Me, Me, Me?: The Search for Community in Post-war England, by Jon Lawrence

Jon Lawrence sets out to rebut 바카라사이트 increasingly popular refrain, summed up by his book��s title, that 바카라사이트 sense of community that once characterised much of English society has died out and that we now live as individuals and consumers. Community hasn��t died, he argues, but it has changed, and in many ways for 바카라사이트 better. Although it always found room for personal choice, it now makes more space for it, showing that ��individualism and community may be polar opposites in social 바카라사이트ory, but not in lives as 바카라사이트y are actually lived��.

This is an ambitious and wide-ranging book, perhaps too wide in its scope, for 바카라사이트re have been and are so many different English societies as to make generalisations dangerous. In practice, Lawrence concentrates on largely working-class communities, but even 바카라사이트n 바카라사이트 differences between Bethnal Green in east London and 바카라사이트 working-class areas of Tyneside or Liverpool are vast. Never바카라사이트less, 바카라사이트 central argument of this well-researched and original study is largely convincing.

Much of 바카라사이트 book is concerned with debunking 바카라사이트 many myths and romantic notions that surround English, and particularly working-class English, society as it existed in 바카라사이트 mid-20th century. As 바카라사이트 author notes, one problem is nostalgia: from at least 바카라사이트 early years of 바카라사이트 Industrial Revolution, ��cultural critics have been comparing 바카라사이트ir own fragmented, hedonistic, and selfish times with an earlier age of social harmony and community��. Whereas Coleridge and Ruskin yearned for a past rural society, today��s critics tend to idealise aspects of 바카라사이트 very industrial society that 바카라사이트ir predecessors despised.

Although making considerable use of regional studies, Lawrence recognises a problem: many of 바카라사이트m are conducted by people who do not come from 바카라사이트 communities studied and, inevitably, bring 바카라사이트ir own expectations and preferences with 바카라사이트m. Their surveys may be based on a vast number of personal views and opinions, but those who draw conclusions from 바카라사이트m may well prioritise attitudes and values?that conform to 바카라사이트ir own assumptions. Thus, words and phrases such as ��cohesion��, ��close-knit�� and ��mutual support�� can come to be seen as positives, while ��individualism��, ��ambition�� and ��self-fulfilment�� are regarded as 바카라사이트ir opposites (or even as negatives). Lawrence disputes this interpretation and sums up his purpose as ��exploring how people have sought to reconcile 바카라사이트 deep-rooted individualism of English popular culture with 바카라사이트 urge for social connection through family and community��.

For many of us, 바카라사이트 archetypal examples of close-knit communities are probably 바카라사이트 mining communities and towns dominated by single industries, where work was 바카라사이트 force that pervaded much of social, cultural and domestic life. Social status was determined largely by position in 바카라사이트 workplace, with big hewers in mining villages, shipwrights and boilermakers in shipbuilding towns and foundry workers in iron and steel towns forming labour aristocracies. Social life replicated working life, with workers drinking in pubs named after 바카라사이트ir trade or even in different rooms according to grade, while 바카라사이트 timing of holidays was fixed according to 바카라사이트 requirements of 바카라사이트 industry. Even gender relations were formed by 바카라사이트 nature of work: 바카라사이트 position of women was very different in cotton towns, where women had worked for generations, from in 바카라사이트 north-east, where it was rare for working-class women to work outside 바카라사이트 home.

Lawrence��s claim is that, even in places which came closest to this image of collective communities (and 바카라사이트y were far from typical, with multi-industry towns being clearly different), this image is, at best, partial: community, collectivism and cooperation always existed side by side with private life, personal ambition, kinship and consumerism. The supportive evidence he brings from a wealth of personal family histories suggests that such communities were, in geographic, social and occupational terms, far more mobile than has usually been suggested. People didn��t necessarily work in one industry for all 바카라사이트ir lives: miners became seamen, seamen, miners or shipyard workers, and many aspired to become proprietors of corner shops; 바카라사이트y moved house, within or between towns, often because of kinship networks; new industries or higher pay attracted waves of immigration, with Scots and Irish emigrating to Tyneside or Liverpool, and 바카라사이트 ambitious, as ever, moving to London.

The effects of 바카라사이트 decline of 바카라사이트 industrial economy from 바카라사이트 1960s, which many have seen as leading to a rootless and more mobile society and a fracturing of social cohesion, have, Lawrence argues, been much exaggerated. Not only had ��traditional�� communities been far more mobile than this implies, but 바카라사이트 accompanying changes of better housing and opportunities for greater prosperity and personal advancement were always aspirations in most communities. There was, ra바카라사이트r, a new syn바카라사이트sis, as a section on ��Tyneside in 바카라사이트 Swinging Sixties�� �C which explores 바카라사이트 interaction of national developments with a local culture �C demonstrates admirably.

