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Abstract
Recent historiography on the development of citizenship in Britain has drawn attention to the changing nature of citizenship discourse, shifting from active to passive forms during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It will be argued here that this binary notion of passive or active citizenship tends to underestimate the subtle changes that the concept underwent between 1870 and 1939. Indeed, we argue that citizenship was an amorphous concept that was shaped by the cultural imperatives of the day. Thus the real value in examining the dissemination of citizenship between 1870 and 1939 is that it provides an insight into the hopes and anxieties of the authorities at both a local and national level during a period that underwent considerable social and cultural upheaval.
Acknowledgements
Our thanks to Andreas Fahrmeir and the two anonymous referees who made invaluable comments on earlier drafts of this paper.
Notes
Brad Beaven is at the University of Portsmouth, UK; John Griffiths is at Massey University, New Zealand.
[1] CitationGous, Great Britain. A Study of Civic Loyalty, preface. The post revolutionary French model of a society of equal citizens ensured that more concrete definitions of citizenship were disseminated across central Europe during the early 1800s see CitationFahrmeir, ‘Nineteenth-Century German Citizenships’, 725.
[2] For classic definitions of citizenship see CitationPigou, Memorials of Citation Alfred Marshall ; Marshall, Class, Citizenship and Social Development. For useful analyses of changing notions of citizenship and community see: CitationVincent and Plant, Philosophy, Politics and Citizenship; CitationGilbert, ‘Community and Municipalism, 262; CitationPearson, ‘Knowing One's Place, 236; CitationMeller, ‘Urban Renewal and Citizenship’; CitationRose, ‘Sex, Citizenship and the Nation in World War II Britain’, 1168; CitationBeaven, Leisure, Citizenship and Working-Class Men in Britain.
[3] CitationPicht, Toynbee Hall and the English Settlement Movement; CitationPimlott, Toynbee Hall: Fifty Years of Progress; CitationStedman Jones, Outcast London; CitationBriggs and Macartney, Toynbee Hall: The First Hundred Years; CitationMeacham, Toynbee Hall and Social Reform 1880–1914; CitationDavis, ‘Slums and the Vote 1867–90’, CitationPennybacker, A Vision for London, 1889–1914; For a wider perspective on educational settlements see CitationFreeman, ‘“No finer School than a Settlement”; CitationMorris, ‘The Middle Class and British Towns and Cities of the Industrial Revolution, 1780–1870’, 303; CitationGunn, ‘The “Failure” of the Victorian Middle Class’; see also CitationMeller, Leisure and the Changing City, 1870–1914; CitationHewitt, The Emergence of Stability in the Industrial City; CitationKidd and Roberts (eds.), City, Class and Cultures.
[4] CitationGullace, The Blood of Our Sons, 2.
[5] CitationRose, Which People's War? 288.
[6] CitationLow, ‘The Concept of Citizenship in Twentieth Century Britain’, 190.
[7] CitationWeight and Beach, The Right to Belong, 17.
[8] CitationVaughan, The Age of Great Cities, 151–3.
[9] See CitationHeater, Citizenship, 3. Also useful observations are found in CitationJones, Victorian Political Thought, CitationCollini, Public Moralists; CitationBiagini, ‘Liberalism and Direct Democracy’, 21–44; A small, but influential body of opinion doubted whether the city could improve civilisation during this period see: CitationBuckingham, National Evils and Practical Remedies.
[10] Hansard Parliamentary Debates, ‘Representation of the People Bill’, 12 April 1866, 1132.
[11] The Times, 2 May 1867.
[12] CitationBeaven and Griffiths, ‘Urban Elites, Socialists and Notions of Citizenship’, 300.
[13] Note the comments made by Sandra Den Otter that ‘Classical metaphors, language, and principles pervaded Victorian culture, the language, the history, the ideas of classical Greece resonate throughout idealist writings, …the revival of interest in the ancient world linked new to a new tradition of humanistic scholarship from Germany’. She adds further that the ‘Polis became the model by which the flaws of modern civilisation were exposed. CitationDen Otter, British Idealism and Social Explanation, 44–5.
[14] Meller (ed.), The Ideal City, 58.
[15] Quoted in CitationJoyce, ‘Castles in the Air’, 526.
[16] Stedman Jones, Outcast London, 244.
[17] CitationWebb, My Apprenticeship I & II, 231.
[18] Pimlott, Toynbee Hall, 49.
[19] CitationFiddes, Chapters in the History of Owens College and of Manchester University 1850–1914; The work of R. H. Crocker has described the America Settlement movement which closely followed the British model as an example of such professionalisation as well. See CitationCrocker, Social Work and Social Order.
[20] CitationInglis, Churches and the Working Classes in Victorian England, 162.
[21] This is noted by CitationMagda Fahrni in her unpublished paper ‘Gender Modernity and Citizenship in Urban Contexts. We are grateful to Professor Fahrni for allowing us to cite her paper.
[22] The Times, 30 Nov. 1877
[23] The Times, 30 Nov. 1877.
[24] Stedman Jones, Outcast London, 296.
[25] CitationMatheson, ‘Citizenship’, 33. Offprint copy held in Bodleian Library, Oxford.
[26] CitationCollini, ‘The Idea of “Character” in Victorian Political Thought’, 29–50.
[27] CitationHendrick, Children, Childhood and English Society 1880–1990, 41.
[28] CitationSpringhall, ‘Lord Meath, Youth and Empire’, 105.
[29] The Times, 14 Dec. 1903. Meath's letter is written in support of Sir W.B. Richmond, a member of the Army League, who in a previous letter called for conscription to rid the streets of ‘loafers’. See The Times, 4 Dec. 1903.
