

The metamorphosis of Unionism in the aftermath of the 1911 Parliament Act was striking. It precipitated the narrowing of Unionist objectives in Ireland by forcing Conservatives to concentrate upon the exclusion of Ulster; Home Rule might now be inevitable for the south, but the north could still be saved for Britain.

Answer 49

A key assumption among such historians has been that class was slowly replacing regional loyalties, occupation, or religion as the major determinant in the formation of political attitudes

Answer 50

1. The divided Liberals had no means of recruiting the support of the million new electors, or even of retaining the allegiance of those who supported the pre-1914 'New Liberalism'. 2. After 1918 Labour was the party best able to exploit industrial unrest and to propose (though not to implement) radical solutions. 3. It was not clear until 1924 that 'the future lay between two distinctly popular parties' The problem of whether Liberal organization in the constituencies was or was not deteriorating in 1914 has been argued extensively, to no definite conclusion.' 4. Even if the Liberals were in decline, Labour need not have been advancing. On the contrary, its electoral (as opposed to trade union) base was still closely associated with that of the Liberals, and its inability to win three-cornered contests.

Answer 51

1. False teeth and spectacles controversy 2. Korean War mass cost 3. Internal troubles - right wing elements like Gaitskell - no commitment to socialism

Answer 52

First to be shot outside Westminster

Answer 53

Went towards the 'free breakfast table' by reducing duties on key staples, but did not introduce a capital levy. Profoundly believed in the morality of the balanced budget, A. J. P. Taylor said his budget "would have delighted the heart of Gladstone"

Answer 54

Snowden resigned from the party in 1927 because he believed it was "drifting more and more away from...evolutionary socialism into revolutionary socialism"

Answer 55

His economic philosophy was one of strict Gladstonian Liberalism rather than socialism.

Answer 56

became the politics of seduction - left politicians seduced by the power of wealth and status

Answer 57

the Aristocratic embrace of MacDonald, Snowden and Thomas

Answer 58

court dress and deference to the king - MacDonald v party.

Answer 59

Party over leader!

Answer 60

During 1930 and 1931, as part of press speculation

Answer 61

economy in expenditure (as in, thrift), reduction of taxation, protectionist policy with a slant toward imperial preference.

Answer 62

* Banking Crisis of mid-August 1931 was the product of: * Banking Crisis in central Europe - which had left London exposed * British budget deficit of £120 million for the financial year 1931-2

Answer 63

* Found it difficult to escape the solution of Bank of England - to introduce a substantial reduction of expenditure - in particular in the field of unemployment benefits

Answer 64

* Conservatives v conscious of PR bombshell of upper classes passing cuts which directly impact WC.

Answer 65

* Takes until 1935 for Baldwin to become Prime Minister again

Answer 66

Well, managed to capitalise on the moral economy. However, by later 19th century, Liberals more effective on miessage on church disestablishment, temperance, education reform and the land question

Answer 67

Achievement of the Welsh Disestablishment of the church saw the Liberals undermined, and drove them to the anit-socialist front presented by the conventional wisdom of the conservatives.

Answer 68

Welsh politics became more British, whereas British politics became more Welsh - specifically, Baldwin ramped up the christian rhetoric in his pronouncements.

Answer 69

It bound Welsh and English together in a cohesive narrative.

Answer 70

1922, 1923, 1924

Answer 71

Very slim, and precarious, despite the supposed ascendancy of the post-war decade

Answer 72

Adopting working class 'patriots' as candidates - such as Gwilym Rowlands - son of a colliery manager - to contest seats like Rhondda West

Answer 73

Three-fold: 1. Fallacy of Conservatism is a non-ideological belief system 2. Issue of electoral success - the dominance of the Conservatives during the 1980s distorted the literature 3. Partisanship in literature

Answer 74

* Many conservatives shared, if only implicityl, much of the deterministic class analysis that Marxists struggled to reconcile with the elecotral behaviour during the 1920s

Answer 75

* The party prospered by pursuing a deflationary economic policy designed to embody the values and self-interest of the 'man on £500 a year' * Fiscal 'conventional wisdom' of deflation derived from a widely shared value system that juxtaposed the 'public' with organised labour, and stigmatised the latter throuhg a hostile stereotyping the latter through a hostile stereotyping of working class culture.

