Popular Culture 1920's-1930's

• By the early Twentieth Century the British population were bombarded with imperial imagery.
• Government promotion:

  • The Empire Marketing Board- set up in 1926, became even more active in the 1930's during the depression.
• Government promotion (exhibitions):

  • Wembley Exhibition of 1924 saw 17 million visitors that year and a further 9 million in 1925.
  • Glasgow Exhibition in 1938 saw 12 million visitors and boosted the local economy.
• Government promotion:

  • Radio- the BBC was established in 1923 and took a strong pro-imperial tone.
• Other forms of promotion:

  • Cinema- films such as "The Fourth Feathers" (1939) used the Empire as the main theme.
  • Education- Empire was still an integral part of subjects such as Geography, History and Literature (Rudyard Kipling).
• Other forms of promotion:

  • Commercial advertising- large traders such as the Co-operative Wholesale Society celebrated their global imperial links.
  • Newspapers- Lord Beaverbrook's "Daily Express" promoted imperial ideas.
• Pro-imperial propaganda is not proof that it had significant influence over people who consumed it. Indeed, some argue that such efforts were undertaken to promote Empire because so few were aware of it.
• Imperialism affected different social groups and classes differently.