~A frisky, tiresome colt?~ : Sir William Joynson-Hicks, the Home Office, and the ~Roaring Twenties~ 1924-1929
The late 1920s saw a major cultural clash between the standards of the avantgarde of the postwar generation, and the earlier morality of a largely elderly political, administrative and judicial elite. This has traditionally been portrayed as a fight between an out-of-touch minority trying to defend the discredited values of an older world against the new, improved culture of a different age. Particular criticism has been reserved for William Joynson-Hicks, Home Secretary for the period 1924-1929, a Puritanical Diehard Unionist who was accused of trying to impose his own morality on everyone else by police action. This thesis explores various aspects of the policing of morals - censorship of theatre, literature and film, and the efforts to enforce regulations on out-of-hours drinking and the taking of drugs, to discern whether there was a consistent pattern of censorship, and crucially, how far Joynson-Hicks himself was involved. It also examines two major police scandals that occurred in 1928 in cases linked with these enforcement campaigns, and assesses how far pressure from the top was to blame for their occurrence. The evidence assembled calls into question some long-held assumptions - namely that Joynson-Hicks
Clayton, Huw Francis
~A frisky, tiresome colt?~ : Sir William Joynson-Hicks, the Home Office, and the ~Roaring Twenties~ 1924-1929. The late 1920s saw a major cultural clash between the standards of the avantgarde of the postwar generation, and the earlier morality of a largely elderly political, administrative and judicial elite. This has traditionally been portrayed as a fight between an out-of-touch minority trying to defend the discredited values of an older world against the new, improved culture of a different age. Particular criticism has been reserved for William Joynson-Hicks, Home Secretary for the period 1924-1929, a Puritanical Diehard Unionist who was accused of trying to impose his own morality on everyone else by police action. This thesis explores various aspects of the policing of morals - censorship of theatre, literature and film, and the efforts to enforce regulations on out-of-hours drinking and the taking of drugs, to discern whether there was a consistent pattern of censorship, and crucially, how far Joynson-Hicks himself was involved. It also examines two major police scandals that occurred in 1928 in cases linked with these enforcement campaigns, and assesses how far pressure from the top was to blame for their occurrence. The evidence assembled calls into question some long-held assumptions - namely that Joynson-Hicks
sir william home_office saw major cultural clash standard postwar generation early morality largely elderly political_administrative judicial elite traditionally portrayed fight out touch minority try defend discredit value older world new improved culture different age particular criticism reserve william home secretary period unionist accuse try impose morality everyone else police action explores_various aspect police moral censorship theatre literature film effort enforce regulation out hours drinking take drug discern whether consistent pattern censorship crucially far involve also_examine two_major police scandal occur case link enforcement campaign assess far pressure top blame occurrence evidence assemble call_question long_held assumption namely