WAR & GREAT BRITAIN, 1899-1948.   Term Paper ID:26411 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Examines negative & postive effects of Boer War & two world wars on British political, social & economic order.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Examines negative & postive effects of Boer War & two world wars on British political, social & economic order. Paper Introduction: EFFECTS OF WAR ON BRITISH SOCIETY 1899-1948 This research paper traces the impact of the three major wars of the 20th century on the British political and social order, the Boer War (1899-1902), the First World War (1914-1918) and the Second World War (1939-1945). The impact of these wars, especially the two world wars, on British society while great was highly variable, causing want, privation and suffering to some segments of society and producing political, economic and social gains, some transitory and others more permanent, for others. Their one common thread was enhancement of the unity of the nation and the power of the state, which proved to be a mixed blessing in some of its long run manifestations. Effects of the Boer War The Boer War was fought on distant battlefields in South Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Nigel M. According toPope, "revelations about the numbers of volunteers unable to meet thestandards required by the army (one in three overall, three out of five ina city like Manchester) reinforced concerns about the condition of theimperial race and the consequences of urban life."[i] These disclosuresconcerning the strategic infirmities of Britain's huddled and poor urbanmasses gave impetus to various movements for social reform and helped shapethe agenda of the Liberal Party, even before it assumed power in 19 6,including such items as improved training of midwives and the provision offree meals to school children. Healey (London: Routledge, 1993),73).Sean Glynn and Alan Booth, Modern Britain: An Economic andSocial History (London: Routledge, 1996), 153.----------------------- 1 "Unfinished Fragment on the State." 1918. London: Routledge, 1993.Overbeek, Henk. New York: Macmillan, 1986.Bourne, Randolph. Total War and Social Change. Arthur Marwick, 16-25. Mason (New York: Oxford UniversityPress, 1949), 7 2.Pope, 1 4.Pope, 5.Pope, 85.Alec Cairncross, The British Economy Since 1945: Economic Policyand Performance, 1945-1995 (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992), 2.Pope, 17.Barnett, 123.Kent Matthews, "Britain's Economic Renaissance." In Britain'sEconomic Miracle, ed. Winter, The Great War and the British People(Houndsmill: Macmillan, 1986), 81, 85 & 99.Reid, Alistair, "World War I and the Working Class in Britain."In Total War and Social Change, ed. EFFECTS OF WAR ON BRITISH SOCIETY 1899-1948 This research paper traces the impact of the three major wars of the2 th century on the British political and social order, the Boer War (1899-19 2), the First World War (1914-1918) and the Second World War (1939-1945). Reid says thenumber of women employed increased by over one million during the war or bymore than 5 percent.[iii] Labour shortages helped improve the leverage andbargaining power of workingmen and women and their trade unions. "World War I and the Working Class in Britain." In Total War and Social Change, ed. Nigel M. Such effects were,nevertheless, profound and far-reaching, and, ultimately, helped bringabout needed processes of modernization. Houndsmill: Macmillan, 1988.Matthews, Kent. Effects of the Boer War The Boer War was fought on distant battlefields in South Africa atrelatively small cost in killed and wounded and minimum disruption to theBritish economy. The demands itplaced on limited manpower once conscription was introduced in 1915-1916enhanced the bargaining power of laboring men and women, especially thelatter, many of whom assumed the jobs formerly performed by men inmunitions factories, railroads and in many other sectors. Britain's Economic Miracle: Myth or Reality. Conclusion The impact of the three great wars of the 2 th century on GreatBritain has probably not been as benign as many earlier writers, anxious tojustify the sacrifices of wartime, believed. The war drew attention to weaknesses in British society. English History 1914-1945. London: Routledge, 1996.Healey, Nigel M. First World War The casualties of those involved in the fighting, especially thetrench warfare on the Western Front, were very high, including over 77 , killed in action, over 5 , of which were borne by men under 3 and adisproportionate share of which, according to Winter, was borne by theofficers and the privileged classes.[ii] Relatively few civilian casualtieswere suffered, mostly as a result of U-boat sinkings of passenger ships andoccasional Zeppelin raids, but the general population did suffer from foodand housing shortages. Houndsmill: Macmillan, 1988.Taylor, A. London: Longman, 1991.Reid, Alastair. . According to Pope, "the war had established belief in socialsolidarity and a commitment to social security as a war aim."