Editing History of the United Kingdom (section)

==Interwar era 1918–1939==
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{{Main|Interwar Britain}}
[[File:British_Empire_1921.png|thumb|British Empire at its height in 1921]]
Historian [[Arthur Marwick]] sees a radical transformation of British society resulting from the Great War, a deluge that swept away many old attitudes and brought in a more equalitarian society. He sees the famous literary pessimism of the 1920s as misplaced, arguing there were major positive long-term consequences of the war to British society. He points to an energized self-consciousness among workers that quickly built up the Labour Party, the coming of partial woman suffrage, and an acceleration of social reform and state control of the economy. He sees a decline of deference toward the aristocracy and established authority in general, and the weakening among youth of traditional restraints on individual moral behavior. The chaperone faded away; village druggists sold contraceptives. Marwick says that class distinctions softened, national cohesion increased, and British society became more equal.{{Sfnp|Marwick|1965}}

===Popular culture===
As a leisure, literacy, wealth, ease of travel, and a broadened sense of community grew in Britain from the late 19th century onward, there was more time and interest in leisure activities of all sorts, on the part of all classes.<ref name="Peter J. Beck 2008">{{Cite book |last=Beck |first=Peter J. |title=Leisure and Sport in Britain |date=2008 |work=A Companion to Early Twentieth-Century Britain |editor-last=Wrigley |editor-first=Chris |pages=453–469}}</ref> The annual vacation became common. Tourists flocked to seaside resorts; [[Blackpool]] hosted 7 million visitors a year in the 1930s.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Walton |first=John K. |title=The English Seaside Resort. A Social History 1750–1914 |date=1983}}</ref> Organized leisure was primarily a male activity, with middle-class women allowed in at the margins. There were class differences with upper-class clubs, and working-class and middle-class pubs.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Haydon |first=Peter |title=The English Pub: a History |date=1994}}</ref> Heavy drinking declined; there were more competitions that attracted heavy betting. Participation in sports and all sorts of leisure activities increased for the average Englishman, and his interest in spectator sports increased dramatically. By the 1920s the cinema and radio attracted all classes, ages and genders in very large numbers, with young women taking the lead.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Walton |first=John K. |title=Leisure in Britain, 1780–1939 |date=1983}}</ref> Working-class men wearing flat caps and eating fish and chips were boisterous football spectators. They sang along at the music hall, fancied their pigeons, gambled on horse racing, and took the family to Blackpool in summer. The cartoon realization of this life style ''[[Andy Capp]]'' began in 1957. Political activists complained that working-class leisure diverted men away from revolutionary agitation.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Beck |first=Peter J. |title=Leisure and Sport in Britain |date=2008 |work=A Companion to Early Twentieth-Century Britain |editor-last=Wrigley |editor-first=Chris |page=457}}</ref>

====Cinema and radio====
[[file:Hitchcock, Alfred 02.jpg|thumb|Film director Alfred Hitchcock, 1955]]
The British film industry emerged in the 1890s when cinemas in general broke through in the western world, and built heavily on the strong reputation of the London legitimate theatre for actors, directors and producers.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Richards |first=Jeffrey |title=Age of the Dream Palace: Cinema & Society in Britain 1930–1939 |date=1990}}</ref> The problem was that the American market was so much larger and richer. It bought up the top talent, especially when Hollywood came to the fore in the 1920s and produced over 80 per cent of the total world output. Efforts to fight back were futile—the government set a quota for British made films, but it failed. Hollywood furthermore dominated the lucrative Canadian and Australian markets. [[Bollywood]] (based in Bombay) dominated the huge Indian market.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Walsh |first=Michael |date=1997 |title=Fighting the American Invasion with Cricket, Roses, and Marmalade for Breakfast |journal=The Velvet Light Trap |volume=40 |pages=3–17}}</ref> The most prominent directors remaining in London were [[Alexander Korda]], an expatriate Hungarian, and [[Alfred Hitchcock]]. There was a revival of creativity in the 1933–1945 era, especially with the arrival of Jewish filmmakers and actors fleeing the Nazis.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gough-Yates |first=Kevin |date=1992 |title=Jews and Exiles in British cinema |journal=The Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook |volume=37 |issue=1 |pages=517–541|doi=10.1093/leobaeck/37.1.517 }}; {{Cite book |last=Hochscherf |first=Tobias |title=The Continental Connection: German-Speaking Émigrés and British Cinema, 1927–45 |date=2011}}</ref> Meanwhile, giant palaces were built for the huge audiences that wanted to see Hollywood films. In Liverpool 40 per cent of the population attended one of the 69 cinemas once a week; 25 per cent went twice. Traditionalists grumbled about the American cultural invasion, but the permanent impact was minor.{{Sfnp|Mowat|1955|pp=246–250}}

