Theme 3 a 1 - Class social change and the impact of the wars 1918-51 Flashcards

Question 1

Q

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the British class system was divided into what four many groups?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>Industrial working classes.</li> <li>Lower middle classes.</li> <li>Middle classes.</li> <li>Upper Classes.</li></ul>

Question 2

Q

Give a brief description of the Industrial working classes.

Answer

A

<ul> <li>Worked as manual labourers/ skilled craftsmen in factories, mines, docks and on the railways.</li></ul>

<ul> <li>Lived predominantly- tight knit communities.</li></ul>

<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>

Question 3

Q

Give a brief description- Lower middle classes.

Answer

A

Workers - semi-skilled clerical jobs; small business owners who tended to own their own homes.

Question 4

Q

Brief description - middle classes?

Answer

A

Professionals (doctors, lawyers, bankers, civil servants), who did highly specialised tasks.

Question 5

Q

Brief description- Upper classes?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>Families- inherited their wealth, land and titles, often represented in the House of Lords.</li></ul>

<ul> <li>Natural supporters of the Conservative Party.</li></ul>

<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>

Question 6

Q

How were those in higher social classes in positions of power often treated by those in lower social orders?

In the years preceding WW1, what led to more noticable social changes?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>Treated with deference!</li></ul>

<ul> <li>Impact of WW1 (1914-18)</li> <li>Impact WW2 (1939-45)</li></ul>

Question 7

Q

What are some features of the upper-class?

Answer

A

<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>

Gave the upper class a clear sense of identity!!!!

Question 8

Q

The upper-class social calendar, 'the season'

What was this?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>Season- divided between country pursuits (hunting, shooting) from autumn to spring & series of sporting and cultural events- largely based in London during summer months.</li></ul>

<ul> <li>London season- began with presentation of aristocrat daughters or marriageable age to the monarch at the 'debutantes ball'.</li></ul>

<ul> <li>Debutantes ball- ended 1958.</li></ul>

Question 9

Q

How did WW1 have an impact of change to the upper-class?

Number of deaths?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>Took a disproportionalety heavy toll on the upper class.</li></ul>

<ul> <li>12.9% of all men in the army died & 20.7% of all Old Etonians died (they served as officers- had a higher mortality rate.)</li></ul>

Question 10

Q

WW1- changes to the upper class and causes.

What did the cost of war lead to?

What pressure did it put on the upper-class and what did it result in?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>Huge increases in income tax and death duties; estates worth over £2million- subject to a 40% increase.</li> <li>Tax on incomes over £2500 rose from 2% in 1914 to 57% in 1925.</li> <li>Death duties were continually increased.</li></ul>

<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>

Question 11

Q

How did the Rise of Labour change the upper-class?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>Accelerated the decline of the landed-elite power in the House of Commons- because Labour MPs were middle/working class.</li></ul>

<ul> <li>While wealthy landowners made up 40% of MPs in 1910- this had fallen to around 5% by 1945.</li></ul>

Question 12

Q

How did the House of Lords result in change for the upper-class?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>Parliament act-1911, meant Lords could only delay, not block legislation.</li> <li>From 1958, hereditary peers were politically replaced by politically nominated 'life peers'.</li> <li>1910- 39/43 Lord Lieutenants had been aristocrats. By 1970- figure fallen to 15/46.</li> <li>Rise of new upper class (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>

Question 13

Q

Changes to the upper class.

What did the rise of satire do in the 60s and 70s?

Answer

A

Undermined deference (unquestioned respect of Establishment figures).

Question 14

Q

Decline in Deference

What did the high death toll result in for the classes?

What had life in the trenches led to?

What did these factors lead to?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>High death toll ( 704,803 men from Britain killed) shookconfidence the working classes had in the upper-class generals who led them.</li></ul>

<ul> <li>Trenches- Working & middle class men interacting on more even basis (sharing dangers & what comforts were there.)</li></ul>

<ul> <li>Led to decline in deference & further declined throughout 20th century- particularly after WW2 in 1950s & 1960s.</li></ul>

Question 15

Q

Decline in the upper classes

The National Trust?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>Many country housesbought or donated to the National Trust.</li> <li>1937 Country Houses Scheme allowed families to live in their stately homes- rent free for 2 generations-( if transferred ownership to NT & opened house to public for atleast 60 days per year.)</li> <li>Millions of Britons paid to visit these homes- helping to preserve the landed elite.</li> <li>The country house lifestyle remained the ultimate goal for most rich Britons.</li></ul>

Question 16

Q

What did the experience of war result in for society?

Why did people feel more equal?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>Resulted in a more democratic society- with the passing of the 1918 Representation of the People Act.</li></ul>

<ul> <li>People in work could improve their living standards and in the worst of the depression, prices fell faster than wages.</li></ul>

Question 17

Q

Changes to the middle classes and causes

WW1?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>Immediately after war- middle class feared distinction between them & working class = eroding.</li> <li>False perception,working-class wages increasing whilst middle class incomes stagnated.</li> <li>Wartime inflation 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 blamed increased strength of TUs for pushing up wages &prices,reality= inflation & increased costs of a wartime economy.</li></ul>

Question 18

Q

Changes in middle class and causes.

