Edwardian era

This article is about the reign of King Edward VII in the 20th century. For use of the term Edwardian in medieval English history, see Edward I of England.

King Edward VII, after whom the Edwardian period is named

The Edwardian era or Edwardian period in the United Kingdom is the period covering the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910, and is sometimes extended beyond Edward's death to include years leading up to World War I.

The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 and the succession of her son Edward marked the end of the Victorian era. While Victoria had shunned society, Edward was the leader of a fashionable elite that set a style influenced by the art and fashions of Continental Europe—perhaps because of the King's fondness for travel. The era was marked by significant shifts in politics as sections of society that had been largely excluded from wielding power in the past, such as common labourers and women, became increasingly politicised.

The Edwardian period is frequently extended beyond Edward's death in 1910 to include the years up to the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912, the start of World War I in 1914, the end of hostilities with Germany in 1918, or the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.

Economy

The Edwardian era stands out as a time of peace and plenty. There were no severe depressions and prosperity was widespread. Britain's growth rate, manufacturing output, and GDP (but not per capita) fell behind its rivals the United States, and Germany. Nevertheless the nation still led the world in trade, finance and shipping, and had strong bases in manufacturing and mining. The industrial sector was slow to adjust to global changes, and there was a striking preference for leisure over entrepreneurship among the elite. However major achievements should be underlined. London was the financial center of the world—far more efficient and wide-ranging than New York, Paris or Berlin. Britain had built up a vast reserve of overseas credits in its formal Empire, as well as in its informal empire in Latin America and other nations. It had huge financial holdings in the United States, especially in railways. These assets proved vital in paying for supplies in the first years of the World War. The amenities, especially in urban life, were accumulating – prosperity was highly visible. The working classes were beginning to protest politically for a greater voice in government, but the level of industrial unrest on economic issues was not high until about 1908.

Class and society

Status of women

Women and birth control

Although abortion was illegal, it was nevertheless the most widespread form of birth control in use. Used predominantly by working-class women, the procedure was used not only as means of terminating pregnancy, but also to prevent poverty and unemployment. If a woman died or became ill from an abortion, the abortionist could be imprisoned or even sentenced to death. Those who transported contraceptives could also be legally punished. As the standard of living increased, so did the prevalence of contraception and abortion. People did not want to provide for larger families, but rather to have smaller families and more money. Contraceptives became more expensive over time and had a high failure rate. Unlike contraceptives, abortion did not need any prior planning and was less expensive. Newspaper advertisements were used to promote and sell abortifacients indirectly.

Not all of society was accepting of contraceptives or abortion, and the opposition viewed both as part of one and the same sin. Abortion was much more common among the middle classes than among those living in rural areas, where the procedure was not readily available. Abortion was a risky endeavor that could lead to illness or death. Those who used lead pills often had ongoing sickness, headaches, and in some cases paralysis of the hands. Women were often tricked into purchasing ineffective pills. In addition to fearing legal reprimands, many physicians did not condone abortion because they viewed it as an immoral procedure potentially endangering a woman's life. Because abortion was illegal and physicians refused to perform the procedure, local women acted as abortionists, often using crochet hooks or similar instruments.

Feminists of the era focused on educating and finding jobs for women, leaving aside the controversial issues of contraceptives and abortion, which in popular opinion were often related to promiscuity and prostitution. The Church condemned abortion as immoral and a form of rebellion against the child-bearing role women were expected to assume. Many considered abortion to be a selfish act that allowed a woman to avoid personal responsibility, contributing to a decline in moral values. Abortion was often a solution for women who already had children and did not want more. Consequently, the size of families decreased drastically.

Poverty among women

The 1834 Poor Law defined who could receive monetary relief. The act reflected and perpetuated prevailing gender conditions. In Edwardian society, men were the source of wealth. The law restricted relief for unemployed, able-bodied male workers, due to the prevailing view that they would find work in the absence of financial assistance. However, women were treated differently. After the Poor Law was passed, women and children received most of the aid. The law did not recognise single independent women, and lumped women and children into the same category. If a man was physically disabled, his wife was also treated as disabled under the law. Unmarried mothers were sent to the workhouse, receiving unfair social treatment such as being restricted from attending church on Sundays. During marriage disputes women often lost the rights to their children, even if their husbands were abusive.