In radio, British audiences had no choice apart from the upscale programming of the BBC, a government agency which had a monopoly on broadcasting. [[John Reith, 1st Baron Reith|John Reith]], an intensely moralistic engineer, was in full charge. His goal was to broadcast, "All that is best in every department of human knowledge, endeavour and achievement.... The preservation of a high moral tone is obviously of paramount importance."{{Sfnp|Mowat|1955|p=242}}

====Sports====
{{Main|Sport in the United Kingdom}}
The British showed a more profound interest in sports, and in greater variety, than any rival. They gave pride of place to such moral issues as sportsmanship and fair play.<ref name="Peter J. Beck 2008" /> Football proved highly attractive to the urban working classes, which introduced the rowdy spectator to the sports world. New games became popular almost overnight, including golf, lawn tennis, cycling and hockey. Women were much more likely to enter these sports than the old established ones. The aristocracy and landed gentry, with their ironclad control over land rights, dominated hunting, shooting, fishing and horse racing.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Birley |first=Derek |title=Land of Sport and Glory: Sport and British society, 1887–1910 |date=1995 |author-link=Derek Birley}}; {{Cite book |last=Birley |first=Derek |title=Playing the Game: Sport and British Society, 1914–1945 |date=1995 |author-link=Derek Birley}}</ref> Cricket reflected the Imperial spirit throughout the Empire (except Canada). Test matches began by the 1870s; the most famous are those between Australia and England for [[The Ashes]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Birley |first=Derek |title=A Social History of English Cricket |date=1999 |author-link=Derek Birley}}</ref>

====Reading====
As literacy and leisure time expanded after 1900, reading became a popular pastime. New additions to adult fiction doubled during the 1920s, reaching 2800 new books a year by 1935. Libraries tripled their stock, and saw heavy demand for new fiction.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cottle |first=Basil |author-link=Basil Cottle |date=1978 |title=Popular Reading And Our Public Libraries: The Abjured Prescription |journal=Library Review |volume=27 |issue=4 |pages=222–227 |doi=10.1108/eb012677}}</ref> A dramatic innovation was the inexpensive paperback, pioneered by [[Allen Lane]] at [[Penguin Books]] in 1935. The first titles included novels by [[Ernest Hemingway]] and [[Agatha Christie]]. They were sold cheap (usually sixpence) in a wide variety of inexpensive stores such as Woolworth's. Penguin aimed at an educated middle class "middlebrow" audience. It avoided the downmarket image of American paperbacks. The line signalled cultural self-improvement and political education.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Joicey |first=Nicholas |author-link=Nicholas Joicey |date=1993 |title=A Paperback Guide to Progress: Penguin Books 1935–c. 1951 |journal=Twentieth Century British History |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=25–56 |doi=10.1093/tcbh/4.1.25}}</ref> However the war years caused a shortage of staff for publishers and book stores, and a severe shortage of rationed paper, worsened by the air raid on [[Paternoster Square]] in 1940 that burned 5 million books in warehouses.<ref>{{Cite book |last=McAleer |first=Joseph |title=Popular Reading and Publishing in Britain: 1914–1950 |date=1992}}</ref>

