Society in Transition: Class and Social Values

Blue- class

^^Who were the upper class?^^

Huge wealth tied up in land ownership, partaking in ‘The Season’ (ended in 1958), attending sports attended by the Royal Family.

^^Why did WW1 contribute to the decline of the elites?^^

* Disproportionate toll on lives as many served as officers (expected to lead from the front).
* War prompted a huge increase in income tax and death duties (E.g. estates worth over 2 million were subject to 40% duty). Also, wartime restrictions on raising rents and reduction in available labour made running country estates harder.

^^What did the changes in elite from WW1 lead to?^^

A new upper class emerged.

* The gentry sold off 1/4 of the land in England between 1918-1920.


* by 1937, 1/3 of the 4000 listed in Burke’s ‘Landed Gentry’ were landless.
* willingness of gentry to work and ability for businessowners to purchase titles meant that the new upper class was based on wealth and less so on aristocracy.

^^How did the upper classes connection with political power change?^^

Rise of labour accelerated decline of landed-elite power. Wealthy landowners had made up 40% of MPs in 1910, but this fell to around 5% by 1945.

* HOWEVER the rise of new upper class meant that there was no real decline in elite dominance in politics. (MacMillan’s cabinet contained no less than 40 etonians)

^^What undermined deference post world war 2?^^

^^\*deference= unquestioned respect for authority^^

* Rise of satire
* Greater social mobility made possible by the rise in middle class jobs and educational opportunities (due to 1944 education act)

^^In what ways were the class boundaries blurred?^^

* ^^What scheme helped protect the landed elite?^^

* Real wages for all workers and increased availability of consumer goods/cars
* 1937 Country houses scheme allowed families to live in their stately homes rent-free if they transferred ownership to the National Trust and allowed visitors in for at least 60 days a year. Helped retain widespread affection, only accelerated by shows like ‘Brideshead Revisited’ or ‘Upstairs and Downstairs’

^^Who were the middle class?^^

* Variety of wealth/attitudes/pursuits
* Lower middle: worked hard to separate selves from the working class in jobs and cultural/leisure pursuits.
* Upright/moral people who set standards and thus looked down on working classes (rising WC wages post-war were troubling)

^^How did wartime inflation contribute to the fear of the rising working class for the middle class?^^

* Wartime inflation impacted middle class savings and incomes
* Blamed inflation on the strength of trade unions pushing up prices: this explains the enthusiasms of strike breakers during 1926 General Strike (saw the sleeves as defenders of order).

^^Why did the middle class strengthen?^^

* Recruiting members from below, cementing distinct advantages over the WC
* Middle class expansion driven by growth in respectable jobs/salaried jobs in management (1931: 700,000 to 1.23 million in 1951) and admin/clerking for women (1911: 170,000 to 1.4 million in 1951)
* Saw themselves as more financially responsible (regular wages)

^^What was a defining characteristic for the middle class?^^

Home ownership

* 1939: 60% of MC were homeowners compared to 20% of WC
* Geographical separation of men from place of work and suburban community distanced MC from WC

1. ^^What is Arthur Marwick’s view of WW2’s impact on the WC?^^
2. ^^What is Paul Addison’s view of WW2’s impact on the WC?^^

^^What is the general consensus on the effects of world war 2?^^

1. WW2 led to profound and lasting change: disruption of pre-war relationships, greater inclusion of previously excluded social groups for the benefit of war effort and increased sympathy for underprivileged.
2. WW2 only led to a modest change in society. Key changes were the upsurges of patriotism and the way the WC were perceived.

WW2 had more impact due to the government’s sustained and effective intervention compared to the failure of the WW1 ‘homes for heroes’.

^^In what ways was the working class highly varied?^^

^^How did the underclass change in the war?^^

* skilled workers in construction/engineering as the working class aristocracy
* Unskilled labourers in middle
* Destitute/criminal underclass referred to some as ‘residuum’ at the bottom

Full employment absorbed the ‘residuum’ - trade union membership increased by 90% between 1914 and 1918.

^^Why is it difficult to generalise about the experience of working class as a whole?^^

* diverse regional impacts of the Great Depression. Major differences between those without/without work rather than grades of manual labour.
* Those in work enjoyed rising wages, lower working hours and mass leisure activities.

^^What does George Orwell blame the passivity of the WC on?^^

* ^^What were other reasons for this lack of protest?^^

Orwell blamed it on the consumer revolution between the wars. Hwoever, other reasons include:

* Union membership falling 40% during the 1920-22 recession, and failing to recover post-general strike
* Areas of industrial growth were generally non-unionised and saw fewer strikes.
* 1/2 of WC voted for tories between wars.

^^How was social stigma reduced around state assistance for the working class?^^

Welfare reforms introduced by the liberal government which was built upon by interwar governments.

^^What was the working classes experience of the war?^^

Small percentage fought in WW1 due to:

* reserved occupations such as coal miners
* Conscripts turned away due to ill health: in 1918, 10.3% of wc men turned away on grounds of ill health/ poor physique and 31.3 were too sickly

Rations promoted WC health- between 1911 and 1921, life expectancy rose by 7 years.

