The world of the EdwardiansThe world of the Edwardians

J.B. Priestley

Britain 1912 - 1945

During the years between the turn of the century and the First World War, the glitter of rank, wealth and fashion was not confined to England.. [it existed] with a considerable amount of cross-fertilization, assisted by a world press that employed more and more gossip-writers and photographers. But it was the English Edwardians who occupied and decorated the central position and did most to bring the myth of the Lost Golden Age into the twentieth century.

J.B.Priestley, The Edwardians, 1970

During the 1930's Priestley became very concerned about the consequences of social inequality in Britain, and in 1942 Priestley and others set up a new political party, the Common Wealth Party, which argued for public ownership of land, greater democracy, and a new 'morality' in politics. The party merged with the Labour Party in 1945, but Priestley was influential in developing the idea of the Welfare State which began to be put into place at the end of the war.

He believed that further world wars could only be avoided through cooperation and mutual respect between countries, and so became active in the early movement for a United Nations. And as the nuclear arms race between West and East began in the 1950s, he helped to found CND, hoping that Britain would set an example to the world by a moral act of nuclear disarmament.

The Ruling Classes “The Edwardian age was probably the last

period in history when the fortunate thought they could give pleasure to others by displaying their good fortune before them.”

The Working Classes It was calculated in 1911 that the upper and middle

classes, numbering between five and six million people, took two-thirds of the national income, while the working class of thirty-nine million existed on the remaining third. The lowest-paid of all workers were the women in the sweated trades, while the worst-paid men were the agricultural labourers, of whom there were 650,000 in 1911 and whose earning wear often less than £1 a week.

W. Robson 20th Century Britain, 1983

Women

Most women still held traditional roles in the home

The beginning of Modernism

High modernism - looking forward to a technological future

Futurism - belief in technology as a means to greater civilisation

The Titanic as a symbol of human achivement

World War 2

1945 Labour election

Socialist victory in 1945 - a change in national direction

The End of Empire - independence for India 1947

British Commonwealth begins

The End of an Era

Into this uncertain world steps Priestley’s

Inspector