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The concept of 'The Establishment' and the transformation of political argument in Britain since 1945
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Middleton, Stuart (2021) The concept of 'The Establishment' and the transformation of political argument in Britain since 1945. Journal of British Studies, 60 (2). pp. 257-284. doi:10.1017/jbr.2020.244 ISSN 0021-9371.
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1017/jbr.2020.244
Abstract
This article examines the formation and development of the concept of the Establishment in British political argument after its recoining in a celebrated article by the journalist Henry Fairlie in 1955. The author argues that the term “the Establishment” did not have a stable referent but rather acquired a range of possible meanings and uses as part of a new political vocabulary within which the course and significance of recent political and social change was contested, and that ultimately transformed social-democratic and conservative politics in Britain. The article situates the formation of the concept of the Establishment within a prolonged contestation of social and political authority in Britain during the middle of the twentieth century and traces the recoining of the term in conservative political commentary prior to Henry Fairlie's frequently cited 1955 Spectator article. From the late 1950s, it is argued, the concept acquired more distinctively contemporary meanings that enabled its adoption by Harold Wilson during the mid-1960s and its subsequent reappropriation by Margaret Thatcher in the mid-1970s. These usages registered and helped to accomplish fundamental political realignments, the understanding of which depends upon a close analysis of political and social concepts.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
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| Subjects: | D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain | ||||||||
| Divisions: | Faculty of Arts > History | ||||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1945-, Great Britain -- Social conditions, Social classes -- Great Britain -- History, Working class -- Political activity -- Great Britain, Working class -- Great Britain -- Attitudes | ||||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Journal of British Studies | ||||||||
| Publisher: | Cambridge University Press | ||||||||
| ISSN: | 0021-9371 | ||||||||
| Official Date: | April 2021 | ||||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 60 | ||||||||
| Number: | 2 | ||||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 257-284 | ||||||||
| DOI: | 10.1017/jbr.2020.244 | ||||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
| Reuse Statement (publisher, data, author rights): | This article has been accepted for publication in a revised form for publication in Journal of British Studies https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-british-studies | ||||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||||
| Copyright Holders: | Copyright © The North American Conference on British Studies, 2021 | ||||||||
| Date of first compliant deposit: | 17 January 2020 | ||||||||
| Date of first compliant Open Access: | 29 January 2020 | ||||||||
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