Description
The inter-war period (1918–1939) is still remembered as a period of mass deprivation – the 'hungry thirties'. But how did this impression emerge? Thousands of conversations about life in the inter-war period – between parents and children around the dinner table; among workmates at the pub – shaped these understandings. In turn, these fed into popular politics. Stories about the embryonic welfare system in the early-twentieth century informed how people felt towards the National Health Service; memories of the Great Depression shaped arguments about state intervention in the economy. Challenging accounts of widespread political disengagement in the twentieth century, Politics of the Past shows how re-telling family stories about the inter-war period offered ordinary people an accessible way of engaging in politics. Drawing on six local case studies across Scotland and England, this book explains how stories about the inter-war working-class experience in industrial areas came to appear commonplace nationwide.
Table of Contents
Introduction; 1. Glasgow: planning the post-war city; 2. London: inter-war memories at home; 3. Huddersfield: education and the politics of family memory; 4. Luton: migration and workplace politics; 5. Aberdeen: healthcare in older age; 6. Birmingham: immigration and the global politics of the past; Epilogue.
