{"id":{"repo_id":"cambridge","oai_identifier":"oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/389969"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/cambridge/oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/389969","repository":{"repo_id":"cambridge","name":"Cambridge University","base_url":"https://api.repository.cam.ac.uk/server/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"The making of 'Labour's working class', 1931-1951.","abstract":"The 1945 General Election was the first time that a majority of working-class electors supported the Labour Party in Britain. This dissertation seeks to account for this breakthrough achievement without assuming such support was ‘natural’. Using archived material from Mass-Observation, it places Labour’s appeals to working-class voters, at national and local levels, in dialogue with the perspectives of working-class voters themselves. This thesis explains the uneven, varied nature of working-class support for Labour in the 1930s, as rooted in the relationship of Labour politicians to the voters they claimed to represent, relative to their opponents, and the continued pull of place-based political cultures. More fundamentally, these limited inroads were underpinned by a poverty of expectation among working-class voters, but not a poverty of aspiration. This changed during the Second World War. I argue that the war bestowed newfound legitimacy on longstanding grievances among working-class voters, their desires for greater security, dignity, respectability, and independence. During the war, working-class individuals expressed a newfound conviction that they were entitled to expect these things, reflecting a broader shift in the quality of life it was held that all citizens had a right to expect. These changes, while seen to be advantageous by some Labour politicians, did not map neatly or inevitably onto support for the party. Instead, Labour’s breakthrough was rooted in the effective means by which it channelled this expansion in horizons of expectation among working-class voters. Once installed in office, Labour codified this sense of entitlement, enshrining the right of all citizens to a minimum standard of living through a series of policy measures, and went some way towards realising a transformation in working-class voters’ collective status. While shoring up their support, the Labour government alienated middle-class voters. It was only at the very end of the period under study, therefore, that Labour came to be seen as the party of the working class. This dissertation enhances our understanding of Labour’s relationship with working-class voters in the mid-twentieth century, but it also points to broader implications for the study of politics in the past. The dissertation indicates the limited scope for creative agency on the part of politicians in canonical moments like 1945. It also goes further towards demonstrating the compatibility of recent ‘vernacular’ trends in modern British history and older, traditional party-political approaches.","abstract_html":"The 1945 General Election was the first time that a majority of working-class electors supported the Labour Party in Britain. This dissertation seeks to account for this breakthrough achievement without assuming such support was ‘natural’. Using archived material from Mass-Observation, it places Labour’s appeals to working-class voters, at national and local levels, in dialogue with the perspectives of working-class voters themselves. This thesis explains the uneven, varied nature of working-class support for Labour in the 1930s, as rooted in the relationship of Labour politicians to the voters they claimed to represent, relative to their opponents, and the continued pull of place-based political cultures. More fundamentally, these limited inroads were underpinned by a poverty of expectation among working-class voters, but not a poverty of aspiration. This changed during the Second World War. I argue that the war bestowed newfound legitimacy on longstanding grievances among working-class voters, their desires for greater security, dignity, respectability, and independence. During the war, working-class individuals expressed a newfound conviction that they were entitled to expect these things, reflecting a broader shift in the quality of life it was held that all citizens had a right to expect. These changes, while seen to be advantageous by some Labour politicians, did not map neatly or inevitably onto support for the party. Instead, Labour’s breakthrough was rooted in the effective means by which it channelled this expansion in horizons of expectation among working-class voters. Once installed in office, Labour codified this sense of entitlement, enshrining the right of all citizens to a minimum standard of living through a series of policy measures, and went some way towards realising a transformation in working-class voters’ collective status. While shoring up their support, the Labour government alienated middle-class voters. It was only at the very end of the period under study, therefore, that Labour came to be seen as the party of the working class. This dissertation enhances our understanding of Labour’s relationship with working-class voters in the mid-twentieth century, but it also points to broader implications for the study of politics in the past. The dissertation indicates the limited scope for creative agency on the part of politicians in canonical moments like 1945. It also goes further towards demonstrating the compatibility of recent ‘vernacular’ trends in modern British history and older, traditional party-political approaches.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Goldsmith, Rebecca"],"institution":"University of Cambridge","degree_name":null,"degree_level":"Doctoral","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Thomas, Geraint"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2025,"date_issued":"2025-04-04","date_published":"2025-04-04","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:16Z","subjects":["class","politics","vernacular","Mass Observation"],"languages":["eng"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":["https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/62acbc77-634f-4b4e-8737-6e3a9905ed8d/download","http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved"],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.121691","outbound_label":"DOI","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.doi"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Thomas, Geraint"]},{"key":"dc:contributor.sponsor","label":"Sponsor","values":["Open-Oxford-Cambridge AHRC DTP - Isaac Newton Trust Match-funded Studentship"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Goldsmith, Rebecca"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2025-04-04"]},{"key":"dc:publisher.institution","label":"Dc Publisher Institution","values":["University of Cambridge"]},{"key":"dc:relation.isreferencedby.uri","label":"Dc Relation Isreferencedby URI","values":["https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/389969"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"dc:type.qualificationlevel","label":"Dc Type Qualificationlevel","values":["Doctoral"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["class","politics","vernacular","Mass Observation"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/62acbc77-634f-4b4e-8737-6e3a9905ed8d/download","http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved"]},{"key":"dc:rights.embargodate","label":"Dc Rights Embargodate","values":["2026-09-29"]},{"key":"dc:rights.embargotype","label":"Dc Rights Embargotype","values":["embargo"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.doi","label":"DOI","values":["https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.121691"]},{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/57ae2347-7e63-42c8-b64f-c23a0f0fac1a/download"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["The 1945 General Election was the first time that a majority of working-class electors supported the Labour Party in Britain. 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During the war, working-class individuals expressed a newfound conviction that they were entitled to expect these things, reflecting a broader shift in the quality of life it was held that all citizens had a right to expect. These changes, while seen to be advantageous by some Labour politicians, did not map neatly or inevitably onto support for the party. Instead, Labour’s breakthrough was rooted in the effective means by which it channelled this expansion in horizons of expectation among working-class voters. Once installed in office, Labour codified this sense of entitlement, enshrining the right of all citizens to a minimum standard of living through a series of policy measures, and went some way towards realising a transformation in working-class voters’ collective status. While shoring up their support, the Labour government alienated middle-class voters. It was only at the very end of the period under study, therefore, that Labour came to be seen as the party of the working class. This dissertation enhances our understanding of Labour’s relationship with working-class voters in the mid-twentieth century, but it also points to broader implications for the study of politics in the past. The dissertation indicates the limited scope for creative agency on the part of politicians in canonical moments like 1945. 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During the war, working-class individuals expressed a newfound conviction that they were entitled to expect these things, reflecting a broader shift in the quality of life it was held that all citizens had a right to expect. These changes, while seen to be advantageous by some Labour politicians, did not map neatly or inevitably onto support for the party. Instead, Labour’s breakthrough was rooted in the effective means by which it channelled this expansion in horizons of expectation among working-class voters. Once installed in office, Labour codified this sense of entitlement, enshrining the right of all citizens to a minimum standard of living through a series of policy measures, and went some way towards realising a transformation in working-class voters’ collective status. While shoring up their support, the Labour government alienated middle-class voters. 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