Great War- transformation of social and political attitudes

Question 1

changes in public politics post WW1

Answer 1

Polity became more democratic, but communication between politicians and public became less so

Question 2

Jon Lawrence quote on politicians’ attitudes to polity post WW1

Answer 2

Politicians “conciously sought to remould popular involvement in the political process by denigrating nation assertive and irreverent demonstrations of popular feeling and championing an alternative vision of the public as peaceable, rational and above all unassertive”

Question 3

James Vernon opinion on post WW1 politics

Answer 3

golden age of politics. no longer ‘active, participatory crowds’

Question 4

left-wing politics post WW1

Answer 4

the emergence of “Lib-Lab politics” and Labour became an official parliamentary power, creating a change from prior to WW1 when the commons was “heavily skewed towards, land, business and the armed services” - Jon Lawrence

Question 5

Liberal views to public politics prior to WW1

Answer 5

they embraced populist tactics in cries such as “Chinese Slavery” and the free trade plump loaf in contrast to small tariff reform loaf

Question 6

A. Lowell on politics prior to WW1

Answer 6

the English regarded “ an ordinary political meeting as a demonstration, rather than a place for serious discussion” and stated it was unlikely to die out soon

Question 7

Acts on public politics prior to WW1

Answer 7

1908- Robert Cecil introduced a bill legislating against disruption of ‘set-piece, ticketed meetings’
1883 Corrupt practices act- evidence of a candidates role in breaking up a meeting would constitute an ‘illegal practice’ and the candidate could be unseated through a petition, however, police were not given powers of arrest in this until 1914 and until 1936 they could not demand the details of the individual who broke the meeting up

Question 8

the written word in politics prior to WW1

Answer 8

two main parties produced 10s of millions of leaflets during the 1906 and 1910 election. during the 1910 election, the manchester federation alone claimed to have distributed almost 1/2 million pamphlets and handbills

Question 9

Meetings during the war

Answer 9

party truce led to by-election contests as well as the 1915 general election being cancelled and so fewer meetings, however unlike in Germany, meetings were not banned as this would breach ‘peace under defence of the realm act’

Question 10

Single ticket independents winning seats

Answer 10

Noel Billing won Hertford in 1916 on air defence ticket and Ben Tillet won Salford North in 1917 on a pro-war, pro-Labour campaign

Question 11

how many first time voters in 1918

Answer 11

15 million

Question 12

new parties that ran in 1918

Answer 12

National Party
Labour Party
Pankhurt’s women’s party
National Democratic party

Question 13

electoral turnout post-war

Answer 13

10 million electors didnt vote and turnout averaged at 57.2% even in contested seats

Question 14

official party journal - Labour organiser on post-war politics

Answer 14

Britsh people now wanted “higher things than… the old-time election methods’; they wanted ‘reasoned argument’ devoid of shouting

Question 15

Conservative Agent’s journal on ‘law and order at public meetings’

Answer 15

just before 1923 election- “prevention of free speech is a fine ‘gag’ to use during an election”

Question 16

Conservative campaign journal on public politics

Answer 16

“disruption was yet another sinister aspect of the much-vaunted socialist menace” and that “rowdyism was the special work of aliens”. by this they meant Bolsheviks. Britain was being subjected to “terrorism”

Question 17

quantitative analysis of a decline in ‘rowdiness’

Answer 17

a study based on press accounts of election meetings in 11 randomly chosen English constituencies found that disruption rose from 1895-1910, but post WW1 ‘fell sharply’. at least 1/3 of elections faced opposition from the floor in Jan 1910- 3x the level in 1922

Question 18

decline in canvassing post WW1

Answer 18

Conservatives in London reported having undertaken “practically no canvassing in 1918 and in 1922, “some managed to reach less than 10% of electors”

Question 19

violent riots post WW1

Answer 19

Jan- Aug 1919: bloody riots containing predominantly soldiers and ex-servicemen. in response, the Conservatives wanted to ‘arm the peaceable manpower’ to protect Britain from Bolshevism

Question 20

Susan Kingsley Kent on soldier violence post WW1

Answer 20

“front soldiers returned home in a violent frame of mind” which manifested in violence and “innumerable accounts of sexual attacks upon women”

Question 21

Henry De Man on violence post WW1

Answer 21

war awakened “the brutish delight of killing” especially in “ignorant peasants and laborers”

Question 22

MacDonald on post war brutality

Answer 22

civilisation had receded- had become more brutal- but it would right itself

Question 23

1919 Glasgow riots

Answer 23

Jon Lawrence- :”the work f lads and young roughs” + put down by policemen and soldiers who established themselves as “voluntary guards’

Question 24

Liverpool riots

Answer 24

1919- riots in poor parts of Liverpool and Police strike. Bloody battles fought by non-striking policemen and soldiers and magistrates read the riot act twice from an armoured car. The non-striking police were labelled the ‘City’s saviours’

Question 25

Britain in Ireland

Answer 25

1920- brutal intervention, black and tans confirmed fears of ‘militarist temper’- Jon Lawrence. and proved that soldiers had been brutalised by war

