Classes and Cultures. England, 1918-1951.(Review)

Classes and Cultures. England, 1918-1951. Ross MCKIBBIN (Oxford: U.P., 1998; pp. x + 562. 25 [pounds sterling]).

AT the beginning of this absorbing book, McKibbin tells us that it is `probably more about the social and ideological foundations of English politics than anything else' (vi). The foundations are the way men and women behaved towards each other, within and between the classes they inhabited, across a whole range of activities -- religion, sport, reading, listening to the radio, going to the cinema and family life broadly defined. Although the political consequences of this social behaviour are frequently noted, it is towards the end of the book that the connection between politics and society is most explicitly drawn. Because this society was essentially unpolitical in its activities and discourse, it limited what political change could achieve. Even with the upheaval of the Second World War, `the Attlee government operated deeply, but on a narrow front' (p. 534); it reformed the economy and welfare, but not civil society more …