Rise of middle class jobs

What jobs were there a growth in?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>WW1- spurred middle class employment; 34% growth in commercial & financial jobs between 1911-1921.</li></ul>

<ul> <li>Growth of respectable jobs in science, technology and engineering, rise of salaried jobs in management & administration (from 700,000 (1931), to 1.25 million (1951) ), and the expansion of clerking jobs for women (170,000 in 1911 to 1.4 million in 1951.</li></ul>

Question 19

Q

The middle class- changes and their causes.

Home ownership?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>Home ownership- became a defining feature of middle class status.</li> <li>Interwar contemporaries spoke of a 'new middle class' who had bought home since 1920.</li> <li>By 1939, 60% of middle class = home owners, compared to 20% of working class.</li> <li>Suburban lifestyle & geographical separation of men from their place of work came to define the middle class.</li></ul>

Question 20

Q

Theworking class

How did WW1 cause changes for the working class?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>Smaller % fought in war- partly due to 'reserved occupations', e.g. coal miners- whose labour = essential for war effort & due to poor health, in 1918, 31.3% of men were classed as too sickly for combat.</li></ul>

<ul> <li>Rationing- helped improve health, average life expectancy rose 7 years, both men & women, between 1911-1921.</li></ul>

<ul> <li>'Home fit for heroes' never materialised.</li></ul>

Question 21

Q

In 1918, what percentage of the working class men were classed as too sickly for combat?

Answer

A

1918, 31.3% of men were classed as too sickly for combat

Question 22

Q

The working class- changes and causes.

Trade Unions?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>Between 1915-18 TU membership rose from 4.3 million to 8.3 million.</li> <li>TUs suffered loss of membership in the interwar years but gained power after WW2.</li> <li>TUs protected the wages and rights of the working class (only those with jobs), and aided the rise of the Labour party.</li></ul>

Question 23

Q

Changes to the working class

WW2?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>UnitedBritish population under a total war- led to greater sense of unity & equality among the population.</li></ul>

<ul> <li>Evacuation of the young, often poor city children to the countryside led to greater degree of sympathy for the poverty endured by the working class.</li></ul>

<ul> <li>War- restored traditional working class industries (in steel, coal, textiles) to full employment, while maintaining these industries with post war nationalisation under Attlee's gov.</li></ul>

Question 24

Q

Changes in the working class

Welfare state?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>Atlees gov saw introduction of great number of welfare reforms.</li> <li>1946 Industrial Injuries Act provided cover for those injured at work- greatly aided miners.</li> <li>Introduction-free universal healthcare, 1948 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 lived in poor, slum conditions until 50s, and those in new housing felt isolated.</li></ul>

Question 25

Q

Many of the onlookers at the time of WW2 argue a social revolution took place. Why is this?

Answer

A

<ul> <li>Evacuation,</li> <li>The experience of being made homeless through bombings</li> <li>The hardships of rationing</li></ul>

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.

Question 26

Q

What problems did the British Govt. face in 1918?

Give an example of an area where this happened

Answer

A

Feared an open revolt.

eg. Clydeside

Question 27

Q

What did ‘the times’ think about the general strikers from 1926?

Answer

A

called them ‘unpatriotic class worriers’

Question 28

Q

How did the Great Depression effect that classes systems attitudes towards each other?

Answer

A

undermined working-class solidarity.

Union membership did decline. But in some areas the employment wasn’t effected it should, therefore, have been expected that these areas may strike in solidarity of other members.

Question 29

Q

Give three main reasons why all classes were forced to work together after WW2

Answer

A

Evacuation

Being homeless after homes bombed

Hardships due to rationing

Question 30

Q

How did ‘Mass Observation’ believe WW2 would change society? What actually happened?

Answer

A

Working-class people expressed a desire for a more equal Britain after the war but where unsure of what shape this equality would take.

Very little social change happened and class distinctions remained, sometimes reinforced by wartime experiences.

Question 31

Q

Give an example of why the class system wasn’t broken down after WW2

Answer

A

Wartime evacuation of children reinforced class prejudices instead of diminishing them.

1939 - Bed Wetting phenomenon

Question 32

Q

What event in 1939 was a clear sign of children in emotional distress from the stresses of evacuation?

Answer

A

1939 - Bed Wetting phenomenon

Question 33

Q

What was labour trying to do in the 1945 general election?

Answer

A

Committed to nationalisation and a welfare state.

Drastically changing the role of the state in people’s lives.

Question 34

Q

What institutions did the Labour party of 1945 want to be abolished and why?

Answer

A

House of Lords, Eton and Harrow.

To help break down elitist mentalities and the class system as a whole.

Question 35

Q

Which party won the 1945 general election?

Brainscape's Knowledge GenomeTM

Theme 3 a 1 - Class social change and the impact of the wars 1918-51 Flashcards

Brainscape's Knowledge Genome^TM