Thinking makes it so

Drusilla Beyfus

THE MIDDLE CLASSES, 1900-1950 by Alan A. Jackson David St John Thomas, 122.50, pp. 368 Future generations are likely to face a teaser in assessing whether those born after the date on which Alan Jackson's study ends, 1950, are bona fide middle class or members of a new breed.

What will social historians make of the Young plumber who called at home recent- ly to undertake some messy task, I wonder? He claimed to have four years' college training in his trade under his belt, appeared as at ease in conversation as a vicar, sported a swish, gold necklet, spent his hols abroad, had his own car and cer- tainly earned more per hour than many top university lecturers in London. I can't see a self-respecting golf club turning down his application for membership. Alan Jackson foresees the arrival on the scene of the posh plumber but expresses characteristic pig-in-the-middlish reserva- tions about his class qualification:

Something like a middle-class way of life was to become the norm to which most Britons aspired, although (some would hold) that does not make them middle-class.

His survey, The Middle Classes, 1900- 1950 takes us back to the years when mid- dles were king and no doubts existed about who was born on the wrong side of the tracks. Clear cut divisions in the story end here, however, as this is essentially an account of the fine striations, stratifications and distinctions that were embedded in the class system during the period. Jackson digs away conscientiously and unearths nobbish upper middles, upperish middle middlings, comfortable middles, impoverished genteel middles, newly arrived middles, aspiring lower middles, descending lower middles, the whole remarkably resistant to seismic change. An amusement is contained in the find- ings for the lay reader, which is simply a game of boning up on the family tree. Did A11.nrY Dolly spend her holidays in New ,,i3righton or Porthcawl or Rhyl in the twenties or Thirties, by any chance? You May have a despised 'excursionist' among Your lot, in other words a day-tripper. Proper MC practice was to eschew resorts at which trippers were encouraged. On the other hand, if Uncle Jack from the colonies

opted for a break at one of the newly established Billy Butlin's camps in Britain, he should be considered something of a pioneer, adventurous to boot, and, unlike those who were to follow in his footsteps, probably a white collar worker.

Have you the remnants of Granny's white ermine hip-length coat in the dressing-up box? A badge of membership of the upper middles of the day is yours, if further proof is needed. The fur was popu- lar among a privileged circle. In 1936, it was offered at 69 guineas, a sum that represented about a week's wages for a Lyon's tea shop waitress.

Does a reminder of the health tonic Wirol' salivate the taste buds? A propri- etary brand based on cod liver oil and malt, it was often prescribed for children who needed 'building up', in the parlance of the times. It was also a favourite remedy for lower-middle-class parents, particularly those whose ewe lambs might have been obliged to rub shoulders with those hoi polloi 'thought to be a potent source of all kinds of infection', cites the study.

Sports trophies, old snapshots and many mementoes that have been handed down may effectively spill a few beans; it could be interesting to see if some family tales hold up, post Jackson.

If grandfather Augustus who was in trade between the wars managed to pull off the accolade of a silver cup presented by a ten- nis or golf club, his descendants stand to gain some feisty genes. The survey makes plain that, among acceptable sports clubs, Tradespeople were not encouraged. If they

did succeed in being admitted they tended to

be left to play among themselves.

Do early snapshots show a kinsman sporting a pair of cords? Something could be made of the wearer's preparedness to be considered bohemian, and this at a time when masculine sartorial conservatism was in full fig. A delicate point which is unlikely to show up in respectable photograph albums derives from a later stage. Those men who adopted zip fasteners in place of buttons for trouser flys could be given credit for braving public suspicion of the innovation.

The facts on which these statistical fig- ments are based serve to confirm the tight bond that connected class and choice. The account may surprise younger readers with its burden of proof that whether the issue is education (by the end of 1930 only one in 13 children went from free elementary school to a free secondary), or cami- knickers or millinery (class barriers could equally well have been made of clothes) or circulating library lists or mealtimes or garden gates, the key to understanding decisions lies primarily in birthright.

Jackson's explanation of the reasons why will find sympathy among moderns who think that being middle class is more a state of mind than anything. Members can be distinguished from the working class, not so much by level of income but as

`. . . a characteristic lifestyle with common attitudes, habits and tastes'. He may be the last man to deny that much of the code was discriminatory and designed to keep people out, but the overall impression conveyed is of a middle-class member of the jury who has to keep reminding himself of the dark- er side of the case.

Inherent in MC-ness was an elaborate code of manners and etiquette, such as for- mal modes of behaviour in mixed company, dress customs, the importance of speaking in the right accent and hypocritically strict sexual mores. G.B. Shaw's dustman Doolit- tle had few doubts about what all these pieties amounted to. `Middle-class morali- ty' was his famous cry: 'Just an excuse for never giving me anything.' In between the lines of the book runs a peculiar MC antipathy to the notion of mixing with poor old Doolittle and his ilk. It is a pity that we are not told exactly what it was that consti- tuted the threat to middle-class respectabil- ity by sociable contact with the working class. Fear hangs in the air like an unidenti- fied plague. Why was it that the English set their hearts on living so separately `amongst [their] own kind?' Across the channel, counterparts shared a jar with artisans in harmony. Distance between folk, which contributes to so many images of MC domestic life, is here tellingly evoked in photographs and illustrations.

All in all, my plumber is lucky to be living at this hour.