BRITISH CONSERVATISM AND THE PRIMROSE LEAGUE ... - ideals

The widespread perception of the dizzying pace of social and
231
technological
change was further spurred on by other developments.
Many viewed the economic difficulties encountered between 1873 and
1896, which came to be characterized as the "Great Depression," as an
indication that Britain had fallen upon troubled times. Rural
communities were the most adversely affected because of the influx of
foreign grains at greatly reduced prices,
the livelihood of many
British farmers was threatened by the imports; profits declined
sharply.
Troubled economic times encouraged the continued movement of
agricultural
laborers from country to city, a mass migration which had
been underway for nearly a century.
The resulting overcrowding of
urban communities in the late nineteenth century encouraged the
proliferation of the garden suburbs as well
as the intervention of
state and local governments in the day-to-day lives of citizens. In
the face of these transformations, there emerged a mass following
within society which embraced "traditionalism" by means of the modern
methods of "conservatism." 5
This was achieved through the "invention
of tradition."
b
The terms are borrowed from Karl Mannheim's Essays on
Sociology and Social Psychology (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1953), pp. 94-98, 102. Mannheim adopts Weber's usage of
"traditionalism" in order to signify "a tendency to cling to vegetative
patterns, to old ways of life." By contrast, he characterizes
"conservatism" as a pragmatic means by which to resist reformist
tendencies. Shils makes a similar distinction between "tradita" and
"traditum" in his recent work Tradition (Chicago: Chicago University
Press, 1981), pp. 12-13.