The shattering experience of the First World War deeply affected both the economic and social fabric of Great Britain. At the end of the war Britain had to face the devaluation of its currency, heavy taxation to meet the expense of the reforms enacted before the war and industrial decline partly due to the updating of machinery and partly to increasing competition from the new industrialised countries, such as US, Japan and India. All these factors helped to undermine the rigid certainties of the preceding age. Although a large majority of the population was anxious to reconstruct a traditional way of life according to Victorian ideals of stability and order, the dominant mood of the country was one of unrest.

The depression and unemployment of the post-war years brought poverty and hunger and an increase in trade-union activity. The General Strike [E 1] [F 1] [I 1] of 1926 was a sign of the seriousness of the economic crisis. The strike involved all categories of workers and was a clear indication of the tension between the unions and the government.

Women, who had partly run the country while the men were engaged in war, gathered new strength. During the war they had widened their field of activity and many were reluctant to go back to the traditional role of housekeepers. As a consequence of this change in attitude and the granting of the right to vote, women’s emancipation began. The traditional family started to change to one in which both parents worked.

Despite the great changes, the rigid class system of the Victorian Age was maintained and in a sense strengthened by economic factors. As the middle and upper classes improved their living standards, the gap between them and the working classes widened.