The Ideologies of Class : Social Relations in Britain 1880-1950

Book excerpt: This is a study of the social character of the British working class in the period from the 1880s to the early 1950s, when about seventy-five per cent of the population were manual workers, or their dependents. It has three central themes: the nature of working-class culture and working-class organization; the relationships between the working class and other classes; and the role of both World Wars and the state in shaping class relations. Ross McKibbin examines different aspects of British political, social, and economic history to give an integrated explanation of the development of modern British society, and the ideological assumptions on which it is based. Attitudes to work and leisure are also explored, to build a coherent picture of the ideological world of Britain's social classes.