Britain And Wwii
In his book, Britain in the Second World War: A social history, Dr. Harold L. Smith provides original documents in an effort to examine the implications that World War II led to a sense of social idealism within Britain. Smith provides research and proof that the general consensus of social unity in Britain after World War II are misleading, and that in actuality, there existed a "continuation of prewar social conflicts and . . . Policy differences dividing the Labour and Conservative parties" (1). This paper will focus on both social structure and social policy in British history in the wake of the Second World War, including class, race, women, family, health, social insurance, national health service, and employment policy.
The Second World War was promoted as a war of the people in an effort to unify a country that was divided a decade earlier--the patriotic view came about in the midst of the war while other material which may have objected to this unification of peoples, races, classes, was kept out of the media. Even after the war was over, this idea of a united country existed because it was promoted by both the Labour and the Conservative parties: "popular patriotism . . . [created] the national unity which made victory in the war possible. . . . It was a powerful image of community, representing a step toward a classless society" (3). Despite the hype, there existed an increase in conflicts between classes, genders, a rise in crime, and a general lack of support for the so-called "people's war" (3).
Where the issue of class feeling is concerned, many studies taken from the view of the working class may be misleading--pointing to a reduction and a new sense of solidarity. Because policies which promoted more equality had a greater effect on improving the lives of the working class, their particular standard of living exhibited some changes from the 1930s: "price controls and rationing reduced class differences in consumption. Full...
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