At the time, single mothers were the poorest sector in society, disadvantaged for at least four reasons. First, women had longer lifespans, often leaving them widowed with children. Second, women's work opportunities were few, and when they did find work, their wages were lower than male workers' wages. Third, women were often less likely to marry or remarry after being widowed, leaving them as the main providers for the remaining family members. Finally, poor women had deficient diets, because their husbands and children received disproportionately large shares of food. Many women were malnourished and had limited access to health care.

Female servants

Edwardian Britain had large numbers of male and female domestic servant, in both urban and rural areas. Men relied on working class women to run their homes smoothly, and employers often looked to these working class women for sexual partners. Servants were provided with food, clothing, housing, and a small wage, and lived in a self-enclosed social system inside the mansion. The number of domestic servants fell in the Edwardian period due to a declining number of young people willing to be employed in this area. Unmarried men were much more likely to employ servants than were married men at the time.

Fashion

Main article: 1900s in fashion

The upper classes embraced leisure sports, which resulted in rapid developments in fashion, as more mobile and flexible clothing styles were needed. During the Edwardian era, women wore a very tight corset, or bodice, and dressed in long skirts. The Edwardian era was the last time women wore corsets in everyday life. According to Arthur Marwick, the most striking change of all the developments that occurred during the Great War was the modification in women's dress, "for, however far politicians were to put the clocks back in other steeples in the years after the war, no one ever put the lost inches back on the hems of women's skirts."

The arts

The Edwardian period corresponds to the French Belle Époque period. Despite its brief pre-eminence, the period is characterised by its own unique architectural style, fashion, and lifestyle. Art Nouveau had a particularly strong influence. Artists were influenced by the development of the automobile and electricity, and a greater awareness of human rights.

Literature

In fiction, some of the best-known names are J. M. Barrie, Arnold Bennett, G.K. Chesterton, Joseph Conrad, E. M. Forster, John Galsworthy, Kenneth Grahame, Rudyard Kipling, D. H. Lawrence, Edith Nesbit, Beatrix Potter, Saki, George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, Edith Wharton, and P. G. Wodehouse. Apart from these famous writers, this was a period when a great number of novels and short stories were being published, and a significant distinction between "highbrow" literature and popular fiction emerged. Among the most famous works of literary criticism was A. C. Bradley's Shakespearean Tragedy (1904). Mass audience newspapers, controlled by press tycoons such as the Harmsworth brothers, Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe and Harold Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere, became increasingly important.

Music

The available recordings of music, such as wax cylinders played on phonographs, were poor in quality by modern standards. Live performances, both amateur and professional, were popular. Henry Wood, Edward Elgar, Gustav Holst, Arnold Bax, George Butterworth, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Thomas Beecham were all active. Military and brass bands often played outside in parks during the summer.

Performing arts

Cinema was primitive and audiences preferred live performances to picture shows. Music hall was very popular and widespread; influential performers included male impersonator Vesta Tilley and comic Little Tich.

The most successful playwright of the era was W. Somerset Maugham. In 1908, he had four plays running simultaneously in London, and Punch published a cartoon of Shakespeare biting his fingernails nervously as he looked at the billboards. Maugham's plays, like his novels, usually had a conventional plot structure, but the decade also saw the rise of the so-called New Drama, represented in plays by George Bernard Shaw, Harley Granville Barker, and Continental imports by Henrik Ibsen and Gerhardt Hauptmann. The actor/manager system, as managed by Sir Henry Irving, Sir George Alexander, and Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, was in decline.

Architecture

See also: Edwardian architecture

Notable architects included Edwin Lutyens, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and Giles Gilbert Scott. In spite of the popularity of Art Nouveau in Europe, the Edwardian Baroque style of architecture was widely favoured for public structures and was a revival of Christopher Wren–inspired designs of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. The change or reversal in taste from the Victorian eclectic styles corresponded with the historical revivals of the period, most prominently earlier Georgian and Neoclassical styles of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Science and technology

The period featured many innovations. Continental Europeans such as Max Planck and Albert Einstein were producing some of their greatest work. The first Nobel prizes were awarded, and Ernest Rutherford published his book on radioactivity. The first transatlantic wireless signals were sent by Guglielmo Marconi, and the Wright brothers flew for the first time.