Romantic fiction was especially popular, with [[Mills & Boon]] the leading publisher.<ref>{{Cite book |last=McAleer |first=Joseph |title=Passion's fortune: the story of Mills & Boon |date=1999}}</ref> Romantic encounters were embodied in a principle of sexual purity that demonstrated not only [[social conservatism]], but also how heroines could control their personal autonomy.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Humble |first=Nicola |title=The Feminine Middlebrow Novel, 1920s to 1950s: Class, Domesticity, and Bohemianism |date=2001}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Light |first=Alison |title=Forever England: Femininity, Literature and Conservatism Between the Wars |date=1991 |author-link=Alison Light}}</ref> Adventure magazines became quite popular, especially those published by [[DC Thomson]]; the publisher sent observers around the country to talk to boys and learn what they wanted to read about. The story line in magazines and cinema that most appealed to boys was the glamorous heroism of British soldiers fighting wars that were exciting and just.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Turner |first=Ernest Sackville |title=Boys Will Be Boys: The Story of Sweeney Todd, Deadwood Dick, Sexton Blake, Billy Bunter, Dick Barton et al. |date=1975 |edition=3rd |author-link=E.S. Turner}}</ref>

===Politics and economics of the 1920s===

====Expanding the welfare state====
Two major programmes that permanently expanded the welfare state passed in 1919 and 1920 with surprisingly little debate, even as the Conservatives dominated parliament. The [[Housing, Town Planning, &c. Act 1919]] set up a system of government housing that followed the 1918 campaign promises of "homes fit for heroes." This "Addison Act", named after the first Minister of Health, [[Christopher Addison]], required local authorities to survey their housing needs and start building houses to replace slums. The Treasury subsidized the low rents. In England and Wales 214,000 houses were built, and the Ministry of Health became largely a ministry of housing.{{Sfnp|Mowat|1955|pp=43–46}}

The [[Unemployment Insurance Act 1920]] passed at a time of very little unemployment. It set up the dole system that provided 39 weeks of unemployment benefits to practically the entire civilian working population except domestic service, farm workers, and civil servants. Funded in part by weekly contributions from both employers and employed, it provided weekly payments of 15s for unemployed men and 12s for unemployed women. Historian [[C. L. Mowat]] calls these two laws "Socialism by the back door", and notes how surprised politicians were when the costs to the Treasury soared during the high unemployment of 1921.{{Sfnp|Mowat|1955|pp=43–46}}

===Conservative control===
The [[Lloyd George ministry]] fell apart in 1922. [[Stanley Baldwin]], as leader of the Conservative Party (1923–1937) and as Prime Minister (in 1923–1924, 1924–1929 and 1935–1937), dominated British politics.<ref>{{Cite ODNB |last=Ball |first=Stuart |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/30550 |title=Baldwin, Stanley, first Earl Baldwin of Bewdley (1867–1947) |date=2004 |edition=January 2011 online |series=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/30550}}</ref> His mixture of strong social reforms and steady government proved a powerful election combination, with the result that the Conservatives governed Britain either by themselves or as the leading component of the [[National Government (United Kingdom)|National Government]]. He was the last party leader to win over 50% of the vote (in the [[1931 United Kingdom general election|general election of 1931]]). Baldwin's political strategy was to polarize the electorate so that voters would choose between the Conservatives on the right and the Labour Party on the left, squeezing out the Liberals in the middle.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Taylor |first=Andrew J. |date=July 2005 |title=Stanley Baldwin, Heresthetics and the Realignment of British Politics |journal=British Journal of Political Science |volume=35 |issue=3 |pages=429–463 |doi=10.1017/S0007123405000244 |doi-broken-date=1 November 2024 |jstor=4092239}}</ref> The polarization did take place and while the Liberals remained active under Lloyd George, they won few seats and were a minor factor until they [[Cameron–Clegg coalition|joined a coalition with the Conservatives]] in 2010. Baldwin's reputation soared in the 1920s and 1930s, but crashed after 1945 as he was blamed for the appeasement policies toward Germany, and as admirers of Churchill made him the Conservative icon. Since the 1970s Baldwin's reputation has recovered somewhat.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Williamson |first=Philip |author-link=Philip Williamson (historian) |date=March 2004 |title=Baldwin's Reputation: Politics and History, 1937–1967 |journal=Historical Journal |volume=47 |issue=1 |pages=127–168 |doi=10.1017/S0018246X03003546 |jstor=4091548|s2cid=145455237 |url=http://dro.dur.ac.uk/467/1/467.pdf }}</ref>

