Paper 1 Theme 4 Flashcards
The changing quality of life (1918-79)
1
Q
How far did real income change 1918-39?
A
- a short post-war boom collapses in to a severe recession in 1921
- wages fell for the poorest in society until 1934, many families had to get by on less than £5 a week
- HOWEVER for most people standards improved because prices fell faster than wages- the real cost of living fell by more then 1/3 between 1920 and 1938, in 1920 weekly wage rate was 143.7 and retail prices were 157.6, by 1930 both were 100 and by 1935 wages were higher than retail prices, at 98 compared to 90.5
- Seebohm Rowntree estimated that quality of life in York increased by 30% between 1899 and 1936- largely due to increase in wages
- increase in use of contraception meant family size decreased, by late 1920s British women had an average of 2.19 children compared to 4.6 in the 1880s- family incomes were shared between fewer people and went furthwe
2
Q
How far did health and diet change 1918-39?
A
- the war meant many people died/were wounded- 702,000 died and a further 1.6 million were wounded, in 1921 1.18 million men were in receipt of disability pensions either for physical injuries or for shell shock
- decline in alcohol consumption as a result of 1914 Defence of the Realm act, continued peacetime restrictions on pub opening hours and rising popularity of other forms of entertainment meant the amount spent on alcohol dropped in the interwar period
- in the last years of war, rationing promoted a healthier diet, as did the 1914 Provision of Meals act which gave meals to needy schoolchildren
- families who housed evacuee children were shocked at their diet- they often refused to eat any vegetables and preferred too eat chips or biscuits for dinner
- average diet was better than 1914 but there was a large variation in nutritional standards between classes
- healthcare improved- by 1922 infant mortality halved compared to 1900, TB and typhoid killed far fewer people than before the war
- medical advances and improved sanitation meant that more people lived to 65 however poor care for the elderly meant that life expectancy was no higher than in the 19th century
- varying levels of healthcare across regions- infant mortality rate was 5.17 deaths per 1,000 births in Wales compared to 0.86 in wealthy Kensington, as there was no national health service hospital care was a ‘postcode lottery’ with varying levels of charity and local authority support for hospitals in different areas
3
Q
How important were regional variations in quality of life 1918-39?
A
- quality of life was closely related to the success of major employers in the area- areas reliant on traditional heavy industry e.g coal and shipbuilding, fared less well than areas with larger service sector jobs or newer industries e.g cars and engineering
- areas like Clydeside in the North and South Wales were key areas of industry while areas like London and the West Midlands did okay even in the depression of the 1930s
- traditional industrial areas relied on exports- foreign competition, e.g cheaper American and German steel, meant British production was undercut and Britain imported goods like ships
- unemployment which was never under 1 million between 1921 and 1940, rose to almost 3 million in 1932 and 1933
- 1929 5% of those in need of relief were jobless for over a year, by 1932 this rose to 16.4%, over 400,000 people
- 1944 William Beveridge calculated that 85% of all long-term unemployment was located in the North of England, Scotland and South Wales, 62% of shipbuilders unemployed in 1932 compared to 20% of car workers- areas that relied on shipbuilding hugely affected e.g Jarrow
- consumption varied across regions- important cause for growth of consumption was electricity- share of homes with it increased from 32% in 1932 to 66% in 1938, people in the North used a higher share of electricity for lighting compared to people in the South using it for labour saving devices, in 1937-38 the working class in the South East spent £2.88 a week on non-food items compared to £1.78 on food, in the North East they spent £2.57 on non-food compared to £2.29 on food
4
Q
How did ‘total war’ change living standards?
A
negative:
- WW2 was total because no one could escape its demands or impact
- 60,000 civilians were killed by German bombs, mainly cities e.g London, centre of Coventry was completely destroyed, Birmingham and Liverpool were also targeted, 2 out of 7 houses (3.5 million) were destroyed and there were 60 million changes of address during the war
- out of 15.9 million males aged 14-64, 14.9 were registered for war service and out of 15.9 million females aged 14-58 7.1 million joined the war effort
- 1939 National Service act meant all men 18-41 (except those doing jobs essential to the war), were conscripted for armed service- 1945, 5.5 million had been called up and 4.5 million had seen active service, around 290,000 killed, around 275,000 injured and around 184,000 were prisoners of war
- over a million children were evacuated from towns and cities to the countryside- helped to heighten social concern of wealthier families taking care of slum children
positive:
- large number of jobs created during the war- offered good standard of pay and working conditions which meant average wage increased
- women worked in munitions and creches were established in factories to look after children while women worked
- rural countryside areas weren’t directly affected- destruction of some cities gave architects opportunity to rebuild and modernise cities
- homelessness due to bombing was dealt with by building pre-fabricate homes that were quickly and cheaply assembled- owners were satisfied with these, blocks of flats were built and were an easy solution to the loss of large numbers of w.c houses in inner-city areas
5
Q
How did diet and consumption during WW2 change living standards?
