Theme 3 a 1 - Class social change and the impact of the wars 1918-51 Flashcards
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<p>At the beginning of the twentieth century, the British class system was divided into what four many groups?</p>
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<ul> <li>Industrial working classes.</li> <li>Lower middle classes.</li> <li>Middle classes.</li> <li>Upper Classes.</li></ul>
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<p>Give a brief description of the<strong> Industrial working classes.</strong></p>
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<ul> <li>Worked as manual labourers/ skilled craftsmen in factories, mines, docks and on the railways.</li></ul>
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<ul> <li>Lived predominantly- tight knit communities.</li></ul>
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<ul> <li>Skilled/ artisan working classes were craftsmen who had specialised skills, earning more & often identifying with and aspiring to join the middle classes.</li></ul>
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<p>Give a brief description- Lower middle classes.</p>
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<p>Workers - semi-skilled clerical jobs; small business owners who tended to own their own homes.</p>
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<p>Brief description - middle classes?</p>
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<p>Professionals (doctors, lawyers, bankers, civil servants), who did highly specialised tasks.</p>
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<p>Brief description- Upper classes?</p>
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<ul> <li>Families- inherited their wealth, land and titles, often represented in the House of Lords.</li></ul>
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<ul> <li>Natural supporters of the <strong>Conservative Party.</strong></li></ul>
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<ul> <li>Most senior army officers who fought the First World War were upper class, as were a significant number of ministers (25/ 59 cabinet posts) in Asquiths and Lloyd George's wartime cabinets.)</li></ul>
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<p>How were those in higher social classes in positions of power often treated by those in lower social orders?</p>
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<p>In the years preceding WW1, what led to more noticable social changes?</p>
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<ul> <li>Treated with <strong>deference</strong>!</li></ul>
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<ul> <li>Impact of <strong>WW1</strong> (1914-18)</li> <li>Impact <strong>WW2</strong> (1939-45)</li></ul>
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<p>What are some features of the upper-class?</p>
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<ul> <li>Hugely wealthy.</li> <li>Owned vast majority of land.</li> <li>Privately educated in schools like Eton.</li> <li>Had a social calendar called 'the season'.</li> <li>Attended events like badminton horse trials, horse-racing at Royal Ascot, rowing at Henley, sailing at Cowes (which would be attended by the Royal Family)!</li></ul>
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<p>Gave the upper class a clear sense of identity!!!!</p>
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<p>The upper-class social calendar, 'the season'</p>
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<p>What was this?</p>
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<ul> <li>Season- divided between<strong> country pursuits</strong> (hunting, shooting) from <strong>autumn to spring</strong> & series of <strong>sporting and cultural events</strong>- largely based in London during summer months.</li></ul>
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<ul> <li>London season- began with presentation of aristocrat daughters or marriageable age to the monarch at the 'debutantes ball'.</li></ul>
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<ul> <li>Debutantes ball- ended 1958.</li></ul>
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<p>How did WW1 have an impact of change to the upper-class?</p>
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<p>Number of deaths?</p>
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<ul> <li>Took a disproportionalety heavy toll on the upper class.</li></ul>
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<ul> <li><strong>12.9%</strong> of all men in the army died & <strong>20.7% </strong>of all Old Etonians died (they served as officers- had a higher mortality rate.)</li></ul>
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<p><strong>WW1- changes to the upper class and causes.</strong></p>
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<p>What did the cost of war lead to?</p>
<p>What pressure did it put on the upper-class and what did it result in?</p>
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<ul> <li>Huge increases in income tax and death duties; estates worth over <strong>£2million</strong>- subject to a<strong> 40% increase.</strong></li> <li>Tax on incomes <strong>over £2500 </strong>rose from <strong>2%</strong> in <strong>1914</strong> to <strong>57%</strong> in <strong>1925</strong>.</li> <li><strong>Death duties</strong> were continually <strong>increased.</strong></li></ul>
