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Article: GENDER AND WORKING CLASS IDENTITY IN BRITAIN DURING THE 1950s.
- Article from:
- Journal of Social History
- Article date:
- June 22, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Journal of Social History. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In Britain during the 1950s, working class living standards were undeniably improved by full employment and comprehensive welfare provision. But this progress and prosperity may have worn away the singularity and coherence of working class identity. In 1961, the Polish emigre and long-time student of the British working classes, Ferdynand Zweig, noted that '[w]orking-class life finds itself on the move towards new middle-class values and middle-class existence....the change can only be described as a deep transformation of values, as the development of new ways of thinking and feeling, a new ethos, new aspirations and cravings." [1] In his 1958 satire of post-war society, ...