A
positive: - rationing helped to level out food consumption between classes, the working class enjoyed a healthier diet, ration coupons could be exchanged for food in shops, rations supplemented vitamins and minerals- infant mortality rate fell during the war years
- govt price controls meant a wide range of goods became more affordable for the poorest families, wages also doubled in the war which further helped this
- The Ministry of Food encouraged people to ‘Dig for Victory’, gardens and public parks were turned into allotments and the Ministry provided recipes so people could make the most out of vegetables
- 1940 govt formed the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts- financially supported theatrical and musical tours of the country by groups who were
usually London-based - govt also funded the film industry and morale-boosting films e.g In Which We Serve were produced, govt initially closed cinemas but complaints led to them being reopened within a month
negative:
- Britain struggled to import food due to loss of shipping to German submarines in the Battle of the Atlantic, also had financial problems so couldn’t raise standard of living- 55% of food was imported and UK did not have the money to import so USA lended money
- substitutes for normal food in rations was often unappetising- lack of white flour led to ‘the National Loaf’ which was generally unpleasant
- clothes rationing (coupons gave the value of one complete outfit a year), led to a levelling of fashions across previous social divides- people were encouraged to ‘make do and mend’ and life became drab
6
Q
How did austerity change living standards?
A
negative:
- during and after WW2 Britain experienced austerity at a national and personal level
- almost every Briton had to adopt a disciplined lifestyle for 6 years after the war due to financial sacrifices needed for the war
- 1946 roughly 1/4 of all consumer expenditure was controlled by rationing, rose to 30% in 1948 before being cut back to 12% in 1949
- even bread, which escaped rationing during the war, was rationed between 1946 and 1948
- Britain spent money on war and British control in other countries so didn’t have enough money to raise living standards
positive:
- rationing was gradually rolled back until it was abandoned in 1954
7
Q
Why was there growth of a consumer society 1951-79?
A
- rising income- real disposable income rose 30% in the 1950s, 22% in the 1960s and 30% in the 1970s- by the early 1950s consumer spending was back to what it was in the 1930s
- in this period profits, interest and rent declines but wages increased- people spent smaller amounts of income on food, clothes and cigarettes and more on housing, consumer goods and entertainment
- home ownership increased from 29% of the population in 1950 to over 50% by 1970, in the same period car ownership rose from 16% to 52%
- increased disposable income enabled a growing list of ‘wants’ and ‘needs’ after 1951- many were centered on the home, gas sales more than doubled between 1951 and 1970 while electricity sales quadrupled
- the shift away from open fires to central heating meant people spent more free time at home- fires involved a lot of effort and covered surfaces with ash so people tended to only have them in one room, central heating rose from 5% of homes in 1960 to 50% in 1977- this freed up the whole house for living and leisure, in Britain almost every household had a TV by 1970
8
Q
How was there growth of a consumer society 1951-79?