Question 26

defence of Black and Tans

Answer 26

The black and tans said that “they will soon be needed in England” and described themselves as intellects “inflamed by political passion” - Jon Lawrence: “the greatest danger to British liberties lay not in the brutalising experiences of the Great War, but in the post-war willingness to deploy unrestrained violence as an instrument of state policy”

Question 27

general economic state intervention WW1

Answer 27

Control of railways, intervened in hoarding of essential items particularly foods such as sugar. + had to turn to borrowing so appear strong by maintaining overseas dollar earnings and rely on domestic output + wanted to maintain ‘business as usual’ so they had to underwrite marine insurance and the banking system

Question 28

WW1 employment

Answer 28

1915- Ministry of munitions founded and by 1916 it was responsible for 2 million workers and by 1919 it had spent 2 billion and employed 20,000 people in its headquarters alone.

Question 29

1917 economic policy

Answer 29

Mining and shipping were brought under the control of new ministries and rationing was introduced on meat, butter, tea and cheese. By 1918 80% of the food consumed at home and 90% of all imports were subject to state control

Question 30

perecentage of the wartime recruits that were female

Answer 30

30%

Question 31

trade unions during the war

Answer 31

Under the 1915 Treasury agreement, engineering unions suspended normal trade and in theory Lost the right to strike for the duration of the war.

Question 32

wartime strikes

Answer 32

1917-18 illegal strikes that lost 11million working days collectively

Question 33

tax increase- WW1

Answer 33

only increased in 2nd half of war, however it was minimal so debt rose from £650 million to £6400 million

Question 34

state expenditure WW1

Answer 34

1913-18 increased from £300 mill to £2.8k mil

Question 35

hyper-inflation post WW1

Answer 35

spending spree of 1919-1920 led to too much money chasing too few goods. the treasury and bank of England tightened monetary and fiscal policy

Question 36

unemployment post WW1

Answer 36

2.2 million

Question 37

Post ww1 trade union membership

Answer 37

1913- 4 million
1920- peaked at 8.5 mill
1922- 5.5 mill

Question 38

Government aid in mining

Answer 38

1925- following mine owner’s attempt to reduce wages, Baldwin’s government promised to subsidise miner’s wages for 9 months after the TUC, in support of miners, threatened an embargo on all coal distribution. following 1926 royal commission that a mining wage cut was needed, a 9 day strike was carried out but it had no success and they were forced to return to work

Question 39

1925 state spending

Answer 39

double pre-war spending and social services now got double the % of state spending

Question 40

income tax WW1

Answer 40

pre-war- 6%

interwar years- 20-25%

Question 41

working conditions post ww1

Answer 41

working hours went down from 55 a week to 48 and wages were 10% higher by 1923

Question 42

female enfranchisement

Answer 42

women over 30 were given the vote- 6/11 million women enfranchised

Question 43

changes to feminist movemetn WW1

Answer 43

pre-war- “attack on separate-sphere ideology”
post-war: ‘women’s special sphere- a separate sphere… the relationship between the sexes as one of complementarity’. more similar to pre-war anti-suffragists- Susan Kent

Question 44

Asquith on female suffrage

Answer 44

pre-ww1 was opposed, post said female contribution to the war made the claim for the female vote legitimate

Question 45

Arabella Kennedy on sexual difference

Answer 45

1920 ‘feminism adn sexual difference book’ - women should leave wartime jobs and if they refused men should reclaim them through violence- “feminist doctrine and practice, menace these most excellent… Provisions of nature by thrusting personal rivalries economic competition” between men and women

Question 46

women vilified by the press post WW1

Answer 46

1919, Leeds Mercury opposed continued female employment- their wartime employment is ‘blemished hi there habitual and aggressive incivility’ + Daily Mail in 1921 said public attitude towards women is “more full of contempt and bitterness than has been the case since suffragette outbreaks”

Question 47

Mary Stocks on feminism

Answer 47

difference feminism - Prioritised what she labelled feminist issues - Family allowances or endowment of motherhood + birth control advice for married women over equal pay or equal opportunities

Question 48

Catherine Hartley on sexual difference

Answer 48

she was glad for this biological distinction as it differentiated them from men as she believed war had taught us the “the nature of masculinity”, which she saw as biological- it was violent

Question 49

1927 split in feminism

Answer 49

new feminists in the National Union, opposed equalitarians who opened new organisations eg Open Door Council and 6 point group

Question 50

WW1 economic policies for women

Answer 50

‘seperation allowances’ for the wives and children of soldiers and sailors were introduced costing the government half a billion pounds

Question 51

decline of the Liberal Party

Answer 51

in 1916, Tories withdrew their support for Asquith and gave it to Lloyd George as PM so Asquith + followers joined the opposition back benches and the party formally split

Question 52

Fall in Birth rate

Answer 52

by 1911 the birth rate had dropped by 1/3to 24 births for every 100k women aged between 15-44

Question 53

Reason for fall in birth rate

Answer 53

Colin Mathew argued that iit “can best be explained by a change in male sexuality and self-control…. the best means of birth control was celibacy within marriage or at least a reduction in the frequency of sexual intercourse”
“working wives had more sense of their autonomy and there was more domesticated culture