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<ul> <li>Financial pressure- made it harder for them to pay for their country estates. Gentry sold off lots of land; 1/4 of land- sold off between 1918-1920.</li></ul>
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<p>How did the Rise of Labour change the upper-class?</p>
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<ul> <li>Accelerated the decline of the landed-elite power in the House of Commons- because Labour MPs were middle/working class.</li></ul>
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<ul> <li>While wealthy landowners made up 40% of MPs in 1910- this had fallen to around 5% by 1945.</li></ul>
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<p>How did the House of Lords result in change for the upper-class?</p>
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<ul> <li><strong>Parliament act-1911</strong>, meant Lords could only delay, not block legislation.</li> <li>From <strong>1958</strong>, <strong>hereditary peers</strong> were politically replaced by politically<strong> nominated 'life peers'.</strong></li> <li><strong>1910- 39/43</strong> Lord Lieutenants had been aristocrats. By <strong>1970-</strong> figure fallen to<strong> 15/46.</strong></li> <li><strong>Rise of new upper class</strong> (defined by more wealth than ancestry) meant - no real decline in elite dominance politics before 1951- Macmillan's government had 40 old Etonian Cabinet members.</li></ul>
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<p>Changes to the upper class.</p>
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<p>What did the <strong>rise of satire </strong>do in the 60s and 70s?</p>
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<p><strong>Undermined deference</strong> (unquestioned respect of Establishment figures).</p>
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<p><strong>Decline in Deference</strong></p>
<p>What did the high death toll result in for the classes?</p>
<p><br></br>What had life in the trenches led to?</p>
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<p>What did these factors lead to?</p>
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<ul> <li><strong>High death toll</strong> ( 704,803 men from Britain killed) <strong>shookconfidence</strong> the working classes had in the upper-class generals who led them.</li></ul>
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<ul> <li>Trenches- Working & middle class men<strong> interacting</strong> on more even basis (sharing dangers & what comforts were there.)</li></ul>
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<ul> <li>Led to <strong>decline in deference</strong> & further declined throughout 20th century- particularly after WW2 in 1950s & 1960s.</li></ul>
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<p><strong>Decline in the upper classes</strong></p>
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<p>The National Trust?</p>
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<ul> <li>Many <strong>country houses</strong><em>bought</em> or <em>donated </em>to the <strong>National Trust.</strong></li> <li><em><strong>1937 Country Houses Scheme</strong></em> allowed families to live in their stately homes-<strong> rent free for 2 generations</strong>-<em>( if transferred ownership to NT & opened house to public for atleast 60 days per year.)</em></li> <li>Millions of Britons <strong>paid to visit</strong> these homes- helping to preserve the landed elite.</li> <li>The country house lifestyle remained the ultimate goal for most rich Britons.</li></ul>
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<p>What did the experience of war result in for society?</p>
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<p>Why did people feel more equal?</p>
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<ul> <li>Resulted in a <strong>more democratic society</strong>- with the passing of the <em><strong>1918 Representation of the People Act</strong></em>.</li></ul>
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<ul> <li>People in work could <strong>improve their living standards</strong> and in the worst of the depression, prices fell faster than wages.</li></ul>
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<p>Changes to the middle classes and causes</p>
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<p>WW1?</p>
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<ul> <li>Immediately after war- <strong>middle class</strong> feared <strong>distinction </strong>between them & <strong>working class = eroding.</strong></li> <li><u>False perception</u>,<strong>working-class wages increasing </strong>whilst <strong>middle class incomes stagnated.</strong></li> <li><strong>Wartime inflation</strong> contributed to this fear due to impact on middle-class savings & incomes. Something costing £100 (1914) would cost £276- Nov 1920.</li> <li>Middle class- unfairly <strong>blamed increased strength of TUs</strong> for <strong>pushing up wages &prices,</strong>reality= inflation & increased costs of a wartime economy.</li></ul>
