Feminism and Voluntary Action

Brave New World: Imperial and Democratic Nation-Building in Britain between the Wars

“…This led eventually to the revisionism of the post-1945 party, which diminished the material in favour of the 'mind' or 'character' as the target of political action. 75 More visible at the time, and arguably just as far-reaching in the long term, was the significant shift at the level of national party strategy in the opposite direction, away from the mind and towards the material. This saw the two main parties embrace the politics of representation more systematically than ever before.…”

“…Every military general, he continued, insisted that 'a B2 army of men with an excellent morale will suit him better than an A1 army with a morale that is low and staled'. 75 Psychologists now showed initial interest in training and selection of the supervisory grades (explicitly influenced by selection procedures established by the American army during the war). 76 In both the military and the factory, capacity was recognized as a function of morale.…”

“…74 In the political sphere, Laura Beers has shown how the media fostered fears about left-wing politics, and prejudices against organized labour. 75 In this volume, she examines the ways in which the press retarded women's political progress in the inter-war period by playing to and perpetuating stereotypes about 'frivolous' women, uninterested in politics. Arguably the press were only seeking to cater to the market as they understood it -if women preferred human-interest stories to political news, it did not make economic sense to print serious political news in publications targeted towards women readers.…”

“…She reveals how Bryant's and Barker's interpretations of 1688 represented a key area of disagreement, which ultimately located both scholars in inter-war Conservative or Liberal politics respectively. 75 Barker rejected Bryant's claim that the negative social consequences of the industrial revolution and the 'unleashing of the aristocracy' after 1688 had undermined the Bill of Rights Act of 1689. Barker argued that the price for political liberty was worth paying, and he suggested Bryant's arguments could in fact be used to defend the extremist politics of Nazi Germany and fascist Italy.…”

“…His Nonconformity and his Radicalism greatly mellowed, indeed, in old age, and towards the end, while deeply lamenting the virtual disappearance of the Liberal Party, he found, I think, in Mr. Stanley (Earl) Baldwin the nearest approach among modern statesmen to the idol he had worshipped in his political adolescence-Mr. Gladstone. 80 75 Stapleton, Bryant, pp. 92-3.…”