BRITISH CONSERVATISM AND THE PRIMROSE LEAGUE ... - ideals

Beginning in the 1950's and particularly in the 1960's, the
terms deference and "embourgeoisement" were increasingly applied, on
the one hand, to explain Conservative party triumphs and, on the other,
to account for apparent working class quiescence.25
j n recent years
the latter concept has fallen into disfavor as the result of studies
undertaken by Pelling, Goldthorpe, Lockwood and others discounting the
desire of the Labor Aristocracy to assume middle class values.26
25
Some of the key studies on deference during this period
include writings by D.C. Moore, McKenzie and Silver, and Nordlinger.
Moore's most informative work on the subject is his unpublished two
volume Ph.D. thesis submitted to Columbia University in 1958 entitled,
The Politics of Deference. His published writings on the subject
include "Political Morality in Mid-Nineteenth Century England:
Concepts, Norms, Violations," Victorian Studies vol. 13, no. 1
(September, 1969), pp. 5-36 and a revised version of his original
thesis, The Politics of Deference (Hassocks: Harvester Press, 1976).
Both of the latter works focus on some of the philosophical issues
associated with the decline of deference in the mid-nineteenth century.
The studies by McKenzie and Silver, Angels in Marble and Nordlinger,
The Working-Class Tories apply more specifically to patterns of
twentieth century political deference.
Generally speaking historians endorsing the "embourgeoisement"
thesis apply a marxist interpretation, focusing on the extent to which
the more affluent sectors of the working class identified with middle
class values, thereby defusing class tensions and the prospect of
revolution. Two key works include E.J. Hobsbawm's, "The Labour
Aristocracy in Nineteenth-century Britain," Labouring Men (London:
Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1964), a reprint of an article first published
in 1954 and a more recent marxist-leninist study by John Foster
entitled, Class Struggle and the Industrial Revolution (London:
Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1974).
26
Henry Pelling, "Introduction," and "The Concept of the
Labour Aristocracy," contained in the second edition of his Popular
Politics and Society in Late Victorian Britain (London: Macmillan
Press, 1979), pp. xii-xiii, 37-61. J.H. Goldthorpe, D. Lockwood, et.
al. The Affluent Workers (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969)
provides a case study of twentieth century labor relations which calls
into question many of the assumptions held by proponents of
"embourgeoisement." It should be noted, however, that Arno Mayer has
recently revived the concept, applying it to the bourgeoisie's
emulation of the aristocracy in his recently published work, The
Persistence of the Old Regime. See particularly the Introduction and
Chapter Two.