The Making of "Labour's Working Class" 1931-51

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This project offers a new perspective on some of the central landmarks in mid-twentieth century British politics. Inaccounting for Labour's rise to power at the 1945 election, in the face of the party's struggles in the interwar period,established works in this field have emphasised turning points in Labour's ability to mobilise working-class support,epitomised in Ross McKibbin's influential work _Parties and People_. However, owing to an assumption that this allianceof the working classes and the Labour party was 'natural' (shaped initially by the perceived inevitability of 'classalignment' within 1950s and 1960s politics), this established narrative has failed to offer a critical explanation for whysuch pivotal shifts in political alignment occurred. This project constitutes the first attempt to understand, rather thanassume, the reasons behind the trajectory of Labour's fortunes. Beginning with the party's disastrous electoralperformance in 1931, it will chart the changing relationship between official languages of class developed by the LabourParty and vernacular idioms of class used at a local level, across attempts at recovery in the 1930s, its wartime surge inpopularity and its loss of power in 1951 after only six years in government. It will crucially rely upon the extensiveelectoral survey and questionnaire material from social-science organisation Mass-Observation (as well as press,literature and film), analysing a series of diverse case studies.