PATRIOTISM AND THE ENGLISH WORKING CLASS, C. 1902–1929

The recent increased scholarly interest in class has coincided with the growth of nativist and anti-immigrant sentiment in the UK and elsewhere. This has in turn led to a heightened interest in the relationship between class, nationalism, and patriotism. In terms of historical scholarship, there is a rich literature concerning working-class patriotism in the early decades of the twentieth century. Book-length works, such as Richard Price’s An Imperial War and the British Working Class and Paul Ward’s Red Flag and Union Jack, have examined working-class and left-wing reactions to the South African and First World Wars, while Marc Mulholland and Mathew Morris have recently published on the left-wing debates around militarism in the lead up to August 1914. There is also a great deal of literature concerning support – and opposition – to the First World War, both local studies and work that encompasses the whole of the United Kingdom. 1.