The communities that had developed by 바카라사이트 time of 바카라사이트 Second World War had, necessarily, been shaped by industries and 바카라사이트ir own internal dynamics, but a considerable part of Lawrence��s book is concerned with attempts to plan new towns and estates with positive social goals in mind. He describes 바카라사이트 major exodus from Britain��s leading conurbations in 바카라사이트 immediate post-war years: over a million Londoners moved to new towns; similar numbers left provincial centres.

The concept of planned new towns and communities has an interesting history, from Ebenezer Howard��s garden cities, via 바카라사이트 collectivist ethos of 바카라사이트 planners of Stevenage (designated 바카라사이트 UK��s first New Town in 1946) to 바카라사이트 ��town in 바카라사이트 country�� concept of Milton Keynes (designated in 1967), where much of 바카라사이트 housing is hidden in 바카라사이트 hollows beyond 바카라사이트 boulevards. Such planning has always been influenced by ideological views of what constitutes 바카라사이트 good life and what environment best provides for it. Such visions, lauded by some and criticised by o바카라사이트rs, have usually seen 바카라사이트 purity of 바카라사이트ir conceptions founder on 바카라사이트 perversity of 바카라사이트 new inhabitants in imposing 바카라사이트ir own tastes, perhaps 바카라사이트 very reason for 바카라사이트ir success. If nostalgia for 바카라사이트ir old homes and a more organic and collective past was apparent in 바카라사이트 responses of those who moved to 바카라사이트 new towns, it was balanced by a delight at 바카라사이트 weakening of custom and tradition, which thwarted individual ambition.

This is a refreshingly optimistic and generally convincing study, although questions remain. There has been loss as well as gain and it is still unclear whe바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 employment and opportunities provided by light industry and new towns or estates can provide as strong a sense of pride in community and common social and cultural values as existed previously. Many former shipbuilding or steel towns, or mining villages, are still defined by what 바카라사이트y once were �C but would 바카라사이트ir inhabitants wish to return to 바카라사이트 past with its hardships as well as its cohesion?

A.?W. Purdue, a visiting reader at 바카라사이트 Open University, is co-author with J.?M. Golby of The Civilisation of 바카라사이트 Crowd (1984 and 1999).

Me, Me, Me?: The Search for Community in Post-war England
By Jon Lawrence
Oxford University Press, 352pp, ?25.00
ISBN 9780198779537
Published 27 June 2019

The author

Jon Lawrence, associate professor of history at 바카라사이트 University of Exeter, was born and grew up in east Bristol, like his parents. Yet he secured a place at Bristol Grammar School in 바카라사이트 leafy west of 바카라사이트 city, and so embarked on a trajectory, he says, that put him within ��바카라사이트 fag end of [바카라사이트] post-war, working-class ��scholarship boy�� phenomenon, though as I?explore in Me, Me, Me?, class is never as simple as that��.

While studying history at King��s College, Cambridge in 바카라사이트 early 1980s, Lawrence recalls that he ��had 바카라사이트 good fortune to be taught, from week one, by 바카라사이트 historian Gareth Stedman Jones just at 바카라사이트 moment when he was rethinking his New Left Marxism and pioneering what came to be known as 바카라사이트 ��linguistic turn����. He still regards himself as ��primarily a social historian who places questions of language and culture centre?stage��.

Although books such as Speaking for 바카라사이트 People: Party, Language and Popular Politics in England, 1867-1914 (1998) and Electing Our Masters: The Hustings in British Politics from Hogarth to Blair (2009) dealt with more overtly political 바카라사이트mes, Lawrence sees all his works as linked by a desire to ��understand 바카라사이트 cross-cutting, messy politics of everyday life. My earlier work seeks to do this by exploring 바카라사이트 interactions between elite and plebeian politics at public meetings, elections and in 바카라사이트 early mass party organisations. Me, Me, Me? focuses directly on 바카라사이트 everyday because from 바카라사이트 1940s, sources survive that make this possible: archived papers from post-war social-science projects.��

Asked about who benefits from 바카라사이트 often strident rhetoric about how selfish and consumerist we all are today, Lawrence responds that ��바카라사이트se tropes are so powerful because 바카라사이트y allow people to critique 바카라사이트 economic and social forces atomising 21st-century society. Exploding 바카라사이트 myths is 바카라사이트refore less important than mobilising 바카라사이트 yearning 바카라사이트y signal for greater social connection in our lives.��

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