Answer 76

* Industrial militancy * Growth of trade-unionism * Disappearance of traditional small- scale industry ensured that Edwardian fears of a hostile and politically cohesive working class continued

Answer 77

Conservative grass-roots offended by heavy postwar taxation, by government's perceived failure to check the rise of socialism at home and abroad, and by conceding self government to most of Ireland.

Answer 78

Conventionally: limited of ability, not aware of surroudings Check: Forward, honest, patriotic, moderation, sanity, and communicative with the people

Answer 79

* 1935 Election: 158 seats, 38% of the vote * 1929: only 37% of the votes - 287 seats

Answer 80

* Trevor Wilson * Roy Douglas * P.F. Clarke * K.D. Brown * Chris Cook * Michael Bentley * Duncan Tanner

Answer 81

* Lancashire dominated by the Tories until 1890s, which is odd for the 'cockpit' of British politics * He suggests the changing fortunes of the Liberal Party were very largely the product of the New Liberal ideas offered to the electorate by C.P. Scott (Manchester Guardian editor) Churchill and LG. * Difficult to assert conditions affecting Lancashire were important elsewhere. Little evidence supporting his viewpoint esp. upto 1914

Answer 82

* Successful on Old tennents of peace, retrenchment, free trade and nonconformity * LG was a new liberal in England and an Old Liberal in Wales * New Liberalism was not potent outside of London and Manchester

Answer 83

* Lancashire dominated by the Tories until 1890s, which is odd for the 'cockpit' of British politics * He suggests the changing fortunes of the Liberal Party were very largely the product of the New Liberal ideas offered to the electorate by C.P. Scott (Manchester Guardian editor) Churchill and LG. * Difficult to assert conditions affecting Lancashire were important elsewhere. Little evidence supporting his viewpoint esp. upto 1914

Answer 84

* Dr Matthew, Dr McKibbin, Mr Kay

Answer 85

* The Liberals, in energetically fighting the war, sacrificed their key socially progressive policies - becoming an effectual party of the right

Answer 86

* The Liberals, in energetically fighting the war, sacrificed their key socially progressive policies - becoming an effectual party of the right

Answer 87

* Actually increased in numbers between 1922 and 1923 - 1923 as last hurrah for liberalism. * Issue: Liberals had no way of courting the 15 million new voters - and intellectual inheritance fell to Labour after 1924 ministry

Answer 88

* Actually increased in numbers between 1922 and 1923 - 1923 as last hurrah for liberalism. * Issue: Liberals had no way of courting the 15 million new voters - and intellectual inheritance fell to Labour after 1924 ministry

Answer 89

New Liberalism and social reform was not important * Devon and Cornwall comprised an important electoral battleground from I886 to I93I, as the large proportion of marginal constituencies offset the relative lack of members of parliament * The rallying cry of Gladstonian Liberalism - 'peace, retrenchment, reform' - or some variant of it, was consistently and widely employed by Liberal candidates in Devon and Cornwall in the I920s. * At every election up to I93I the Liberals emphasized free trade. In I929, for example, a free trade 'shop' was set up at Penzance to show the cost of safeguarding - an 'ocular demonstration of the fact which determined the issue of the Tariff Reform controversy twenty years ago - that you cannot "make the foreigner pay"

Answer 90

The closed culture of liberalism meant many maintained their support for the party even into the 1930s - questioning the view that the middle class defected by 1924

Answer 91

Searle, Bernstein and Wald - both at the local and national level, Edwardian liberal party remained heavily dependent on the middle class and activists

Answer 92

Liberalism lost its appeal to the young, as Conservatism became the dominant force in anti-socialist politics

Answer 93

Middle-class realignment did not occur in WWI - may have been fed up with Liberals in the years leading to WWI, but the strength of their culture meant few could consider voting for, let alone joining the conservatives. Lifestyle, marriage, residence and social world - Edwardian Liberals and Conservatives remained separate.

