The New Leisure, Voluntarism and Social Reconstruction in Inter-War Britain

Abstract

In post-World War I social reconstruction, leisure acquired a new meaning as a social good with the capacity to contribute to the building of a new post-war society. A discourse of citizenship and leisure emerged which drew from Christian socialism and the works of John Ruskin, William Morris, and the social idealist thinking of T. H. Green and J. A. Hobson. The classical Athenian model of leisure was re-worked by Ernest Barker and Cecil Delisle Burns who argued that the function of a leisure class could become that of the whole community through a democratic redistribution of leisure. Although efforts to realize idealist visions were rarely successful they were nevertheless important to twentieth-century understandings of leisure and citizenship and brought leisure within the framework of social policy.

Keywords::

• Leisure
• Citizenship
• Idealism
• Reconstruction
• Social Work

Notes

^[1]Office for National Statistics, Measuring What Matters.

^[2] See for example Haworth and Veal, Work and Leisure; and Skidelsky and Skidelsky, How Much?

^[3]McKibbin, Classes and Cultures; Lewis, Voluntary Sector; and Snape and Pussard, ‘Theorisations of Leisure’.

^[4] See for example Taylor, Claim on the Countryside; Jones, Sport, Politics; Springhall, History of Boys’ Brigade; Hill, Sport, Leisure and Culture; and Borsay, History of Leisure.

^[5] See for example Huggins and Williams, Sport and the English; Richards, Cinema and Radio; Nott, Music for the People; Zimring, Social Dance; Cross and Walton, Playful Crowd; Barton, Working-Class Organizations; Huggins, ‘Betting’; and Huggins, ‘Association Football’.

^[6] See for example Langhamer, Women's Leisure; Skillen, Women, Sport and Modernity; Tebbutt, Being Boys; Todd, Young Women; Jones, Workers at Play; Borsay, History of Leisure; Fowler, Youth Culture; Fowler, First Teenagers in Britain; and Olechnowicz, ‘Unemployed Workers’.

^[7]Hill, ‘What Shall We Do?’.

^[8] See Bailey, Leisure and Class; and Cunningham, Leisure in the Industrial Revolution.

^[9]Meller, Leisure and the Changing City.

^[10]Bradley, Poverty; Harris, Private Lives, 162–163; Joyce, Work, Society and Politics; Beaven, Leisure, Citizenship; August, British Working Class, Chapter 7; Gilchrist and Jeffs, Settlements; Scotland, Squires in the Slums; Childs, Labour's Apprentices, 140–156; and Brewis, ‘From Working Parties to Social Work’. See Davies, ‘Youth Gangs in Late Victorian Manchester’ for an account of the response of Lads' Clubs to violent youth.

^[11]Bradley, Poverty, 2–6.

^[12] Ibid., 100–101.

^[13]Matthews-Jones, Centres of Brightness, 141–154.

^[14] See Overy, Morbid Age.

^[15]Stevenson, British Society and McKibbin, Classes and Cultures, 332. A similar argument for the cohesive potential of shared cultural activity is forwarded in Le Mahieu, Culture for Democracy.

^[16]Beaven, ‘Going to the Cinema’.

^[17]Beaven and Griffiths, ‘Creating the Exemplary Citizen’.

^[18]Olechnowicz, ‘Civic Leadership’; and Olechnowicz,Working-Class Housing, 165–171.

^[19]Olechnowicz, Working-Class Housing, 149.

^[20]Brasnett, Voluntary Social Action.

^[21]Beaven and Griffiths, ‘Creating the Exemplary Citizen’.

^[22]Jephcott, ‘Work Among Boys’.

^[23]Heighton, Place of the Voluntary Worker, 9; Jennings, ‘Voluntary Social Services’; and Milnes, ‘Position of Voluntary Social Services’.

^[24]Durant, Problem of Leisure, 4; See also Darling, Re-Forming Britain; Delanty, Social Theory, 36; Giddens, Consequences of Modernity, 6–12; and Burns, Democracy, 215.

^[25]Beaven, Leisure, 2.