[30] Lord Meath, ‘Duty and discipline in the training of children’, 53–59, and CitationBlathwayt, ‘Sentimental England’, 33–8.
[31] CitationWelldon, ‘The early training of boys in citizenship’, 45–8.
[32] CitationBaden-Powell, Scouting for Boys, 18.
[33] CitationHeathorn, ‘“For Home Country and Race”: Historical Association, 7,105–24; CitationHeathorn, “‘Lets Us Remember that We too Are Citizens of England”’, 395–427.
[34] The formation, as Ann Summers notes, of the Navy League (1895) the National Service League (1901) and the Tariff Reform League (1903) all contributed to a more overtly nationalist conception of citizenship. See CitationSummer ‘The Character of Edwardian Nationalism’.
[35] CitationTrainor, ‘Neither Metropolitan nor Provincial’; CitationTrainor, ‘The Gentrification of Victorian and Edwardian Industrialists’. Trainor endorses the idea of middle-class evacuation with qualifications in the context of Black Country elites. Ease of transport was often a key factor in whether elites continued to play a civic role by 1914.
[36] This apathy extended to the city electorate. See for example the article CitationAnon, ‘Municipal Apathy’, 1057. It noted that in London's borough elections of that year only 59 per cent went to the poll, a figure which in this period represented a poor turnout.
[37] CitationWaters, Socialists and the Politics of Popular Culture.
[38] Pimlott, Toynbee Hall, 98; Julia Parker has more recently noted the difficulties Toynbee Hall faced as the working class were only interested in commercial subjects linked to job opportunities and that Toynbee Hall was established in the wrong location as it became the home to new settlers from Europe. See CitationParker, Citizenship, Work and Welfare, 50.
[39] Pimlott, Toynbee Hall, 93.
[40] The emphasis on character continued into the twentieth century see CitationKeeble, The Citizen of Tomorrow, 288.
[41] CitationBryce, The Hindrances to Good Citizenship, 29; CitationHennock, ‘Central/Local Government Relations in England’, 38–49.
[42] For the Victoria League see CitationBush, Edwardian Ladies and Imperial Power; CitationPickles, ‘A Link in the Great Chain of Friendship’, 29–50.
[43] CitationBilton, The Hull Pals and CitationCarter, Birmingham Pals.
[44] Gullace, The Blood of Our Sons, 3–4.
[45] Rose, Which People's War? 288
[46] The National Archives (NA), ADM 116/2069, Proposals for safeguarding public interests in the event of a General Strike, 17 Feb. 1919.
[47] Beaven, Leisure, Citizenship and Working-Class Men in Britain, 125–32.
[48] CitationOrr, ‘Keep the Home Fires Burning’, 17; CitationJenkinson, ‘The 1919 Riots’; CitationWhite, ‘The Summer Riots of 1919’, 260. See, CitationBeaven ‘Challenges to Civic Governance in Post-War England’.
[49] CitationHaddow, Citizenship, 163.
[50] CitationHobson, Democracy After the War, 186.
[51] CitationFisher, The Common Weal, 34, 43.
[52] CitationRothstein, The Soldiers’ Strikes of 1919, 60; CitationWaites, A Class Society at War; CitationKingsley Kent, Making Peace.
[53] CitationThe Philip's Settlement, The Equipment of the Workers, 28.
[54] CitationThe Philip's Settlement, The Equipment of the Workers, 14.
[55] CitationThe Philip's Settlement, The Equipment of the Workers, 80–81.
[56] CitationHilton, Consumerism in Twentieth Century Britain, 79.
[57] CitationHilton, Consumerism in Twentieth Century Britain, 80.
[58] CitationWhitworth, ‘Men, Women, Shops and “Little, Shiny Homes”, 256.
[59] CitationWhitworth, ‘Men, Women, Shops and “Little, Shiny Homes”, 256, 20.
[60] Hilton, Consumerism in the Twentieth Century, 79.
[61] CitationWhitehand and Carr, ‘England's Interwar Suburban Landscapes’, 483.
[62] CitationScannell and Cardiff, A Social History of British Broadcasting, vol 1, 1922–1939. 365.
[63] CitationClapson, ‘Working-Class Women's Experience of Moving to New Housing Estates’, 345.
[64] CitationConstantine, ‘Amateur Gardening and Popular Recreation’, 396.
[65] CitationStevenson, British Society 1914–1945, 222.
[66] The Times, 3 Oct. 1934
[67] The Times, 3 Oct. 1934
[68] CitationLlewellyn Smith (ed.), The New Survey of London Life and Labour, 42.
[69] CitationOlechnowiez, ‘Civic Leadership and Education for Democracy’, 16.
[70] CitationOlechnowiez, Working-Class Housing in England between the Wars, 153.
[71] Beaven, Leisure, Citizenship and Working-Class Men, 164.
[72] CitationWorts, Citizenship; CitationMasterman, How England is Governed; CitationPollard, The Evolution of Parliament.
[73] CitationSimon, A City Council from Within, 235.
[74] Gous, Great Britain, 4, 285.
[75] CitationCastle, The Coming of Leisure, 52.
[76] CitationBoyd (ed.), The Challenge of Leisure, 132.
[77] CitationRowntree, Poverty and Progress, 46–7.
[78] Boyd (ed.), The Challenge of Leisure, 206.
[79] CitationDeedes, ‘Social Problems of the New Housing Estates’, 19, 20.
[80] CitationBarker, ‘Community Centres and the Uses of Leisure’, 10.
[81] Cov Magazine, 6 Aug. 1939.
[82] Cov Magazine, 4 June 1939.
[83] Low, ‘The Concept of Citizenship in Twentieth Century Britain, 190.
[84] CitationBeaven and Griffiths, ‘The Blitz, Civilian Morale and the City’.
