Interwar period

Interwar period

1. Characteristics

   • Period of despair although still some positive images
     • Dole queues- people requiring government aid and intervention
     • Means test- a test which deciphers who in society needs help and who does not
     • Inadequate health care and social provision
     • Domestic politics were overshadowed by foreign affairs
       • Treaty of Versaille- well received in Britain mostly, using propaganda, those who spoke out against it were dismissed as play-acting and/or trickery.
       • Wall street crash- trigger of the depression in Britain
       • Munich conference- British, French and Italien efforts to prevent a war by permitting German ownership of Sudentenland in Czech Republic
     • House building
     • Private car ownership
     • Leisure boom
     • Employment rose every year except 1921

2. Prejudice

   • Surge of black people in Britain in the 1930s
     • Constantine argues there are 4 reasons; proximity, visual material, heritage and physical remains

3. Economics

   • Over commitment to old staples
   • Withdrawal of state controls

4. Government response

   • Decline of London as investment capital
   • Decline of coal industry
     • Mines returned to owners in 1918
     • Wages cut
   • Conservative government returned to the gold standard