The Edwardian age. Conflict and stability. 1900-1914. Ed., (intr.) by Alan O Day

THE EDWARDIAN AGE which it functioned. This interest owes much to the preoccupations of the present-day feminist movement, especially in America, where such issues are daily being explored. A good deal of this literature is frankly as militant and committed in a literary context as was Mrs Pankhurst in a physical way. Political emancipation of women has come to be seen as a symbolic struggle over the validity of liberal doctrine. For long it has seemed clear that supporters of votes for women were upholders of the liberal doctrine of widening governmental participation and of 'trusting' the people. Opponents, in contrast, have seemed to be anti-liberal in their rejection of these doctrines. Dangerfield's main concern was with the militancy of the feminist struggle and the fact that the contest was fought in the streets rather than in the political arena, and not with the political issue of women voters. The Prime Minister, Asquith, certainly no feminist, was primarily concerned with the impact of womens' votes on his party's fortunes at the polls. He thought that middle-class female enfranchisement boded ill: he wanted either something wide enough to help the Liberal party or nothing at all. Suzann Buckley develops a quite distinctive argument. She insists that what many women sought in the ballot was not an extension of such liberal values as compromise and toleration but their curtailment. Women objected to the breakdown of the traditional family and the sexual freedom which the liberal ethos appeared to encourage. The ballot was essential and was to be used to implement not freedom from family ties but a restoration of sexual purity, enforced by the power and authority of the state. In many cases militant feminist radicalism masked an essentially conservative, almost authoritarian attitude. The tools and rhetoric of liberalism were effectively being used against liberalism itself. It might be fair to conclude from her analysis that Dangerfield was correct in stressing the role of militant feminism in undermining the liberal state but that he misread the signs somewhat when describing the nature of the attack. Taken together, six of the essays provide general support for Dangerfield's point that liberal Britain was in crisis during these years and emphasise the forces for instability in Edwardian Britain. But the historians who stress elements of stability in that society do not go unrepresented. Most of the six essays which emphasise conflict in that society do not deny the presence of many stable elements. Indeed the main point is that there was a sufficiently strong attachment to the old liberal ideology to make movement into a new ideology a matter of struggle, of tension. Our colleagues, Walter Arnstein I. The Standard of Living, Front Matter....Pages i-vi Introduction....Pages 1-12 The Standard of Living, 1890–1914....Pages 13-34 Political Economy in Edwardian England: The Tariff-Reform Controversy....Pages 35-59 Edwardian Politics: Turbulent Spring or Indian Summer?....Pages 60-78 Critics of Edwardian Society: The Case of the Radical Right....Pages 79-96 The Character of the Early Labour Party, 1900–14....Pages 97-112 Irish Home Rule and Liberalism....Pages 113-132 The Family and the Role of Women....Pages 133-143 Edwardian England and the Coming of the First World War....Pages 144-168 Back Matter....Pages 169-199 The Standard Of Living, 1890-1914 / T.r. Gourvish -- Political Economy In Edwardian England / Peter Cain -- Edwardian Politics / Walter L. Arnstein -- Critics Of Edwardian Society / G.r. Searle -- The Character Of The Early Labour Party, 1900-14 / Dennis Dean -- Irish Home Rule And Liberalism / Alan O'day -- The Family And The Role Of Women / Suzann Buckley -- Edwardian England And The Coming Of The First World War / Colin Nicolson. Edited By Alan O'day. Includes Index. Bibliography: P. [170]-177.