Labour won the 1923 election, but in 1924 Baldwin and the Conservatives returned with a large majority.

McKibbin finds that the political culture of the interwar period was built around an anti-socialist middle class, supported by the Conservative leaders, especially Baldwin.<ref>{{Harvp|McKibbin|2010}}.</ref>

===Economics===
Taxes rose sharply during the war and never returned to their old levels. A rich man paid 8% of his income in taxes before the war, and about a third afterwards. Much of the money went for the dole, the weekly unemployment benefits. About 5% of the national income every year was transferred from the rich to the poor. [[A. J. P. Taylor]] argues most people "were enjoying a richer life than any previously known in the history of the world: longer holidays, shorter hours, higher real wages."{{Sfnp|Taylor|1965|p=176, 317}}

The British economy was lackluster in the 1920s, with sharp declines and high unemployment in heavy industry and coal, especially in Scotland and Wales. Exports of coal and steel fell in half by 1939 and the business community was slow to adopt the new labour and management principles coming from the US, such as [[Fordism]], consumer credit, eliminating surplus capacity, designing a more structured management, and using greater economies of scale.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Garside |first1=W.R. |last2=Greaves |first2=J.I. |date=1997 |title=Rationalisation and Britain's industrial Malaise: The interwar years revisited |journal=Journal of European Economic History |volume=26 |issue=1 |pages=37–68}}</ref> For over a century the shipping industry had dominated world trade, but it remained in the doldrums despite various stimulus efforts by the government. With the very sharp decline in world trade after 1929, its condition became critical.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Greaves |first=Julian |date=2007 |title=Managing decline: The political economy of British shipping in the 1930s |journal=Journal of Transport History |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=57–130 |doi=10.7227/tjth.28.1.5 |s2cid=154926556}}</ref>

Chancellor of the Exchequer [[Winston Churchill]] put Britain back on the gold standard in 1925, which many economists blame for the mediocre performance of the economy.<ref name=Solomou&Vartis>{{Cite journal |last1=Solomou |first1=Solomos |last2=Vartis |first2=Dimitris |date=September 2005 |title=Effective Exchange Rates in Britain, 1920–1930 |journal=Journal of Economic History |volume=65 |issue=3 |jstor=3875020 |pages=850–859|doi=10.1017/S0022050705000318 |doi-broken-date=1 November 2024 |s2cid=154005849 }}</ref> Others point to a variety of factors, including the inflationary effects of the World War and supply-side shocks caused by reduced working hours after the war.<ref name=Solomou&Vartis/>

By the late 1920s, economic performance had stabilised, but the overall situation was disappointing, for Britain had fallen behind the United States as the leading industrial power. There also remained a strong economic divide between the north and south of England during this period, with the south of England and the Midlands fairly prosperous by the Thirties, while parts of south Wales and the industrial north of England became known as "distressed areas" due to particularly high rates of unemployment and poverty. Despite this, the [[standard of living]] continued to improve as local councils built [[Council house|new houses]] to let to families rehoused from outdated [[slum]]s, with up to date facilities including indoor toilets, bathrooms and electric lighting now being included in the new properties. The private sector enjoyed a housebuilding boom during the 1930s.<ref name="Unstead">{{Cite book |last=Unstead |first=R.J. |title=A Century of Change: 1837–Today |author-link=R. J. Unstead}}</ref>