A
- personal appearance and hygiene became more important and there was a lot of advertising on this- money spent on ads increased threefold from 1947 to 1970, growth of TV meant advertising was commonplace, advertising of Old Spice after 1957 contributed to dramatic shift in use of deodorant- before 1957 only 32% of women 16-64 used it and hardly any men did, by 1969 over half of all men and women regularly used deodorants, perfumes or aftershaves
- new fashions meant that from the mid 1960s it was almost impossible to tell a woman’s class by the way she dressed, designers like Mary Quant pioneered new fashions, mass production and sale of similar designs in high street stores means that the looks were accessible to many, Biba sold cheap clothes in the shop in London and all around the country via mail order- famous model Twiggy said that Mary Quant’s clothes were for ‘rich girls’ whereas Biba was ‘for anyone’
- 1950 the first supermarket, Sainsbury’s, opened in Croydon- permanently started the supermarket era, end of food rationing between 1951 and 1954 led to increased food sales, rolling back of Retail Price Maintenance (minimum prices of food) on groceries in 1956 meant supermarkets could slash prices, 286 supermarkets in 1959, 572 in 1961 and over 3.500 by 1971- growth of car ownership helped the rise of out of town supermarkets
- consumer credit- before there was hire purchase which were not well regulated and caused a good deal of harm due to extortionate interest rates, 1974 Consumer Credit Act led to increased ease of access to credit- 1971 Crowther Report called to repeal and replace all earlier legislation on money-lending and bank loans which caused an explosion of consumer borrowing in the 1980s and 1990s, credit cards were first used in Britain in 1966 by Barclays and debit cards existed a few years prior, the credit card expanded with the launch of the Access card in 1972
9
Q
How was there NOT a consumer society 1951-79? (decreased living standards)
A
- areas of deprivation in Britain- 1960s 12,000 people were homeless
- 1967- 7.5 million people lived below the poverty line
- Manchester 1963- 80,000 houses were without running water, heating or inside toilets
- 1960- 1.5 million elderly people lived alone- quality of life was poor due to dirty, unsanitary conditions and poor diets
- high rise flats in the 1960s were cold and damp- left families in draughty concrete flats on estates that suffered rising levels of crime
- growth of supermarkets led to decline of local businesses- led to closure of 60,000 local specialist grocers between 1960 and 1990
10
Q
How did music change and how did it affect British society?
A
1918-45: Britain was attached to middlebrow and popular music- middle brow was a range of classical music on radio e.g Classic FM, most successful recording artist in the 1920s was Novello- he was paid £15,000 by his record company due to popularity of ‘Keep the Home Fires Burning’ which appealed to families once stationed overseas and reflected the fears of separation and war-time hardship, Novello was popular until his death in 1951
1930s: new styles of music were popular across all classes, there were 20,000 dance bands in Britain by 1930 according to ‘Melody Maker’ magazine, ‘palais de dance’ dance halls enabled w.c people to enjoy a degree of luxury not found at home, American artists brought new styles of music e.g ragtime, jazz and swing, dance halls became popular after arrival of the fox trot, American dances like the Charleston, swing, jive and lindy hop- became popular
1950s: rock n roll became popular with the release of the film ‘Blackboard jungle’, American performers e.g Elvis Presley ad Buddy Holly reinvented black blues music and popularised it to a new audience, British version ‘skiffle’ was popular Lonnie Donegan became popular and was the biggest selling British performer in the 1950s, record companies found ‘heartthrobs’ e.g Tommy Steele and Cliff Richard to imitate Elvis
1960s: British bands e.g The Beatles, The Kinks and The Rolling Stones replaced rock n roll and skiffle, The Beatles were one of the biggest icons of the 1960s and Beatlemania spread across the country by 1963, Beatles also became popular abroad in the USA, the enormous appeal of The Beatles reflected increased living standards with optimistic music which seemed to capture the times, mod music was a genre of pop and linked fashion with consumerism
1970s: glam rock became popular with artists like Slade and David Bowie, younger fans saw them as radically different as they made statements about their sexuality- arguably result of high living standards as younger people had more disposable income and distinguished themselves from their parents, immigrants from the Caribbean brought reggae sounds which developed in 1969- first reggae song to hit #1 was Desmond Drekker’s ‘the Isrealites’, roots reggae relfected experience of black people and challenged racism, punk became popular in the late 1970s and inspired fashion, punk was said to empower women and front bands like men did, punk was rebellious and caused by events like the Winter of Discontent, the New Musical Express linked punk’s appeal to declining living standards as growth in youth unemployment increased, punk was labelled ‘the music of the dole queue’
11
Q
How did TV ownership change?
A
- before rise of the internet, TV had the largest impact on British behaviour
- TV wasn’t a mass medium in Britain until after WW2- moving pictures weren’t broadcast until 1929
- before 1939, the BBC only broadcast television signals to around 12,500 TV sets in London
- TV broadcasts were stopped in WW2 and resumed in June 1946
- the sales of TV licenses didn’t take off until after Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation
- 1950, 4% of households had TVs, 40% in 1955, 80% in 1960 and 95% in 1969
- 1964, after the launch of BBC 2, there were only 3 TV channels so audience for a particular programme tended to be very large
- between 1977 and 1979, on average people watched 16 hours of TV a week in the summer and 20 hours in the winter, children and the elderly saw the most while women saw more than men
- the Central Statistical Office recorded that watching TV was one of the most popular leisure time activities, the domestication of spare time that began with radios blurred class divisions that had been reinforced by past leisure activities e.g dog racing and playing tennis
- impact of TV was further enhanced by the spread of broadcasts and reception in colour, BBC 2 began colour broadcasts in 1967 followed by BBC 1 in 1969- number of colour TV sets increased from 1.7% in 1970 to 70% by 1979, some authorities became worried about the gory colour reports of the Vietnam War and the tension in Northern Ireland but this didn’t stop the rise of colour TV
12
Q
How did TV affect British society?
