The people : the rise and fall of the working class, 1910-2010 /
Todd, Selina,author.
What was it really like to live through the 20th century? In 1910 three-quarters of the population were working class, but their story has been ignored until now. Based on the first-person accounts of servants, factory workers, miners and housewives, award-winning historian Selina Todd reveals an unexpected Britain where cinema audiences shook their fists at footage of Winston Churchill, communities supported strikers, and where pools winners (like Viv Nicholson) refused to become respectable. Charting the rise of the working class, through two world wars to their fall in Thatcher's Britain and today, Todd tells their story for the first time, in their own words.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Servants, 1910-39. Defiance below stairs ; Bobbed-haired belligerents ; Enemies within ; Dole ; Interlude I: a star is born ; Politics at the Palais -- The people, 1939-68. The people's war ; Interlude II: on the Lloyd George ; New Jerusalems ; Interlude III: setting the people free ; Communities ; Interlude IV: love and marriage ; Never having it so good ; Interlude V: the affluent society ; The golden age of the grammar school ; Working-class heroes ; Interlude VI: spend, spend, spend ; A new middle class? ; Interlude VII: on the make -- The dispossessed, 1966-2010. New Britain ; Trouble and strife ; Interlude VIII: return to Castleford ; Hard times ; A classless society.
What was it really like to live through the 20th century? In 1910 three-quarters of the population were working class, but their story has been ignored until now. Based on the first-person accounts of servants, factory workers, miners and housewives, award-winning historian Selina Todd reveals an unexpected Britain where cinema audiences shook their fists at footage of Winston Churchill, communities supported strikers, and where pools winners (like Viv Nicholson) refused to become respectable. Charting the rise of the working class, through two world wars to their fall in Thatcher's Britain and today, Todd tells their story for the first time, in their own words.
Working class