[xiii] Thebroad outlines of the cradle to grave welfare state which ultimatelydeveloped after the end of the war was sketched in the Beveridge Reportissued in February 1943 which called for the attainment of full employmentand free and universal health coverage after the war ended. The means bywhich the goals were to be achieved was through government action. London: Unwin Hyman, 199 .Pope, Rex. The Great War and the British People. The Second World Warseemed to have more of a leveling or democratizing effect. It also generated increased opportunities for women, which weremore long-lasting than those of the Great War had been, and for the lowerclasses. Houndsmill: Macmillan, 1986.-----------------------Rex Pope, War and Society in Britain (New York: Longman, 1991),2.Pope, 3; J.A. By and large, the population despite some grumblingand war weariness accepted censorship, rationing and other war measures asdisagreeable necessities which were being administered as fairly aspossible.The war brought full employment which was welcome after the prolonged slumpof the 3 s. The British Economy Since 1945: Economic Policy and Performance, 1945-1995. (Ed.). . London: Routledge, 1993.Marwick, Arthur (Ed.). Armycasualties were much lower, 144, killed in action, but naval, merchantmarine, air and civilian casualties (due to bombing) were much higher.[xii]World War II was a longer and much more of a total war, requiring completemobilization of the civilian population and considerable civiliansacrifices. The truth is probably that the Second World War accelerated somedevelopments in British society which were healthy like greater concernover social justice, but did not prevent its leaders from failing toaddress the 'British disease,' the decay in the competitiveness of Britishindustry which was already well-advanced by 1939 and had been evidentduring the Depression. The Pride and the Fall: The Dream and the Illusion ofBritain as a Great Nation. At the end of the First World War, a deepeconomic slump had led to the fall from power of Lloyd George'sLiberal/Coalition government. Accordingto Winter, "even on the basis of cursory medical examination, over onemillion British men were deemed to be unfit for frontline duty in the lastyear of the Great War."[vii] Barnett says that in 1938 only one in fiveEnglish boys received an education past the age of 14.[viii] Above all, the war greatly increased the intervention of the Britishgovernment in society. Alpheus T. AsCairncross puts it, "people had become used to planning in wartime; and since the war had ended in victory, they thought well of the planning that contributed to it . She had been forced to sell off most of her overseas assetsand only survived the war because of American Lend-Lease. InFree Government in the Making: Readings in American PoliticalThought, ed. Healey, 72-9 . The impact of these wars, especially the two world wars, on Britishsociety while great was highly variable, causing want, privation andsuffering to some segments of society and producing political, economic andsocial gains, some transitory and others more permanent, for others. It is also true,as Barnett has pointed out, that most of her basic industries weresuffering even before the war from severe problems, including hideboundmanagement, technological obsolescence, declining productivity and poorlabor relations, all of which added up to reduced internationalcompetitiveness which became apparent once Germany and Japan recovered fromthe war. In Free Government in the Making: Readings in American PoliticalThought, ed. It was largely fought by the professional army with thehelp of about 2 , volunteers. It was popular among the upper and middleclasses but was largely regarded by workingmen as an expression ofcapitalism. It proceeded to implement itsprogram which consisted of a mixture of socialism, nationalization ofcertain key industries such as coal mining and iron and steel, theintroduction of National Health Insurance and a variety of other governmentcontrols and welfare programs. A. Mason. He said those "shortcomings were so intractable that even thedirect intervention of a government vested with extraordinary powers, eventhe psychological spur of desperate national danger, could do little toremedy them."[xvi] Matthews agrees with Barnett that the extensive government controls,welfare programs and high taxation set in motion by the war led inexorablyto "weakening incentives, higher labor costs and higher unemployment duringthe 196 s and 197 s."[xvii] Glynn and Booth argue that "the Second WorldWar had a wide ranging impact on the British economy which both harmed thecompetitive position of some British industries and also helped toaccelerate economic change."