Twentieth-Century Mass Society in Britain and the Netherlands

From the beginning of the nineteenth century, Western Europe witnessed the emergence of a "mass" society. Grand social processes such as urbanization, industrialization and democratization blurred the previous sharp distinctions that had divided society.Comparing the British and Dutch experience of mass society in the twentieth century, this book considers five major areas: politics, welfare, media, leisure and youth culture. In each section, two well-known specialists--one from each country--look at the conditions in the rise of a mass society, drawing on history, cultural studies and sociology, to bring new insight into the development of modern European society.

Bob Moore is Reader in History at Sheffield University. Henk van Nierop is Professor of Modern History at the University of Amsterdam.

Introduction * Mass Society in Britain and the Netherlands -- Ido de Haan (Utrecht) * Politics * Politics and People: Perceptions of the Masses in Dutch Politics -- Henk te Velde (Leiden) * Dubious Democrats: Party Politics and the Mass Electorate in Twentieth Century Britain -- Clare Griffiths (Sheffield) * Welfare * The Arrival of the Welfare State in Twentieth Century Mass Society: the Dutch Case -- Joop Roebroek (Tilburg) * The Welfare State in Mass Society: Twentieth Century Britain -- Pat Thane (ICH London) * Media * Media. Morality and Popular Culture: The Case of the Netherlands 1870-1965 -- Frank van Vree (Amsterdam) * The Devil's Decade and Modern Mass Communication: The Development of the British Media during the Inter-War Years -- Kevin Williams (Swansea) * Leisure * Leisure and Pleasure: Competing Ideologies and Strategies in the Netherlands -- Theo Beckers (Tilburg) * Leisure and Mass Society in Modern Britain -- Douglas Reid (Hull) * Youth * The Youth Establishment in the Netherlands in the Twentieth Century -- Piet de Rooij (Amsterdam) * 'Seized by Change, Liberated by Affluence': Youth, Consumption and Cultural Change in Postwar Britain -- Bill Osgerby (London Met.)