Description
Book SynopsisHoward Webber has spent his career in Whitehall, in organisations including the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority and the Arts Council. He has degrees from Birmingham and Harvard Universities and an MA and PhD in modern British history from King's College London, UK.
Trade ReviewThis wonderful book, witty, scholarly, revelatory shows how the arts became the People's Arts and why it was so important they did. It took the visionary arguments and campaigns to lay the groundwork for a reforming government after the Second World War to make the arts belong to all of us. * Jean Seaton, Professor of Media History, the University of Westminster, Director of the Orwell Foundation, UCL. *
Webber challenges the prevailing view that the idea of government subsidy of the arts emerged only during the war. He reveals the origins of the Arts Council in pre-war campaigns originating in the belief of well-known elite figures that the arts needed rescue from terminal decline due to competition from the ‘mechanized arts’ of film, radio and gramophone records. He shows rather that the arts flourished, helped not hindered by the wider access provided by the BBC and recordings, and that interwar governments were more supportive of funding the arts than previously suggested. * Pat Thane, Visiting Professor in History, Birkbeck College, London, UK. *
Howard Webber shines a fascinating light on an all-but-forgotten period in British cultural history. He tells the story with clarity and humour; and it is inspiring (as well as being extremely relevant) to discover the riches that emerged in our national life from a time of crisis. * Steven Isserlis, Cellist and Author, UK *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Chapter 1: The Creation Myth of the Arts Council Introduction The Creation Myth and its Persistence Scope and Aims of this Book Chapter 2: Theatre and Classical Music in 1930s Britain Introduction Cinema v Theatre Broadcasting v Live Music Conclusion Chapter 3: The League of Audiences: (i) ‘I am progressing Almost Beyond my Hopes’: A Forgotten Debate ‘Advancing Upon the Iron Portals of Whitehall’: the League Begins Alfred Wareing The League and the Press The League’s Supporters The League’s Programme ‘A Piece of Idealistic Blackmailing’: the League Gains Support Chapter 4: The League of Audiences: (ii) Fear of the Machine and Distrust of the State Introduction The League and Mechanised Art: (a) ‘A Sensation of Impotence and Dumb Acquiescence’ ‘Condemned to Death by Being Canned Alive’: The Scope of the Issue ‘Death to Hollywood’? Opposition to ‘Mechanised Music’ The League and Mechanised Art: (b) The Involvement of the Churches ‘Under the Shadow of a New State Obligation’: Opposition to the League of Audiences Conclusion Chapter 5: The League of Audiences: (iii) Decline, Fall and Legacy Introduction ‘Mr Wareing is Filled With Something of the Crank Ingredient’: The League of Audiences and the BBC The League of Audiences and the Theatrical Establishment The End of The League of Audiences: (A) Decline The End of The League of Audiences: (B) Fall The End of The League of Audiences: (C) Lingering Death The Significance and Legacy of The League of Audiences Chapter 6: John Christie and the ‘Council of Power’: 1936-39 Introduction The Beginnings: ‘I Want to Form a Royal Society of Music’ The Glyndebourne Conference of March 1938 Christie Prepares Discussion at the Conference The July 1938 Conference Christie in the Approach to War conclusion Chapter 7 ‘Cema is Already Broken Down’: John Christie and the National Council of Music 1939-41 Introduction Preliminary Lobbying: to Summer 1940 ‘The Psychological Moment Has Arrived’: to December 1940 Christie and the Musicians Successes and Excesses ‘Let the Flags Be Out. Let Us Drive in State’: to Spring 1941 Christie’s Friends and Supporters in Spring 1941 Conclusion Chapter 8: Butler, Keynes and the End of Christie’s National Council of Music: 1941-44 Global Ambitions and Legal Minutiae: the NCM Spring to Autumn 1941 ‘We Are At Last Unofficially Accepted & Wanted’: Christie Misunderstands – Autumn 1941 to Spring 1942 ‘Damn the Machine’: Keynes Blocks the NCM – Spring and Summer 1942 ‘I See Nothing But Hate and Envy’: Late 1942 to Spring 1943 The End of the NCM: Spring 1943 to Autumn 1944 Conclusion Chapter 9: ‘No Levy on Laughter and no Fine on Fun!’: the Campaign Against Entertainments Duty Introduction Origin and History of Entertainments Duty to 1933 1933-34 - The Old Vic and Sadler's Wells: Music, Drama and Education The Campaign 1933-39: ‘Why Should “Crazy Nights at Clacton” Escape?’ Conclusion: 'Bringing an Aesthetic Principle into Politics'? Chapter 10: Restoring the Picture The Picture Revealed Completing the Picture Bibliography