Answer 94

Liberal violation of principles during thr war - subverting religion - caused downfall - however this was not felt immediately. The 'Red Letter' election of 1924 may have annihilated Liberalism as a parliamentary force - took much longer for liberal culture at the local level to dissolve. Gradual assimialtion of the middle classes might have ultimately led to the decline of the liberals by 1930s or 1940s.

Answer 95

Despite the electoral reforms of 1883-5 election contests before 1914 were still expensive enough effectively to exclude the Labour Party

Answer 96

Enhancement of the Corruption Act of 1883 * As WWI was an expensive operation, politicians took advantage of the 1918 Act to reduce burdens which war had made intolerable. In the process, Labour could contest seats in non-industrial centres. * After I9I8, Labour was able to mount a nationwide challenge, spending an amount which was higher than it could otherwise have hoped to achieve relative to the older parties, and in most cases retaining its deposit rather than paying a share of returning officer's costs *

Answer 97

* Seen as betraying the party, Conservatives thus cashed in on the failings of Labour to bolster political credibility

Answer 98

* No party served to benefit from participation in the National Government * Conservatives, for instance, were constrained to operate cooperatively instead of unilaterally, resultantly, some delay in removing free traders, who presented obstacles in realising the Tariff.

Answer 99

Skidelsky wrote during the heyday of Keynsianism - resultantly, saw the failure of the Second Labour Government as unquestionnably on policy, specifically unemployment policy. For Skidelsky, Labour pledged to fix unemployment - and had perfectly plausible blueprints presented in the plans of LG's public works agenda, Mosley's proposals, and the Economic Advisory Council For **Williamson**, it was more the case that no government could not have failed following the economic recession of 1929. Moreover, Labour failed on politics - in the voicing of ideas and words -as much as on policy. Political inflexibility and lack of finesse were a major failing of Labour - hampered from the outset as a minority. **Party political instability** according to Stuart Ball, was felt across the spectrum

Answer 100

* Baldwin, beating Lord Cuzon to the leadership of the Conservative party, attempted to gain national ratification for a plan to implement a series of tariffs. * Both wings of the Liberal party were able to unite in support of free trade - to win 159 seats * Labour followed a similar line, and secured 191 seats

Answer 101

* Recent converts of liberalism - * Lord Haldane * Charles Trevelyan * Most had never held a cabinet position in the past - majority were working class in background- ignorant to the mechanism of government- making them dependent on civil service support. * Nevertheless, PM used powers vigorously - some felt MacDonald should have been subservient to the National Organisation of Labour.

Answer 102

* No grand plan - more an attempt to demonstrate competency. * Philip Snowden in many respects very liberal - would not approve massive spending projects - believed the nation should pay its way * Actually supported the cutting of taxes * Trevelyan - President of the Board of education * Increased free places in secondary schools * Resotred university state scholarships scrapped by Geddes * Worked for the reduction of school classes to a maximum for 40 pupils * Old Age Pensions minorly improved * Unemployment benefit minorly improved *

Answer 103

* Criticism of Russian loan policy (to retreive British assets not returned in WWI) * Liberal split over Labour laxity over Campbell article (which encouraged troops not to fire on British workers) * Zinoviev letter

Answer 104

* A substantial one. Baldwin did not dominate his cabinet members, permitting significant autonomy * Ministers such as Neville Chamberlain executed many executive functions - guiding some 21 bills through parliament.

Answer 105

* Subsidising Imperial Airways * Creation of the BBC as a public corporation * Electricity Supply Act of 1926 * Chamberlain

Answer 106

* Chamberlain - 10 shillings a week provided for those over 65 covered by the Health Insurance scheme. Widows were entitled to a ten shillings a week pension and orphans to seven shillings and sixpence. * 1929 - Poor Law Unions were scrapped by Chamberlain. Duty of responsibility fell on the counties.

Answer 107

* Seen as betraying the party, Conservatives thus cashed in on the failings of Labour to bolster political credibility

Answer 108

* Enfranchisement was not as major a factor as is often suggested in the context of 1918 * The language of political appeal was not refined for the new female electorate - instead, the prominent motion was towards the men as the defenders of the nation and state, compared to women, who were the defenders of the race.

Answer 109

Conservatives less interested - actually TSE opposed to. WI competed with Town Womens' Guilds - also saw the decline of the Primrose League.