A Lark for the Sake of Their Country: The 1926 General Strike Volunteers in Folklore and Memory

A lark for the sake of their country tells the tale of the upper and middle-class 'volunteers' in the 1926 General Strike in Great Britain. With behaviour derived from their play traditions - the larks, rags, fancy dress parties, and treasure hunts that prevailed at universities and country
houses - the volunteers transformed a potential workers' revolution into festive public display of Englishness. Decades later, collective folk memories about this event continue to define national identity. Based on correspondence and interviews with volunteers and strikers, as well as contemporary
newspapers and magazines, novels, diaries, plays, and memoirs, this book recreates the context for the volunteers' actions. It explores how the upper classes used the strike to assert their ideological right to define Britishness as well as how scholars, novelists, playwrights, diarists, museum
curators, local historians, and even a theme restaurant, have continued to recycle the strike to define British identity.


Author: Rachelle Saltzman
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Published: 11/30/2014
Pages: 304
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.99lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.65d
ISBN: 9780719096761

About the Author

Rachelle Hope Saltzman is Executive Director of the Oregon Folklife Network at the University of Oregon