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During the interwar period cinema and literature seemed to be at odds with each other, part of the continuing struggle between mass and elite culture which so worried writers such as Aldous Huxley, T.S. Eliot and the Leavises. This book, originally published in 1987, examines how two of the most significant cultural forms in Britain contributed indirectly to the stability of Britain in the interwar crisis, helping to construct a new class alliance. A major element in the investigation is an analysis of the mechanics of the development of a national cultural identity, alongside separate working-class culture, the development of the lower-middle class and the implications of the intrusion of Hollywood culture.
List of contents
Introduction Part 1: ‘England, Whose England’? 1. The Politics of Depression 2. Suburban Pastoral 3. ‘The Heart of England’: The Public Schools and the Great War Part 2: Elite and Mass Culture 4. ‘The Embattled Minority’: Theorists of the Elite 5. Aldous Huxley: The Art of Life and the Threat of Leisure 6. Writing, Reading and Working-Class Culture 7. The Working-Class Writer: Degrees of Challenge 8. The British Film Industry and the Hollywood Invasion 9. John Grierson and the Documentary Film Movement Part 3: ‘My Country Right or Left’ 10. ‘Today the Struggle’: Literary Politics and the Spanish Civil War 11. The Approach of War 12. 1940. Conclusion
About the author
Peter Miles, Malcolm Smith