By the end of the era, Louis Blériot had crossed the English Channel by air; the largest ship in the world, RMS Olympic, had sailed on its maiden voyage; automobiles were common; and the South Pole was reached for the first time by Roald Amundsen's and then Robert Falcon Scott's teams.

Sport

1908 Summer Olympics in London: The water jump in the steeplechase

The 1908 Summer Olympic Games were held in London. Popularity of sports tended to conform to class divisions, with tennis and yachting popular among the very wealthy and football (soccer) favoured by the working class.

Football

Aston Villa maintained their position as the pre-eminent football team of the era, winning the FA Cup for the fourth time in 1905 and their sixth League title in 1909–10. The club colours of claret and sky blue were adopted by Burnley as a tribute to their success in 1910. Sunderland achieved their fourth league title in 1901-2. The era also saw Liverpool (1900–01, 1905–06), Newcastle United (1904–05, 1906–07, 1908–09) and Manchester United (1907–08) winning their first league titles.

Politics and significant events

In the early years of the period, the Second Boer War in South Africa split Britain into anti- and pro-war factions. Great orators, such as the Liberal David Lloyd George, who spoke against the war, became increasingly influential although pro-war politicians, such as Unionist Joseph Chamberlain, held power. The Unionists proposed Tariff Reform (a form of protectionism) to make the British Empire an economic unit; the Liberals claimed this would make food dearer, and, in the general election of 1906, the Liberals won a landslide. The Liberal government was unable to proceed with all of its radical programme without the support of the House of Lords, which was largely Conservative. Conflict between the two Houses of Parliament over Lloyd George's 1909 People's Budget eventually resulted in a reduction in the power of the peers in the Parliament Act 1911. The general election in January 1910 returned a "hung parliament" with the balance of power held by Labour and Irish Nationalist members.

Perceptions

The Edwardian period is sometimes imagined as a romantic golden age of long summer afternoons and garden parties, basking in a sun that never sets on the British Empire. This perception was created in the 1920s and later by those who remembered the Edwardian age with nostalgia, looking back to their childhoods across the abyss of the Great War. The Edwardian age was also seen as a mediocre period of pleasure between the great achievements of the preceding Victorian age and the catastrophe of the following war. Recent assessments emphasise the great differences between the wealthy and the poor during the Edwardian era and describe the age as heralding great changes in political and social life. Robert Tressell's popular novel The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists is a strong example of the era's social critique.

Despite this, this type of perception has been challenged more recently by modern historians. The British historian Lawrence James has argued that, during the early 20th century, the British felt increasingly threatened by rival powers such as Germany, Russia, and the United States.

Further reading

• Black, Mark. Edwardian Britain: A Very Brief History (2012) excerpt and text search
• Delap, Lucy. "The Superwoman: Theories of Gender and Genius in Edwardian Britain," Historical Journal (2004) 47#1 pp. 101–126 in JSTOR
• Gray, Anne (2004). The Edwardians: Secrets and Desires. National Gallery of Australia. ISBN 978-0642541499.
• Hawkins, Alun. "Edwardian Liberalism," History Workshop (1977) #4 pp 143–61
• Holland, Evangeline. Pocket Guide to Edwardian England (2013) excerpt and text search
• Nowell-Smith, Simon, ed. Edwardian England, 1901–14 (1964), 620pp; wide-ranging essays by scholars
• Read, Donald, ed. Edwardian England (1982) 186pp; essays by scholars
• Thompson, Paul Richard (1992). The Edwardians: The Remaking of British Society. Routledge. ISBN 0-203-41320-2.
• Thackeray, David, "Rethinking the Edwardian Crisis of Conservatism," Historical Journal (2011) 54#1 pp. 191–213 in JSTOR
• Ubbelohde, A. R. "Edwardian Science and Technology: Their Interactions," British Journal for the History of Science (1963) 1#3 pp. 217–226 in JSTOR

External links

• The Edwardian Culture Network An academic network dedicated to current research into Edwardian culture
• The Edwardian Country House/Manor House (Channel 4 TV/PBS series, very evocative of the period)
• Home Decor from the Edwardian Age (from the BBC)
• Edwardian Promenade (Website devoted to the Edwardian era)
• Edwardians by Paul Thompson (oral historian) at UK Data Archive