A
- by 1955, BBC dominance of TV ended as 14 independent companies were allowed to begin broadcasting which was funded by advertising
- there were concerns that commercial TV may promote ‘vulgar materialism’ and ‘Americanisation of British culture’- Richard Hoggart (TV critic) strongly influenced the 1962 Pilkington Report on the impact of TV- majority of the recommendations were ignored but the 1964 Television Act did force ITV to screen two plays and two current affairs programmes as well as the news each week
- the report led to creation of BBC 2 in 1964 to further increase public broadcasting
- the Pilkington Report’s emphasis for the need for quality drama led to the demand for new plays from British playwrights ‘The Wednesday Play’ (BBC 1964-70) helped launch the careers of many influential writers e.g Dennis Potter and Neil Dunn- they created hard-hitting social realist plays about issues like abortion in ‘Up the Junction’ and homelessness in ‘Cathy Come Home’- these plays had an impact on people that watched them but didn’t directly change things
- the passage of the 1967 Abortion Act was possibly eased by popular reaction to the play ‘Up the Junction’ (1965)
- the launch of Shelter, a charity for homeless people, could have been influenced by Cathy Come Home
- Coronation Street (launched in 1960) had a twice-weekly audience of 20 million, was popular with both middle and w.c people so blurred class divisions
- ‘That Was The Week That Was’ (TW3) was launched in 1962 and represented the pinnacle of the ‘satire boom’ that began in the 1950s with comedians such as Peter Cook and Dudley Moore
- ‘The Sweeney’ reflected the reality exposed by a 1969 report by the Times in which the police might bend rules to get results but its overwhelmingly positive representation of tough policing was very popular, with audiences of around 19 million between 1975 and 1978
- 1970s saw the production of some extremely popular sitcoms, the quality of these programmes was partly fuelled by the competition between the BBC and ITV for audience share
13
Q
How did cinema change and how did it affect British society before 1918 and 1918-39?
A
before 1918:
- cinemas exploded in popularity in WW1- ‘the Battle of the Somme’ (1916) remains one of the most viewed films in British history, 20 million in the first 6 weeks
- number of cinemas rose from 3,000 in 1914 to almost 5,000 in the 1930s
- British Board of Film Censors (BBFC) set up in 1912 aimed to protect British people from bad language, sex and subversive ideas
1918-39: -working class music hall starts- Charlie Chaplin transferred acts onto big screens instead of musicals
- 1914- 25% of all films shown in Britain were made by British film companies, in 1925 this fell to 5%- Cinematograph Film Act ensured 7.5% of films shown had to be British, rose to 20% in 1935
- people moved away from stories of British imperial heroes by H.Rider Haggard (19th century) and became more interested with films about cowboys and gangsters
- 1920s cinemas became more ‘respectable’ which attracted middle class
- between 1928-39 the BBFC banned 140 films and forced thousands to edit their content, BBFC was also concerned about Americanisation of cinemagoers- WW1 led to a collapse in British film due to uncertainty over funding, disruption of production and use of studios for govt propaganda
- ‘talkies’ (films with spoken words) were introduced in 1928- increased popularity of going to the cinema and cinema remained the most popular and significant medium of popular culture in interwar Britain
- cinema ticket sales grew in the post-war slump and in the depression- 18 to 19 million tickets sold per week in the 1930s- cinema offered unemployed men and women a sense of escapism, tickets were cheaper in the daytime- was important to people in long term unemployment, in Glasgow 80% of jobless people saw a film per week during the depression
- cinema was more popular than football- 1937 tax on cinema tickets got £6 million for the govt compared to £470,000 for football
- most British films provided entertainment and escapism between the wars e.g romance, thrillers, crime dramas
- some had social commentary which reinforced and reflected what life was like in everyday Britain e.g the Pleasure Garden by Alfred Hitchcock
- loveless marriages and divorce were portrayed in silent melodramas, 1928 ‘First Born’ illustrated this- audience recognised many of the issues reflected in the film
- some films explored working life, ambition and day to day experience of the modern urban world- these were popular, 1932 musical ‘Love on Wheels’ linked aspirations of Americans during the era of consumerism
14
Q
How did cinema change and how did it affect British society in WW2 and 1945-79?