====Labour====
During the war, [[Trade unions in the United Kingdom|trade unions]] were encouraged and their membership grew from 4.1 million in 1914 to 6.5 million in 1918. They peaked at 8.3 million in 1920 before relapsing to 5.4 million in 1923.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mitchell |first=B.R. |title=Abstract of British Historical Statistics |date=1962 |page=68}}; {{Cite book |last=Pugh |first=Martin |title=[[Speak for Britain!: A New History of the Labour Party]] |date=2011 |pages=100–127}}</ref>

Coal was a sick industry; the best seams were being exhausted, raising the cost. Demand fell as oil began replacing coal for fuel. The [[1926 general strike]] was a nine-day nationwide walkout of 1.3 million railwaymen, transport workers, printers, dockers, iron workers and steelworkers supporting the 1.2 million coal miners who had been locked out by the owners. The miners had rejected the owners' demands for longer hours and reduced pay in the face of falling prices.{{Sfnp|Medlicott|1976|pages=223–230}} The Conservative government had provided a nine-month subsidy in 1925 but that was not enough to turn around a sick industry. To support the miners the [[Trades Union Congress]] (TUC), an umbrella organization of all trades unions, called out certain critical unions. The hope was the government would intervene to reorganize and rationalize the industry, and raise the subsidy. The Conservative government had stockpiled supplies and essential services continued with middle class volunteers. All three major parties opposed the strike. The Labour Party leaders did not approve and feared it would tar the party with the image of radicalism, for the [[Comintern]] in Moscow had sent instructions for Communists to aggressively promote the strike. The general strike itself was largely non-violent, but the miners' lockout continued and there was violence in Scotland. It was the only general strike in British history, for TUC leaders such as [[Ernest Bevin]] considered it a mistake. Most historians treat it as a singular event with few long-term consequences, but Martin Pugh says it accelerated the movement of working-class voters to the Labour Party, which led to future gains.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Reid |first1=Alastair |last2=Tolliday |first2=Steven |date=1977 |title=Review: The General Strike, 1926 |journal=The Historical Journal |volume=20 |issue=4 |pages=1001–1012 |jstor=2638422}}; {{Cite journal |last=Pugh |first=Martin |author-link=Martin Pugh (author) |date=2006 |title=The General Strike |journal=[[History Today]] |volume=56 |issue=5 |pages=40–47}}</ref> The [[Trade Disputes and Trade Unions Act 1927]] made general strikes illegal and ended the automatic payment of union members to the Labour Party. That act was largely repealed in 1946. The coal industry used up the more accessible coal and as costs rose output fell from 2567 million tons in 1924 to 183 million in 1945.{{Sfnp|Mitchell|1962|pages=116–117}} The Labour government nationalised the mines in 1947.

===Great Depression===
{{Main|Great Depression in the United Kingdom}}
The [[Great Depression]] originated in the United States in late 1929 and quickly spread to the world. Britain had never experienced the boom that had characterized the US, Germany, Canada and Australia in the 1920s, so its bust appeared less severe.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Richardson |first=H. W. |date=1969 |title=The Economic Significance of the Depression in Britain |journal=Journal of Contemporary History |volume=4 |issue=4 |pages=3–19 |doi=10.1177/002200946900400401 |jstor=259833 |s2cid=162292590}}</ref> Britain's world trade fell in half (1929–1933), the output of heavy industry fell by a third, employment profits plunged in nearly all sectors. At the depth in summer 1932, registered unemployed numbered 3.5 million, and many more had only part-time employment. Experts tried to remain optimistic. [[John Maynard Keynes]], who had not predicted the slump, said, "'There will be no serious direct consequences in London. We find the look ahead decidedly encouraging."<ref>{{Cite book |first=Richard |last=Overy |title=The Twilight Years: The Paradox of Britain Between the Wars |date=2010 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=9781101498347 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=IQSfaaan1qUC&pg=PT96 96] |author-link=Richard Overy}}</ref>

