Interwar class 2 Flashcards
(28 cards)
Decline in the richest of society
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
Fall of landed millionaires
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
McKibbin - UC fall
‘had collapsed into the middle class’
Wage divergence of MC and WC
Increases in wages of foremen to over 50% more than those of skilled workers by 1922, representing a considerable historical departure
Skilled wage fall
28% 1912-1922 compared to unskilled and semi-skilled
Mass unemployment levels and effect
3.4 million in 1932
Unified and galvanised the working class as both skilled and unskilled were affected heavily
Gazely and Langhamer - wealth and happiness
Survey of Boltonian Mass Observation respondents in 1938
Showed many members of WC saw no correlation between great riches and ‘true happiness’
Those below poverty line
Labourers and male textile workers
Wages still fell below Rowntree’s revised poverty line in the 1930s
Davies - gendered leisure inequality
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
Male dominated leisure
Sphere of leisure mainly dominated by men
Some women only participated annually, when the local pub organised a day trip for women
Gendered differences in leisure among youth
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
Lawrence - class ‘misdescription’
Consistent class ‘misdescription’ by survey respondents suggests influence of cultural values also
Hinton - mass observation cultural importance
MO responses in 1939 saw most regarding ‘cultural factors’ as equally important as income
Constant fusion of class and culture
Hinton - MC definition
Identified with ‘high culture’
Committed to intellectual life and certain types of offerings (e.g. opera) to distance themselves from WC
Hinton - MC contradiction
Desire to distance itself from working class ‘grubbiness’ involved with industrial production
However, also lack of desire to identify as MC - identity more problematic
Technology
Infiltration of radio, ‘pictures’ and magazine photography as never before
Light - MC language
‘speaking a kind of stage English’ in the period - ‘BBC English’
Spread of mass media enabled differentiation of classes
Technology lessening UC
Unanchoring of gentility form older forms of ownership and community
Voice could be considered genteel without having other means of gentility
Erosion of traditional employment
Less cross-class interaction in areas like agriculture
More manufacturing, trade and transport
Labour market change
Widespread bureaucratisation, served to politicise large sections of the working class
TU increase
8 million members in 1920
This was 4 times higher than in 1910
Strike
1926 General Strike would have seemed inconceivable in former years and showed heightened solidarity
McCarthy - LNU principle and reality
Universal participation
Belied by the middle-class nature of its membership and attempts too shore up anti-socialism
McCarthy - effect of LNU
‘entrenchment of social class cultures’
