Mass Observation, apathy and electoral politics in England, 1937 - 1950
dc.contributor.author | Thackeray, D | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2021-02-24T15:56:58Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2021-04-20 | |
dc.description.abstract | While various historians use Mass Observation sources to study popular engagement with politics in the 1940s, they tend to rely on file reports summarizing research or the writings of the national panel, which paid limited attention to how the public engaged with key aspects of electioneering. By contrast, we re-examine Mass Observation's various election surveys to explore people's assumptions about how election campaigns should be conducted, the qualities looked for in political parties, and their reflections on the records of governments. Our conclusions shed light on the transformation of British public politics after 1918. During the interwar years it became common thinking to assume that parties would centre their campaigning around a detailed programme for government. Whereas Mass Observation's employees often claimed that much of the public was apathetic about politics, a reanalysis of the survey results indicates that many people were eager to be seen to be able to offer a considered assessment of the veracity of the competing parties’ promises. Mass Observation's election studies were criticized for their supposed amateurism. However, they offer richer insights into how the public engaged with party programmes than the quantitative surveys that came to dominate election studies in the 1950s and beyond. | en_GB |
dc.description.sponsorship | Leverhulme Trust | en_GB |
dc.identifier.citation | Published online 20 April 2021 | en_GB |
dc.identifier.doi | 10.1017/S0018246X21000170 | |
dc.identifier.grantnumber | 2017-176 | en_GB |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10871/124888 | |
dc.language.iso | en | en_GB |
dc.publisher | Cambridge University Press | en_GB |
dc.rights | © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that no alterations are made and the original article is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained prior to any commercial use and/or adaptation of the article. | |
dc.title | Mass Observation, apathy and electoral politics in England, 1937 - 1950 | en_GB |
dc.type | Article | en_GB |
dc.date.available | 2021-02-24T15:56:58Z | |
dc.identifier.issn | 0018-246X | |
dc.description | This is the final version. Available on open access from Cambridge University Press via the DOI in this record | en_GB |
dc.identifier.eissn | 1469-5103 | |
dc.identifier.journal | Historical Journal | en_GB |
dc.rights.uri | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ | en_GB |
dcterms.dateAccepted | 2021-02-22 | |
exeter.funder | ::Leverhulme Trust | en_GB |
rioxxterms.version | VoR | en_GB |
rioxxterms.licenseref.startdate | 2021-02-22 | |
rioxxterms.type | Journal Article/Review | en_GB |
refterms.dateFCD | 2021-02-24T14:09:00Z | |
refterms.versionFCD | AM | |
refterms.dateFOA | 2021-02-24T15:57:04Z | |
refterms.panel | D | en_GB |
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's licence is described as © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that no alterations are made and the original article is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained prior to any commercial use and/or adaptation of the article.