On the left figures such as [[Sidney Webb, 1st Baron Passfield|Sidney]] and [[Beatrice Webb]], [[J. A. Hobson]], and [[G. D. H. Cole]] repeated the warnings they had been making for years about the imminent death of capitalism, only now far more people paid attention.{{Sfnp|Overy|2010|loc=ch. 2}} Starting in 1935 the [[Left Book Club]] provided a new warning every month, and built up the credibility of Soviet-style socialism as an alternative.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Samuels |first=Stuart |date=1966 |title=The Left Book Club |journal=Journal of Contemporary History |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=65–86 |doi=10.1177/002200946600100204 |jstor=259923 |s2cid=159342335}}</ref>

Particularly hardest hit by economic problems were the north of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales; unemployment reached 70% in some areas at the start of the 1930s (with more than 3 million out of work nationally) and many families depended entirely on the dole.

In 1936, by which time unemployment was lower, 200 unemployed men made a highly publicized march from Jarrow to London in a bid to show the plight of the industrial poor. Although much romanticized by the Left, the [[Jarrow Crusade]] marked a deep split in the Labour Party and resulted in no government action.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Perry |first=Matt |date=2002 |title=The Jarrow Crusade's Return: The 'New Labour Party' of Jarrow and Ellen Wilkinson, M.P. |journal=Northern History |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=265–278 |doi=10.1179/007817202790180576}}</ref> Unemployment remained high until the war absorbed all the job seekers. [[George Orwell]]'s book ''[[The Road to Wigan Pier]]'' gives a bleak overview of the hardships of the time.

===Appeasement===
{{Main|Munich Agreement}}

[[File:MunichAgreement.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1.35|British Prime Minister [[Neville Chamberlain]], landing at [[Heston Aerodrome]] on 30 September 1938 after his meeting with Hitler at [[Munich]]. In his hand he holds the peace agreement between Britain and Germany.]]
[[File:Chamberlain returns from Munich with Anglo-German Agreement.ogg|thumb|Chamberlain returns from Munich with Anglo-German Agreement]]
Vivid memories of the horrors and deaths of the World War made Britain and its leaders strongly inclined to pacifism in the interwar era. The challenge came from dictators, first [[Benito Mussolini]] of Italy, then [[Adolf Hitler]] of a much more powerful [[Nazi Germany]]. The [[League of Nations]] proved disappointing to its supporters; it was unable to resolve any of the threats posed by the dictators. British policy was to "appease" them in the hopes they would be satiated. By 1938 it was clear that war was looming, and that Germany had the world's most powerful military. The final act of appeasement came when Britain and France sacrificed Czechoslovakia to Hitler's demands at the [[Munich Agreement]] of 1938.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Faber |first=David |title=Munich, 1938: Appeasement and World War II |date=2010 |author-link=David Faber (politician)}}</ref> Instead of satiation Hitler menaced Poland, and at last Prime Minister [[Neville Chamberlain]] dropped appeasement and stood firm in promising to defend Poland. Hitler however cut a deal with [[Joseph Stalin]] to divide Eastern Europe; when Germany did invade Poland in September 1939, Britain and France declared war; the British Commonwealth followed London's lead.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Watt |first=Donald Cameron |title=How War Came: Immediate Origins of the Second World War, 1938–39 |date=1990}}; {{Cite journal |first=Patrick |last=Finney |title=The romance of decline: The historiography of appeasement and British national identity |journal=Electronic Journal of International History |volume=1 |date=2000 |url=http://sas-space.sas.ac.uk/3385/1/Journal_of_International_History_2000-06_Finney.pdf}}</ref>