Whose Democracy? Histories of British Political Culture Between the Wars

Datos Bibliográficos

ID8959008
AutoresHelen Mccarthy (0000-0001-7204-4158, autor de correspondencia), Helen C D McCarthy (0000-0003-3627-8832, Queen Mary University of London, autor de correspondencia)
Año2012
Volumen55
Número1
Páginas221-238
Fecha de publicación2012-02-10
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Historical Journal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0018-246X • E-ISSN: 1469-5103
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0018246x11000604
OpenAlexW2118947257
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas11
Referencias citadas37

This article reviews the current state of historical writing on British political culture in the interwar period, with a particular focus on the character of the democratic society which emerged from the franchise extensions of 1918 and 1928. It takes as its starting point the influential interpretation advanced by Ross McKibbin in his two most recent books, Classes and cultures (1998) and Parties and people (2010). This holds that Britain's interwar democracy came to be shaped in the image of the anti-socialist middle class, buoyed by the centrist appeal of Baldwinite constitutional Conservatism. Anti-socialism's interwar hegemony, McKibbin further argues, had serious consequences for the progress of social democracy after the Second World War. Whilst this narrative is, in many respects, highly compelling, this review suggests that much recent literature on the period points to a range of alternative interpretative possibilities which offer different answers to McKibbin's core question: what kind of a democracy was Britain between the wars? Drawing on these studies, the review argues that Britain's political culture was rather more ‘democratized’ during these years than McKibbin allows, before finally identifying some directions for future research

Appeal · Communism · Conservatism · Democracy · Hegemony · Interwar period · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Socialism · Sociology · World War II · French Historical and Cultural Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Law · Political and Economic history of UK and US