^[26]Freeden, Liberalism Divided.

^[27]Harris, ‘Political Thought’.

^[28]Wilson, ‘Introduction’ in a reference to E. H. Carr, The Twenty Years Crisis; and Alexander, ‘New Civilization?’

^[29]Tinkler, ‘Cause for Concern’; Beaven and Griffiths, ‘Creating the Exemplary Citizen’; and Olechnowicz, Working-Class Housing, 180–217; Olechnowicz ‘Unemployed Workers’.

^[30] See for example Spracklen, Meaning and Purpose of Leisure; Spracklen, Constructing Leisure; Ramsay, Reclaiming Leisure; and Shaw, ‘Re-Framing Questions’.

^[31] Sir Edward Brabrook quoted in Carter, Industrial Reconstruction, 233–238.

^[32]Meller, Leisure and the Changing City, 16.

^[33]Llewellyn Smith, New Survey, Vol. 9, 1.

^[34]Durant, Problem of Leisure.

^[35]Jacks, Education Through Recreation, 91. Jacks was Principal of Manchester College, Oxford. The inter-war literature on leisure was extensive; in addition to the three prominent critics Burns, Barker and Durant, writers included Dark, After Working Hours; Joad, Diogenes; and Missen, Employment of Leisure.

^[36] See Tinkler, ‘Cause for Concern’; and Langhamer, Women's Leisure in England.

^[37]Labour Party, Labour, 6. See also ‘The Leisure Problem’ (Times, March 19, 1919), 13, col. F; and NCSS, ‘Use of Leisure’.

^[38] See Leavis, Mass Civilization; and Clutton-Brock, Socialism.

^[39]Durant, Problem of Leisure, 30–31; Leavis, Fiction, 193; see also Joad, Diogenes; Frankl, Machine-Made Leisure; and Cunningham, British Writers.

^[40]Jameson, Soul of Man, 14 and Lever, Six Hour Day. Jameson, along with Rebecca West, Winifred Holtby and Naomi Mitchison used fiction as a medium to explore the functioning of civil society through an active citizenship. See Golubov, ‘English Ethical Socialism’.

^[41]Olechnowicz, ‘Unemployed Workers’.

^[42]Tinkler and Warsh, ‘Feminine Modernity’. See also Andrews, ‘Homes Both Sides of the Microphone’ and Langhamer, Women's Leisure, 52–57, 100–104.

^[43]Burns, Leisure in the Modern World, 161; Rees, The New Wales; Parry and King, New Leisure; and Olechnowicz, ‘Unemployed Workers’.

^[44]Collini, ‘Hobhouse, Bosanquet’.

^[45]Harris, ‘Political Thought’; Green, Lectures; Offer, ‘Idealism versus Non-Idealism’; Morris, News from Nowhere; Ruskin, Munera Pulveris; and Vaninskaya, William Morris.

^[46]Green, Lectures.

^[47] Ibid., 48.

^[48] See Freeden, New Liberalism; Hoover, ‘Liberalism’; Quinton, ‘Absolute Idealism’; and Tawney, Acquisitive Society.

^[49]Laski, Liberty in the Modern State, 210.

^[50]Freeden, New Liberalism, 49; and Marquand, Progressive Dilemma, 15.

^[51]Harris, ‘Political Thought’.

^[52]Milner, Arnold Toynbee; and Beaven, Leisure, Citizenship.

^[53]Webb, ‘Comfort of Strangers’; and Freeden, ‘Civil Society’.

^[54]Gilbert and Large, European Era, 136.

^[55]Marquand, Progressive Dilemma, 40–45.

^[56]Marwick, Deluge, 279–280.

^[57]Branford and Geddes, Our Social Inheritance, vii.

^[58]Hopkinson, Rebuilding Britain.

^[59]Russell, Principles of Reconstruction, 228–229.

^[60]Lavell, Reconstruction, 168. Writing from America, Lavell saw post-war reconstruction as a new phase of pre-war social reform. For further discussion of the relationship between idealism and social work, see also Harrison, ‘Oxford and the Labour Movement’.

