Pre World War One
Great industrial unrest was a feature of the decades immediately preceding the First World War. More and more workers organised themselves into trade unions for protection against the appalling conditions under which many of them worked.
1914 - 1939
This was a period of stark contrasts: new consumer industries were developing at the same time as unemployment reached an all time high; the middle-classes prospered while the unemployed lived in means-tested poverty; Britain worked for "peace in our time", while the German war machine grew in strength.