Research Assistance?

[NemoAlia]

All right, I'm well aware that most of you are much better informed about this world than I am, so I'm posing this question to you: I'm trying to come up with a good cultural and political portrait of England in 1905, specifically. Do any of you have suggestions of where to look for information? All my sources leave a big blank spot between the death of the queen (and the incarceration of Oscar Wilde) and the beginning of World War I. Was it really as static as the books make it sound?

 

[Ice Princess]

If I were in your shoes, I'd find a copy of Timetables of History by Bernard Grun. It gives you events in politics, culture, etc. for each year -- not in-depth stuff, but at least an overview of things that happened in that year. Looking at that for 1905, then a couple of years before and after 1905, might give you some leads you can follow up sources that do provide more detail.

In looking at my copy of Grun, it looks like Einstein and Freud were busy; there were some developments in transportation (founding of motor car companies in England, first motor busses, opening of Piccadilly and Bakerloo underground lines); the unrest in Russia was getting worldwide attention (the battleship Potemkin incident etc.); Anglo-Japanese treaty renewed for another 10 years; new prime minister; Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara, and Mrs. Warren's profession; Sinn Fein founded in Dublin.

That's a start, anyway.

 

[NemoAlia]

Wow -- thank you. That's very helpful, and exactly what I was looking for.

 

[ksmybuttons]

I would also check literature.

The picture of a culture is reflected in the fiction of the time. That would be an interesting view to take...