^[61]Hobson, Work and Wealth, 238.

^[62] Ibid., 248–249.

^[63]Salveson, Socialism with a Northern Accent; Snape, ‘Co-operative Holidays’; Anderson, ‘Partnership or Co-operation?’; Vaninskaya, William Morris, 190–198; and Prynn, ‘Clarion Clubs’.

^[64]Lewis, Voluntary Sector and Grant, ‘Voluntarism’.

^[65]COPEC, ‘Place of Leisure in Life’.

^[66]British Medical Journal, ‘Proceedings’.

^[67]Ministry of Reconstruction, Interim Report, passim; Paterson, ‘Industry and Leisure’; and Long, ‘Industrial Homes’.

^[68]Laski, Authority in Modern State, 107.

^[69]Branford, ‘Citizenship’. Branford had assisted Henrietta Barnett in the planning of Hampstead Garden Suburb.

^[70]Branford and Geddes, Our Social Inheritance, 126–127; and Low, ‘Concept of Citizenship’.

^[71]Fisher, Common Weal, 22.

^[72]Burns, Leisure in the Modern World; Burns, Industry and Civilization; Burns, Modern Civilization; Burns, Democracy; Freeden, in Liberalism Divided makes extensive use of Burns work on social philosophy in inter-war Britain but excludes reference to Leisure in the Modern World and Burns' explication of the function of leisure as the basis of a reformed civil society. Overy, in The Morbid Age, similarly refers to Burns' concern for the decline of civilisation without reference to his work on leisure.

^[73] Burns, ‘Labour Thinker and Lecturer’ (Times January 23, 1942), 7 col. E.

^[74]Lee, in ‘The Romney Street Group’, notes the tone of the Group's discussions reflected the social conscience of the settlement movement.

^[75] See Burns, Leisure in the Modern World; Burns, Democracy; Burns, Industry and Civilization; and Burns, Modern Civilization.

^[76]Boyd, ‘Education for Leisure’ surmised that except for the Greeks there had never been any consciousness of leisure as a problem.

^[77]Morris, ‘How We Live’.

^[78]Russell, Praise of Idleness.

^[79]Ruskin, Muna Pulveris, 15 and Barker, Uses of Leisure, 11.

^[80]Burns, Civilization the Next Step, 113.

^[81]Burns, Leisure in the Modern World, 153; and Burns, ‘Ideals of Democracy’. See also Burns, ‘Productivity and Reconstruction’. While it is not known if Burns was aware of them, the ‘pitmen painters’ of the north east represent the type of movement he advocated; see Feaver, Pitmen Painters.

^[82]Barker, Greek Political Theory.

^[83]Barker, Education for Citizenship, 12.

^[84]Burns, Industry and Civilization, 249.

^[85]Molinari, ‘Educating and Mobilizing’.

^[86]St. Philip's Settlement, Equipment of the Workers. See also Olechnowicz, Working-Class Housing.

^[87]Laski, Authority of the State, 107; Jacks, Constructive Citizenship;Education of the Whole Man;Education Through Recreation; see also Ammon, ‘Municipal Cafes’, 14.

^[88]Jacks, Education of the Whole Man; Barker, Uses of Leisure, 7–8; Ellis, ‘Gospel of Leisure’; and Boyd and Ogilvie, Challenge of Leisure.

^[89]Durant, Problem of Leisure, 252.

^[90]Bell, Civilization; Burns, Civilization: the Next Step, 213.

^[91]Legge, ‘Relation of Voluntary Workers’.

^[92]Burns, Leisure in the Modern World, 115.

^[93]Breitenbach and Wright, ‘Women as Active Citizens’; and Innes, ‘Constructing Women's Citizenship’.

^[94]McCarthy, ‘Associational Voluntarism’; see also McCarthy, ‘Parties, Voluntary Associations and Democratic Politics’.

^[95]Burns, Leisure in the Modern World, 140–141.

^[96]Taylor, Claim on the Countryside.

^[97]Barnett, Ideal City, 60–63; and Burns, Leisure in the Modern World, 170.

