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CONTEXTS AND CONDITIONS
The twentieth century really begins before the end of the nineteenth
century. Queen Victoria’s Jubilee in 1887 was felt by many to represent
the end of an era. An end-of-century stoicism, and a growing pessimism
among writers and intellectuals, may be traced to several sources, not
least the publication in 1859 of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species
which put the existence of God into radical question. Across the whole
population, and in the face of rapid economic and social changes,
radical doubts about the stability of the existing order were expressed.
By the end of the nineteenth century the pre-industrial economy
and way of life had almost disappeared. In 1911 nearly 70 per cent of
the country’s 45 million inhabitants lived in urban areas. The sense of
‘local’ community was being lost: a greater anonymity of the individual
in the urban context was a result. Society became more fragmented
and individual identities more fluid.
The British Empire, which had expanded under Queen Victoria and
in 1900 had reached 13 million square miles, also began to disintegrate.
The Boer War (1899–1902), which was fought by the British to establish
control over the Boer republics in South Africa, marked the beginning
of rebellion against British imperialism. The British won but it was a
hollow victory, and the war inspired other colonies to rebel. Liberal
beliefs in the gradual transition to a better world began to be questioned.
The mass destruction of the First World War led many towards more
extreme affiliations, and both Fascism and Marxism held attractions for
many intellectuals and workers, particularly during the 1930s.
A strong social ethic, continued from the Victorian times of Dickens
and Disraeli, began increasingly to influence the political character of
the country and its institutions. The Gladstone Parliament of 1880–85
was the ‘no-man’s land’ between the old Radicalism and the new
Socialism, but thereafter the aristocracy and upper classes exerted less