BRITISH CONSERVATISM AND THE PRIMROSE LEAGUE ... - ideals

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urban and rural
communities while having to grapple with the newest
innovation: the suburb.
Social classes were also in a state of upheaval. The
aristocracy was forced to concede, albeit in a piecemeal and reluctant
fashion, it preeminent role in the economic and political spheres. The
middle class gradually gained ground, obtaining increased access to
political
power as a result of over a half century of proven business
and industrial acumen. The working class also made strides. However,
its influence was exerted principally through the growing number of
trade unions forming throughout the country and, to a far lesser
degree, by means of the extension of the franchise.
The scope of technological change was less than all
encompassing. Modern "heavy" industrial firms existed side by side
with a preponderance of smaller, old styled consumer manufacturing
businesses and small shopkeeping concerns. 4 Nevertheless, for many,
the age appeared to be one in which the country was being catapulted
headlong into "modernity."
This perception was underscored by the
changing character of "mass" transportation.
In the course of late
Victorian and Edwardian Britain, the public made its way from carriages
and horses to railway cars, toward city trams and finally the
automobile.
4
Arno J. Mayer, The Persistence of the Old Regime (New York:
Pantheon Books, 1981), pp. 37-38, 47, 77. Mayer's controversial study
provides a notable contrast to the "modernist" viewpoint as represented
by David S. Landes in The Unbound Prometheus (1969).