^[98]Burns, Modern Civilization, 287–288; and Burns, Leisure in the Modern World, 28.

^[99] See for example Beaven, ‘Going to the Cinema’; McKibbin, Classes and Cultures, 423–431; and Burns, Leisure in the Modern World, 63.

^[100]Mess, ‘What is Voluntary Social Service?’.

^[101]Attlee, Social Worker, 2.

^[102]Collini, ‘Hobhouse, Bosanquet’.

^[103]King, Annual Report, 3.

^[104]Geddes, ‘Civics as Applied Sociology’; see Meller, The Ideal City for a comparison of the idealist and the sociological approaches of Canon Barnett and Patrick Geddes; and Weight and Beach, Right to Belong, 5.

^[105]Milnes, ‘Position of Voluntary Social Services’.

^[106] See Nathaus, ‘Leisure Clubs’.

^[107]Perkin, Rise of Professional Society, 348.

^[108]NCSS, National Conference Leisure. The first conference was to have been on reconstruction but was postponed because of a railway strike. The conference was held in Manchester.

^[109]Brasnett, Voluntary Social Action, 27.

^[110]NCSS, Leisure of the People, 95.

^[111]Liverpool Council of Voluntary Aid, Report on the Uses.

^[112]Jones, Social Survey of Merseyside; and Llewellyn Smith, Life and Leisure.

^[113] See Alexander, ‘New Civilization’.

^[114]Jones, Social Surveys, 9.

^[115]Llewellyn Smith, Forty Years of Change, 56.

^[116]NCSS, ‘The Use of Leisure’, 65.

^[117]Brasnett, Voluntary Social Action, 28.

^[118]NCSS, Monthly Bulletin, July 1920.

^[119]Ammon, Leisure of the People, 14; and Collins, ‘Organisation of Voluntary Social Service’.

^[120]Liverpool Council of Voluntary Aid, Uses of Leisure in Liverpool.

^[121]Church of England, Church and Social Service.

^[122] See Davies, City of Gangs; Tinkler, ‘Cause for Concern’; Tinkler, ‘Sexuality and Citizenship’.

^[123]Shore, ‘Inventing and Re-Inventing the Juvenile Delinquent’; see also Davies, City of Gangs.

^[124]Clift, ‘Leisure Occupation of Young People’; Ministry of Reconstruction, List of Commissions. See also Tebbutt, Being Boys, 80.

^[125] See Fowler, First Teenagers, 77–79.

^[126] Ibid., 124–133.

^[127]Tebbutt, Being Boys, 56, 266.

^[128]Skillen, ‘Woman and the Sport Fetish’; and Todd, ‘Poverty and Aspiration’.

^[129]Todd, ‘Young Women’; Todd, ‘Flappers and Factory Lads’; and Langhamer, Women's Leisure, 100–103.

^[130]Jephcott, ‘Work among Boys’. Fowler also notes difficulties in the recruitment and retention of members youth organisations; see Fowler, First Teenagers, 138–160.

^[131]Clift, ‘Leisure Occupation’.

^[132]Llewellyn Smith, New Survey, Vol. 9, 25–26.

^[133]Liverpool University Settlement, Annual Report, 1932–33.

^[134]Griffith, ‘Social Experiments’.

^[135]Rooff, Youth and Leisure, 2, 81.

^[136]Jephcott, ‘Work among Boys’; and Rooff, Youth and Leisure, 81.

^[137]Durant, Problem of Leisure, 26, 240.

^[138]Harris, Use of Leisure, 54.

^[139]Educational Settlements Association, Community Education. See also Freeman, ‘No Finer School than a Settlement’.

^[140]Rowntree, Poverty and Progress, 373.

^[141]Llewellyn Smith, New Survey, Vol. 9, 133–137; and St. Philip's Settlement, Equipment of the Workers, 62.

^[142]Mess, ‘What is Voluntary Social Service?’.

^[143]Liverpool University Settlement, Settlement and Liverpool College.

^[144]Tavistock Tatler, October 1931. No. 1; and Neville, ‘Editorial’.