A
WW2:
- there was short-lived intent to close cinemas in case of bombing but popular demand kept them open-they were valuable in taking people’s minds off of their burdens
- despite the war the British film industry managed to produce over 500 films e.g ‘In Which We Serve’ (1942) and ‘The Way Ahead’ (1944)
- comic actor George Formby’s ‘Let George Do It’ was one of the highest morale raising boosts- was British propaganda, Ministry of Information found cinema useful to promote ideas
1945-79:
- record high ticket sales of 1.635 billion in 1946 but cinema goers declined steadily until the 1980s- caused many cinemas (around half) to close between 1955 and 1963
- impact of cinema was affected by the make-up of the audience, the typical cinema goer was young, urban and working class- 1946 69% of 16 to 19 year olds went once a week compares to 11% of over 60s, people in the North went twice as much as people in the South
- 1945-57 ‘Ealing Comedies’ entertained and explored changing quality of life that was struggling after WW2- British audience shared very similar films e.g comedy, musical romances, drama, tragedy and history
- a film that showed difficulties of post-war austerity was ‘Passport to Pimlico’ (1949)- reflected people’s dissatisfaction with post-war rationing, as austerity ended, new types of films in late 50s and 60s reassured people about Britain’s war record
- ‘new wave’ films of the late 1950s and 60s, e.g Look Back in Anger (1959), about w.c lives received positive reviews but people still preferred James Bond films and comedies
- 1950 ‘Eady Levy’ was introduced which was a tax on ticket sales aiming to assist British producers by subsidising film making
- early 1970s- BBFC classified films with much stronger content for release e.g Get Carter and A Clockwork Orange (1971) contained scenes of extreme violence and Last Tango in Paris (1972) contained sex scenes- caused film to be more permissive
- 1970s marked the collapse of British film production and re-emergence of American dominance- number of British films fell from 49 in 1968 to 31 in 1980, caused by cuts in American funding of British films and Conservative govt cuts to the National Film Finance Corporation
15
Q
How did radio change 1918-79 and how did it affect British society?
A
- between 1922 and 1939 the percentage of households with a radio increased from 1% to 71%, by 1951 it was 90%
- BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) was founded in 1927 and had monopoly over radio until 1973 (power with no competition)
- there were two radio services: the National Programme and the Regional Programme, regional programme was broadcast from 6 regions- the Midlands, London, North, Scotland, West, N.Ireland and Wales, the national service was also carried out by regional transmitters and was also broadcast from London
- radio’s impact on culture- programmes such as the monarch’s Christmas message and anniversary programmes on New Year and Empire Day provided a sense of national community and acted as ‘a social cement that reinforced sense of belonging in the country’
- in WW2, the National and Regional Programmes were replaced with a single ‘Home service’ to prevent enemy aircraft using different regional broadcasts to aid navigation- as the war went on more programming was restored to prevent concentrating all production in bomb-prone London
- there were many morale-boosting programmes broadcast during the war such as ‘Worker’s Playtime’ broadcast in factories- enchanced feeling of national identity
- ‘The Light Programme’ replaced wartime programmes in 1945- broadcast a mixture of comedies and soaps such as ‘Mrs Dale’s Diary’ and ‘The Archers’ and variety shows- was the most popular channel with around 2/3 of the 11 million daily listeners, most daytime shows were aimed at women with ‘Housewives Choice’ and there were religious broadcasts on Sundays
- radio stations being dedicated to religion on Sundays meant many people listened to pirate radio stations- Radio Luxembourg and Radio Normandy broadcast into Britain from offshore since the 1930s to avoid British laws
- 1967 Marine Broadcasting Offences act banned pirate radio but some stations ignored the ban e.g Radio Caroline
- BBC tried to gain back young audiences by introducing pop radio stations Radio 1 and Radio 2 in 1967
- 1973 Independent Broadcasting Authority Act put strain on the BBC because they now had to compete with many smaller UK-based radio stations- despite this Radio 1’s popularity rose in the 1970s with DJ Tony Blackburn’s Breakfast Show attracting 20 million listeners
- in 1967 the Third Programme became Radio 3 which was ‘highbrow’ with modern classical music for highly educated people (only attracted less than 2% of radio audience)
- the Home Service became Radio 4 which was ‘middlebrow’ with news, plays and lectures
