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Шугыла Сикымбаева
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59 views24 pages

Part 1

book

Uploaded by

Шугыла Сикымбаева
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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hat | bk Se Arturo Cattaneo From the Victorians to the Present Second edition Aw MONDADORI Introduction 1, The Edwardian and Georgian Ages ‘On Queen Vietoria’s death, her son Edward VII (1901-1910) came to the throne. A general election was held in 1906 and resulted in a victory for the Liberal Party. The electors believed that the Liberals would be able to achieve much needed social reforms without revolutionary meth- ods. The most important reforms were: in 1908 an old age pensions scheme was started; in 1909 Labour Exchanges were opened, where un- employed people could go looking for work; the 1902 Education Act, the first step towards a system of compulsory school education for all children up to the age of fifteen; other acts followed in 1918 and 1944, In some respects, the Edwardian Age (1901-1910) saw the culmination of the processes that had characterized British social life for the past two enturies: a widespread industrialization; the growth of urban areas; increase in population; the extension of the transport network. The Vi torian ideal of respectability was still widespread among the class, which looked both up and down the social ladder: the upper mi dle class, made up of professional people, modelled their life-style on that of the aristocracy; the lower middle class, made up of shop-keepers, clerks, book-keepers and the like, sill kept working-class. On Edward VII's death, his son George V (1910-1936) came to the throne. Life in the Georgian Age (1910-1914, from the accession of George V to the beginning of the war) was in many ways the British counterpart of the Continental Belle Epoque: Victorian habits were continued in country houses, with tea parties in well-kept gardens and ladies and gentlemen sitting around wicker tables covered with white muslin. The British upper class still thought of itself as the centre of the civilized world, World War I (1914-1918) put an abrupt end to all this. During the war a strong wave of patriotism and hatred of the Ger- ‘ans swept Britain. In 1917 King George V even changed his name of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to the English Windsor. In 1915 Italy joined France and Britain, In 1917 Russia withdrew, after the Bolshevik Revo- lution (1917), but the United States entered the war on Britain’s side. By 1917 the American President Woodrow Wilson had understood that it 1. The dwardan and Georgian Ages 2 Telsh Question 3. fram Empire to Comaaeweath: The Dominions 4. Wend War 5. Bish Society 1901-1945 6, Scene, Pioscphy and iterate 7. Theten Aste Movements Continuity with the Vitorian Age The Georgian Age World War and the end ofthe Georgian Age 0 Therise ofthe Labour Paty The Great Depression John Maynard Keynes, Women’s Suffrage Movement The Modern Age (9011985) ain neutral, and in 191g tt Europe. The eet officially ended on 11 November 1918 During the war over 900,009 prt inh troops hal died and some two milion hal eon erin Young ad in the trenches of northern Fray Britain had fought the war mostly int z Me, by Fahy eccured inthe Middle East a8 wel = he Brlsh ou t Tee reeks in Iraq and Palestine and at Gallipet, on ‘he Dardanelles aa acne pa te ist time, agplanes, submarines, «anks and cheney sreapons were used, World War Lwas a terrible shock for a whole gener! tion which had been brought up on high patrionic ideals and was nq end with the horrors of modera warfare and the manipulation of so) ic reasons. I iers at the front for political and econon Tr 1918, for the first time, all men aged twenty-one, and women over thirty, were allowed to vote; this meant that the number of voter, rose from eight to sixteen million people, mostly workers. These mass. te of workers had already increased the ranks of the Trade Unions from two million members in 1900 to five million by 1914 and eighy million by 1918. In the 1906 election the Labour Party had won 23 seats: in 1918, 57, and by 1923, 191. In 1924 the first Labour govern ment was created, It should be noted that Labour, in Britain, has never been totally identified with Socialism or Communism, though the La. bour policy was, and still is, more inline with working-class aspirations than those of the upper and middle classes. AS a result of Labours growth, the Liberal Party almost disappeared. The economic decline of the 1920s led to widespread unemploy. ment, and the Wall Street Crash, the collapse of the American stock ‘market in 1929, contributed to the so-called Great Depression. This, ‘was felt most severely in Britain from 1929 to 1933, when over three million people were unemployed. The areas most affected were the in- dustrial north of England and south-east Wales. The keenest and most, Ines sity nthe Westen word as Johm Maynard Keys (1883-1946). He was born into a well-to-do family of intellectuals, studied and taught economics in Cambridge