^^Why did gains expected fro the working class not materialise?^^

State provided a basic safety net but slums existed until the 50s and many accommodations were inadequate with exploitative landlords.

Why is the sixties seen as a pivotal decade?

* Profound growth in liberal values
* End of Victorianism, rise of a more permissible society
* Some argue that only a small amount of people held the liberal values of the 60s
* Blamed for current social problems

What are three important books about sex and sexuality in this period?

* Marie Stope’s ‘Married Love’ (1918) which demonstrated that liberal values in regard to sex and sexuality did not appear out of nowhere. 
* challenged reluctance to discuss sex in public 
* Women should enjoy sex as well as men 
* Alfred Kinsey’s ‘Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female’ (1953)
* undermined moral condemnation of sex before marriage 
* Promoted a more open attitude towards sex
* Dr Alex Comfort’s ‘The Joy of Sex’ (1972)
* focused on pleasure of sex in its own right.

What were the concerns over the war?

* concerns that it had undermined traditional values by separating wives/husbands, promoting sex outside of marriage and divorce
* A Mass Observation report suggested that women saw extra-marital affairs during the war as a consequence of difficult cirmunstances.

What was the Obscene Publications act and when?

* recognition of greater public openness to sexual images but only at an elite level- e.g. serious art.
* Law extended in 1977 to include films

Which liberal laws were passed between 1959 and 1969?

* names and dates

1959) Obscene Publications Act

1961) Suicide Act

1965) Murder/Abolition of the Death Penalty Act

1967) Sexual Offences Act

1967) Abortion Act

1967) Family Planning Act

1968) Theatres Act

1969) Divorce Reform Act

What agreement did MPs come around to as to what laws should be based on?

Laws should be based on the practical consequences of the legislation rather than the ethical consequences

* e.g. debate over an abortion act should not be focused on morals, it should be considered instead that in 1966, ‘back street’ abortions caused 40 deaths and over 100,000 injuries.

How did Labour’s Home Secretary see these changes?

Roy Jenkins saw the liberal changes as the measure of a civilised society despite Labour’s fear of alienating their traditional voters.

What did Scholfield and Gorer’s surveys, respectively, show about the notions of a ‘sexual revolution’ in the sixties?

Schofield: Promiscuity existed among teenagers but was far from normal.

Gorer: young people were more tolerant of sex than their parent’s generation had been.

What did a poll in 1963 reveal about attitudes towards homosexuals?

93% of people thought they were ill/needed medical treatment.

* growing perception of homosexuality as an illness meant that the practice of punishing homosexuality as a crime was undermined

Before 1967, what were the regulations around homosexuality.?

* how many men were in prison for their sexuality in the mid 1950s?
* Which high profile case/trial occurred, and what public perceptions did this lead to?

Homosexual men rank the risk of imprisonment and arrest. (Lesbian relationships had never been illegal).

* over 1,000
* Lord Montagu of Beaulieu (1 year in prison) and Peter Wildeblood (18 months in prison) in 1954: growing public perception that the state should not be able to regulate what consenting adults did in their own homes. The prison time sentenced was seen as excessive and harsh, even by conservative newspapers.

What government committee was formed in 1957 as a result of the Montagu/Wildeblood trial?

* What was their recommendation?

Wolfedon Committee

* recommended that private and consensual homosexual acts in the home be decriminalised for men aged 21+.
* Met with a lot of resistance in parliament and only the 1967 Sexual Offences Act enforce it.
* It remained illegal to seek homosexual relations in a public place.

What arrests prompted a more assertive form of gay rights activism?

* What organisation was set up originally in the US and what did it encourage?

1967-1972: number of men arrested for public indecency trebled due to increased police attention, a clear sign of the limited war.

* Gay Liberation Front (British Branch) set up in 1970. Encouraged openness about sexuality and normality.

What presenters/actors/musicians in the 1970s began to normalise homosexuality?

* When was the first gay pride march?

Larry Grayson from ‘Shut That Door!’ And ‘The Generation Game’ and John Inman from ‘Are You Being Served?’ were both camp but publicly denied being gay.

Film released about Quentin Crisp (homosexual writer and life-class model who became a gay icon after publishing memoirs of his early life)

Leading pop stars like Elton John and David Bowie publicly admitted to being bisexual.

First gay pride march: London, 1971.

What were Margaret Thatcher’s opinions on the permissive society?

Voted for the abortion act and the sexual offences act but feared for public standards of decency and wanted to see the reversal of the permissive society.

* complained that ‘basic Christian values… are under attack’

Who was Mary Whitehouse and what did she do?

An art teacher who was concerned about modern morality, joining a group called ‘Moral Rearmament’ (American evangelical movement who wanted to remake the world)

* Secured 500,000 signatures for the ‘Clean Up TV Campaign’- merged into the NVALA (National viewers and listener’s association).
* Launched a legal case against a poem about a roman soldier and Jesus having sex. The author, Denis Lemon, was fined and given a suspended prison sentence.
* Published a book in 1977 called ‘Whatever Happened to Sex’ in which she said that being gay was like having acne.