Patriotic leagues and the evolution of popular patriotism and imperialism in Great Britain, 1914-1932

grantor: University of TorontoThis thesis studies the organisation, personnel, activities and publications of four patriotic and imperialist leagues: the National Service League, the Primrose League, the Victoria League and the League of the Empire. This thesis analyses the efforts of all four organisations to adjust to changes in British society brought about by the First World War. These changes include a more prominent place for the labour movement, the political enfranchisement of women, the rise of the Labour Party as an alternative party of government and growing public distaste for militarism. The central argument of this thesis is that the patriotic and imperialist leagues which remained best able to adapt to wartime changes were best able to survive in the post-war period. The disintegration of the National Service League during the First World War, despite its efforts to evolve, is contrasted with the successful adjustment of the Primrose League, the Victoria League and the League of the Empire. The temper of surviving movements was crucial. The dominant strand of the most successful pre-war patriotic and imperialist movements was often militaristic, acquisitive and relatively hostile to the concerns of the labour movement. Although politically conscious patriotic groups such as the Primrose League remained hostile to the labour movement and Labour Party, this hostility was balanced by major efforts by the other leagues to achieve greater political inclusivity. Common to all surviving post-war leagues was a focus on less divisive concerns such as education, hospitality and social activities. In many ways, the language of the more successful post-war patriotic and imperialist leagues became domesticated. Metaphors of family, home and kinship became increasingly prominent. This evolution is most evident in presentations of post-war programs by the Victoria League and the League of the Empire such as teacher exchange and imperial hospitality but is even present in the Primrose League's anti-Labour rhetoric. A greater awareness of the importance of women as citizens and supporters of Empire is much more notable in the post-war period than in the masculinised world of pre-war patriotic and imperialist organisations. In sum, this thesis establishes the continuity of patriotic and imperialist organisations which adapted themselves to the changes wrought by the First World War. It illustrates the important role British women played in ensuring the success of organised patriotic and imperial organisations in post-war Britain. Furthermore, it argues that such organisations, though reduced from their Edwardian heyday, maintained a vital presence in wartime and post-war British society. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)Ph.D