University, and was a member of the ‘Bloomsbury Group’ of writers and intellectuals active inthe 1920s. He was especially against the severe war reparations in- posed on Germany because, he believed, they exceeded Germany's c- Pasty to te payment and so threatened to disrupt the world econo- Zone Gnceete aoe ne beet theory isexpressed in his major work, The General Theory of Employ ment, Ieretand Money 990, He rly belied thet operas and central banks shoud support fall onPlegnens adage lin Delano Roosevelt, who pu them into practice a feng hit Pa Gies for economic recovery ater he Great Dapessen ot 193) by 18 women eng ate the Great Depression of 1928 force of Bran Durtangge? about thirty per cent ofthe total wot Tnctorcs a hed se Wae women had taken men's places i the 4 decisive contribution to the war effort le for the USA to rem ‘convoys of arms Were was no longer possibl sands of soldiers and — m ‘The battle for the right to vote was fought especially by the ‘Suffra- gettes-or Women's Suffrage Movement. Its most famous leaders were Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928) and her two daughters, Sylvia and Christabel. The suffragettes had to resort to violent action (0 se- cure equal political rights for women: their meetings were often broken up by the police, and many of them were sent to prison, Suffrage was finally granted to women over thirty in 1918, and to those over twenty- ‘one in 1928. The emancipation of women also showed in the fact that they began to smoke and drink in public. Other external signs that con- ventional female attitudes were being abandoned were short hair, the use of cosmetics, the wearing of short skirts and even trousers. 2. The Irish Question Of the problems that Britain had to face in the first half of the eentu- ty, the Irish question was one of the most urgent. In 1914, before the out- break of the war, the British government had agreed to ‘Home Rule’ (celf-government) for Ireland, but this was suspended till peace time. However, at Easter 1916 the republicans ~ those Irishmen who did not ‘want just Home Rule, but full independence ~ rebelled in Dublin, under Suspension of Home Rule insigit ‘The woman question *eminism: the belief that women should be allo- wed the same rights, power and chances as men and be treated in the same way, or the set of ac tivities intended to achieve this state” “Chauvinism the strong and unreasonable belief that your own country, sex oF race is the best or ‘most important’ (Cambridge International Dictio nary of English) ‘Asa definition, the Woman Question’ was inven ted by the Victorians: theirs was the fist age in which sues of sexual dscriminaton in polis employment, education, and family ife became the concer of not just afew ~ such as Lady Max ty Wortley Montagu or Mary Wollstonecraft (1752 97) in the 18° century ~ but ofa whole nation. In Wiolstonecratt’ A Vindication ofthe fights of Wornan (1790, whichisconsideredarmilestone inthe history offeminsm forthe fisttimea woman wrtesabout the condition of women with complete awareness that 2 change in the role women have in socety cannot depend on good personal elation betwe en the sexes, but rather on the social, educational and poitial rights that women must be given ‘At about mid-century things began to chan (2. A fundamental step was the opening of col leges for women: Queen's College for Women (1848), Bedford College (1849) By the end of Vie tora reign the situation had improved: women could study and takea degree at twelve university colleges, and study but not take a degree at Ox ford and Camibridge. Public opinion was divided ‘on which reforms should be alowed and which rot. Queen Victoria, for instance, encouraged the founding of the Queen's College for Women, the fist of its kind, but considered the vote for wo- men a ‘mad folly’ The fst petitions to Patiament ‘asking for women's suffrage (that is, the right to ‘vote) date back to the 1840s, but women didn't get the vote until 1918 (and then only women over 30, wormen over 21 got the vote in 1928, and that finally put them on a par with ment Women’s suffrage was achieved through the efforts and the battles of the Women's Suf- SSS 112 The Modern Age (19011945) {age Movement - the women who asked for {Quality and the right to vote, They were called somewhat dersively, sufagettes! and thet leader was Emmeline Pankhurst. nthe face Of men’s refusals to grant equal civil rights 0 women, they resorted to violent forms of p10 test, going as far as breaking into Parliament and chaining themselves to the gates of Bu: ckingham Palace. Below you wil find one of Pankhurst’s most famous speeches, delivered In front of a mixed audience (women and men) in Hartford, Connecticut Freedom or Death Emmeline Pankhurst, Hartford, Connecticut, November 13, 1913 'do not come hereas an advocate, because wha "ever position the suffrage movement may oc upy inthe United States of America in England ‘thas passed beyond the realm of advocacy and it has entered into the sphere of practical pol tics. It has become the subject of revolution and

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