The Affluent Society, Britain


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  • The Affluent Society
    • Social Developments
      • Key Terms
        • Baby Boom = in the years after the end of the Second World War there was a rise in the number of babies born
        • Hire Purchase = a buyer pays a deposit on an item and then pays monthly to hire the item over a length of time, the buyer can pay the remaining balance or return the item
        • Council House = a house built by local authorities to house the working classes, often to replace slums; rents tended to be lower than in privately rented accomodation
        • Repatriation = returning someone to their place of origin
        • Family Allowance = a weekly benefit paid for each child in a family; it was renamed child benefit in 1977
      • The Angry Young Men
        • A term given to a group of writers who rebelled against traditional theater and literature and they produced plays and books that, they felt, reflected contemporary society
        • Their writing was sarcastic, bitter, intense and often bleak.
        • Mundane settings and everyday language were used to show contemporary Britain.
        • Plays = Look Osborne's 'Look Back in Anger' (1956) and Sillitoe's 'Saturday Night and Sunday Morning' (1958)
      • Position of Women
        • The average age of marriage was 21 and 75% of all women were married
        • Only 1 in 5 women went out to work in 1951.
        • The family allowance was intended to ensure that women didn't need to work. The welfare state was based on nuclear families and full employment for men
        • Trade unions tended not to support women working as it was believed it was detrimental to the children
        • By the end of this period, second-wave feminism, which argued that women were unfulfilled and trapped by the homemaker role, was beginning in the US and would spread to Britain by the later 1960s
      • Immigration
        • The Notting Hill 1958 = at the end of August 1958, there were outbreaks of serious violence in Notting Hill an area that had a large concentration of people from the Caribbean
        • The leadership of British fascism, Oswald Mosley, tried to use the issue by standing as the Union Movement candidate in the 1959 election for Kensington North, which included the area of Notting Hill, on a platform of repatriation
      • Teenager and Youth Culture
        • Young people had more time, conscription was no longer a thing. They had money to buy records and fashion, helping to create their own culture
        • In the early 1950s, Teddy boys were the most obvious youth subculture. They were seen as a worrying phenomenon and were linked with juvenile delinquency and crime
    • Economic Development
      • Post-War Boom
        • Food rationing ended in 1954
        • By 1955, full employment had been achieved, only 200,00 people were unemployed
        • Traditional occupations, like fishing, coal mining and shipbuilding fell during this period as electrical engineering expanded
          • By 1960, nearly 5 million were employed in service industries
        • By 1960, nearly 5 million people were employed in service industries - 1 in 5 of the population and roughly the same in heavy industry
      • Inflation and Deflation
        • Inflation = increase in the price of goods and services which occurs when people have more money to spend than there are goods available
          • Some inflation can help the economy because it encourages manufacturers to expand their businesses and employ more people
          • but too much can lead to the economy overheating, as workers demand higher wages because of higher prices
        • Deflation = fall in price of goods and services; inflation controls things like 'freezing' wage rises, increasing taxation or making borrowing harder so that goods can't be bought on credit
          • Deflation can lead to un-employment as people have less money to spend so less goods and services need to be produced
      • Key Terms
        • Stop-go Economics =
          • GO - Controls removed, increase in demand, rising imports, imports exceed exports and balance of payment crisis, STOP economics put in place
          • STOP - Government controls: high interest rates and wage freezes, demand falls, output decreases, GO economics put in place
        • Balance of Trade = difference between goods that a country imports and what it exports
        • Balance of Payment = includes invisible imports and exports
        • Run on the Pound = describes a rapid fall in the value of the pound in international currency markets, especially in relation to the US dollar
    • Conservative Governments
      • Key Politicians
        • Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden, R. A. Butler and Harold Macmillan
      • 1951 General Election Results
        • Labour = 295 seats, 48.8% votes
        • Conservative = 321 seats, 48% votes
      • Key Chronology
        • 1951 -  Bevanites quarrel
        • 1951 - Churchill becomes PM
        • 1955 - Eden becomes PM
        • 1956 - Suez Crisis
        • 1957 - Eden resigns and Macmillan becomes PM
        • 1963 - EEC rejection
        • 1963 - Macmillan resigns
        • 1962 - night of the Long Knives
      • Key Terms
        • Great Depression = started in the US after the Wall Street crash. In Britain, un-employment affected 25% of the workforce
        • One-Nation Conservatism = all classes in society should have an obligation to help one another and there is a responsibility for those who are better off to ensure the well-being of those who are not
          • Noblesse Oblige
        • Chancellor of the Exchequer = minister responsible for economic and financial policy
      • 1955 General Election Results
        • Labour = 277 seats, 46.4& votes
        • Conservative = 345 seats, 49.7% votes
      • 1959 General Election Results
        • Labour = 258 seats, 44.6% votes
        • Conservative = 365 seats, 48.8% votes
    • Foreign Relations
      • Key Chronology
        • 1954 - Britain's first nuclear test
        • 1956 - The Suez Crisis
        • 1957 - EEC formed by the Treaty of Rome
        • 1959 - The formation of EFTA
        • 1960 - Failure of the Blue Streak missile programme
        • 1963 - Rejection of Britain's application to join the EEC
      • Key Terms
        • Atlantic Alliance = a term used to refer to NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation; formed in 1949 to defend the Western alliance  in the Cold War
        • Superpower = an extremely powerful naion with influence on other countries
        • EEC = an economic union, often known as the Common Market, first established by the Treaty of Rome in 1957
        • Cold War = a term used to describe the tension between the West (the US, Western Europe, including Britain and Canada)
        • 'Special Relationship' = term used to describe the close relationship between the UK and US based on historical, diplomatic, cultural, economic, and military ties
      • De-colonisation, Key Chronology
        • 1947 - Withdrawal from India
        • 1952 - Start of Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya
        • 1957 - Independence granted to Ghana
        • 1960 - Macmillan's 'Wind of Change' speech
        • 1961  -South Africa leaves the Commonwealth
        • 1963 - Independence granted to Kenya

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