The turning points of history

Journal article

"…the practical thing for a nation which has stumbled upon one of the turning points of history is not to behave as though nothing very important were involved… When the broken ends of its industry, its politics, its social organisation, have to be pieced together after a catastrophe, it must make a decision… It must, in short, have recourse to principles." (Tawney, 1961 [1921], 10)

We now know that Richard Tawney was writing at ‘one of the turning points of history’. But Tawney himself had no way of being so sure. Just seven years before he published the words above, in The Acquisitive Society, younger members of the upper echelons of the English upper-classes were photographed cheering at a famous 1914 cricket match with unfettered confidence. In that photograph, shown below, men of the generation of their fathers appear quietly confident of their place, sporting varying head gear that signified their precise status. Women sat demurely, knowing their place too, sometimes sporting a bit of bird in their hats, or a lot of bird, but only as appropriate.

Authors: Dorling, D

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Lawrence and Wishart
• Journal: Renewal: a journal of social democracy
• Volume: 21
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 11-20
• Publication date: 2013-01-01
• Acceptance date: 2013-12-01