[xviii] They suggest that the war did notreshape British society as much as had been believed prior to the early196 s. The state established a hold over its citizens which, though relaxes in peacetime, was never to be removed and which the second World war was again to increase.[ix] The American writer, Randolph Bourne, put it more succinctly in 1918:"War is the health of the state."[x] To meet the exigencies of the wareffort, the British government found itself engaged in central planning ofthe economy, controlling the flow of raw materials and the movement ofindustry, allocating scarce foreign exchange and managing many aspects ofsociety which had heretofore not been considered to be the business ofgovernment. War and Society in Britain 1899-1948. Britain had originally not contemplated a long war. there were strong grounds for continuing many of the controls for a while as a means of making the best of scarcities that were likely to disappear as the economy reverted to peacetime pursuits."[xiv] Politically, Britain underwent at least temporarily a peacefulrevolution of sorts in 1945. New York: Oxford University Press,1949.Cairncross, Alec. . The Labour Partywon a resounding victory at the polls in 1945 and did particularly wellamong the large conscripted British Army. Taylor expressed the change as follows: The mass of the people became, for the first time, active citizens. Membershipof the major nationwide union, the Trade Union Congress (TUC) nearlydoubled during the war.[iv] The Labour Party's share of the popular voterose from 7.7 per cent in 191 to 23.9 per cent in 1918.[v] According toWinter, one of "the unintended effects of the war economy [was] in levelingup the earnings of the poorest-paid sectors of the working class."[vi] The war pointed up weaknesses in the British social system. Global Capitalism and National Decline: The Thatcher Decade in Perspective. Endnotes BibliographyBarnett, Corelli. State controls over society and the economy, which had largely beenallowed to lapse during the interwar period, were reinstituted with avengeance after 1938. Taylor, English History 1914-1945 (New York: OxfordUniversity Press, 1965), 1.Randolph Bourne, "Unfinished Fragment on the State." (1918). Arthur Marwick (Houndsmill:Macmillan, 1988), 18.Overbeek, Henk, Global Capitalism and National Decline: TheThatcher Decade in Perspective (London: Unwin Harper, 199 ), 54.Overbeek, 54.Winter, 59.Winter, 59.Barnett, Correlli, The Pride and the Fall: The Dream andIllusion of Britain as a Great Nation (New York: Macmillan,1986), 2 1.A. Theirone common thread was enhancement of the unity of the nation and the powerof the state, which proved to be a mixed blessing in some of its long runmanifestations. Very few British families were left unscathed by theloss of life at the front, one of the long term effects of which on Britishpolitics may have been a reluctance to contemplate (in the 193 s) foreignpolicies which might lead to a renewal of carnage on such a scale. Pope quotes Barnett as having said that these policies "weredeveloped without any sense of a limit to financial resources" and that agrave mistake was made at that time in failing "to recognise the extent towhich Britain had borrowed her way to military success."[xv] Barnett iscertainly correct in stating that the war had exhausted Britainfinancially. Conservatives or Conservative led coalitionsgoverned most of the interwar period and undid or slowed the pace of manyof the social reforms introduced during the war. It was also a war for survival against an utterly mercilessfoe, which required the government to spend a considerable effort on warpropaganda and on defining its war aims for public consumption. "Britain's Economic Renaissance." In Britain's Economic Miracle: Myth or Reality, ed. 697-7 9. . New York: Oxford University Press, 1965.Winter, J. Oxford: Blackwell, 1992.Glynn, Sean and Alan Booth. The war spurred the pace of social reforms which had begun before thewar in areas such as improving infant mortality, maternal care (such as byintroducing canteens at factories), free meals for school children, broadereducational opportunities (only minor steps taken in 1918) and clearing theslums to build "habitations fit for the heroes who have won the war," inLloyd George's phrase.[xi] Second World War British casualties in World War II were less than in 1914-1918. Modern Britain: An Economic and Social History. Their lives were shaped by orders from above; they were required to serve the state instead of pursuing exclusively their own affairs . Alpheus T. The extensive coverage given to it by the press contributed tooverall public support to imperialism and the growth of nationalisticsentiment among all classes. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.