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<p><strong>Changes in middle class and causes.</strong></p>
<p>Rise of middle class jobs</p>
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<p>What jobs were there a growth in?</p>
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<ul> <li>WW1- spurred middle class employment; <strong>34% growth </strong>in <strong>commercial & financial jobs</strong> between <strong>1911-1921.</strong></li></ul>
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<ul> <li>Growth of <strong>respectable jobs</strong> in <strong>science, technology and engineering, rise of salaried jobs in management & administration</strong> (from 700,000 (1931), to 1.25 million (1951) ), and the <strong>expansion of clerking jobs for women </strong>(170,000 in 1911 to 1.4 million in 1951.</li></ul>
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<p>The middle class- changes and their causes.</p>
<p>Home ownership?</p>
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<ul> <li><strong>Home ownership</strong>- became a <strong>defining feature</strong> of middle class status.</li> <li><strong>Interwar contemporaries </strong>spoke of a <em>'new middle class'</em> who had bought home since 1920.</li> <li>By <strong>1939</strong>, <strong>60%</strong> of middle class = <strong>home owners, </strong>compared to<strong> 20% of working class.</strong></li> <li>Suburban lifestyle & geographical separation of men from their place of work came to define the middle class.</li></ul>
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<p><strong>Theworking class</strong></p>
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<p>How did WW1 cause changes for the working class?</p>
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<ul> <li><strong>Smaller % fought in war</strong>- partly due to <em>'reserved occupations',</em> e.g. coal miners- whose labour = essential for war effort & due to poor health, in <strong>1918, 31.3% </strong>of men were classed as <strong>too sickly for combat.</strong></li></ul>
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<ul> <li>Rationing- helped improve health, <strong>average life expectancy rose 7 years</strong>, both men & women, between <strong>1911-1921.</strong></li></ul>
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<ul> <li>'Home fit for heroes' never materialised.</li></ul>
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<p>In 1918, what percentage of the working class men were classed as too sickly for combat?</p>
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<p>1918, 31.3% of men were classed as too sickly for combat</p>
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<p>The working class- changes and causes.</p>
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<p>Trade Unions?</p>
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<ul> <li>Between <strong>1915-18</strong> TU <strong>membership rose</strong> from <strong>4.3 million to 8.3 million.</strong></li> <li>TUs suffered <strong>loss of membership</strong> in the<strong> interwar years</strong> but gained power after WW2.</li> <li>TUs protected the <strong>wages and rights</strong> of the working class (only those with jobs), and aided the rise of the Labour party.</li></ul>
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<p>Changes to the working class</p>
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<p>WW2?</p>
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<ul> <li><strong>UnitedBritish population</strong> under a total war- led to greater sense of <strong>unity & equality</strong> among the population.</li></ul>
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<ul> <li>Evacuation of the young, often poor city children to the countryside led to greater <strong>degree of sympathy </strong>for the <strong>poverty endured</strong> by the working class.</li></ul>
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<ul> <li>War- <strong>restored traditional working class industries</strong> (in steel, coal, textiles) to full employment, while maintaining these industries with post war nationalisation under Attlee's gov.</li></ul>
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<p>Changes in the working class</p>
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<p>Welfare state?</p>
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<ul> <li>Atlees gov saw introduction of <strong>great number of welfare reforms.</strong></li> <li><strong>1946 Industrial Injuries Act </strong>provided cover for those injured at work- greatly aided miners.</li> <li><strong>Introduction-free universal healthcare, 1948 </strong>allowed British population free universal healthcare- comprehensive & effective- large benefit to working class-previosuly unable to afford high quality care.</li> <li>Many families still <strong>lived in poor, slum conditions </strong>until 50s, and those in new housing felt isolated.</li></ul>
Many of the onlookers at the time of WW2 argue a social revolution took place. Why is this?
- Evacuation,
- The experience of being made homeless through bombings
- The hardships of rationing
Caused those of all social classes to co-operate & interact in ways that they had never done before this - it had been argued that is caused class barriers to diminish.