^[145]Harris, Bethnal Green, 83.

^[146]Burnett, Idle Hands, 242.

^[147]Wilkinson, Town That Was Murdered, 233–234. See also Rooff, Youth and Leisure, 81.

^[148]Olechnowicz, ‘Unemployed Workers’.

^[149]Field, Working-Men's Bodies, 163–165.

^[150]Durant, Problem of Leisure, 107–108.

^[151]Field, ‘Anti-Urban Education’; and Field, Working Men's Bodies, 196–203.

^[152]Jennings, ‘Voluntary Social Service’.

^[153]Burnett, Social History of Housing, 231.

^[154]Olechnowicz, Working-Class Housing, 145; and Olechnowicz, ‘Liberal Anti-Fascism’.

^[155]Taylor, ‘Suburban Neurosis’.

^[156]NCSS, Leisure of the People, 30.

^[157]Ministry of Reconstruction, Interim Report of the Committee on Adult Education.

^[158]Woodhead, ‘Community Centres’.

^[159]NCSS, Leisure of the People, 31.

^[160]Bradley, Poverty, 13.

^[161]Cole, ‘Retrospect’, 26.

^[162] NCSS, Annual Report, 1923.

^[163]Brasnett, Voluntary Social Action, 62–63.

^[164]NCSS, New Housing Estates. See also Olechnowicz, Working Class Housing, 137–142; and Scott and Bromley, Envisioning Sociology, 45–46.

^[165]NCSS, Annual Report, 1929–30.

^[166]Jennings, ‘Voluntary Social Service’; Barker, ‘Reflections on Leisure’; and Jacks, Education Through Recreation, 69 and 147.

^[167]Bingham, ‘The Greeks’ and NCSS, New Housing Estates, 6.

^[168]Social Service Review, ‘Community Work’.

^[169] Henry Durant reported that Community Centres on the New Estates invested more effort to organise social life among working and middle class women than amongst their husbands; Durant, Problem of Leisure, 240.

^[170]Durant, Watling, 28.

^[171]Young, Becontree and Dagenham, 26.

^[172] History of the County of Essex, ‘Dagenham’.

^[173]Young, Becontree and Dagenham, 189.

^[174]Olechnowicz, Working-Class Housing, 137–179.

^[175]Jones, Workers at Play, 143.

^[176]NCSS, ‘New Estates’.

^[177]Durant, Problem of Leisure, 254.

^[178]Cameron, ‘Community Centre’; a programme of building village halls in rural areas to regenerate the countryside was also undertaken under the auspices of the NCSS, see Burchardt, ‘State and Society in the English Countryside’.

^[179]Davies, ‘Leisure in the Classic Slum’; Leisure, Gender and Poverty; and Todd, ‘Young Women’.

^[180]Durant, Problem of Leisure, 252.

^[181]Wilkinson, Town That Was Murdered, 233–234; Llewellyn Smith, New Survey of London, Vol. 9, 137.

^[182]Liverpool Council of Voluntary Aid, Uses of Leisure in Liverpool, 8.

^[183]Taylor, Claim on the Countryside; and Snape, ‘Co-operative Holidays Association’.

^[184]Jones, ‘Sport, Politics’.

^[185]Fowler, Youth Culture, 46–58; Tyldesley and Jefferies, Rolf Gardiner; and Davis, Fashioning a New World.

^[186]Harris, ‘Political Thought’.

^[187]Scott and Bromley, Envisioning Sociology, 117.

^[188]Collini, ‘Hobhouse, Bosanquet’.

^[189]Rowntree and Lavers, English Life and Leisure, 331–332.

^[190]Hobson, Problems of a New World, 11.

^[191]Hill, ‘What Shall We Do?’.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Robert Snape

Bob Snape is a Reader in Leisure and Sport and Head of the Centre for Worktown Studies at the University of Bolton. His research interests and publications are based around the history of leisure in Britain 1850–1939. Correspondence to: Robert Snape, University of Bolton, Deane Rd., Bolton, BL3 5AB, UK. Email: [email protected]