Becoming a Man in Post-War Britain: Football, Class and Identity in Liverpool
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Becoming a Man in Post-War Britain: Football, Class and Identity in Liverpool and Newcastle, 1951-1979 A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2015 Emma Sheldon School of Arts, Languages and Cultures Contents Abstract, p. 3 Declaration and Copyright Statement, p. 4. Acknowledgements, p. 5. Introduction, p. 6. British Football and Identity, p. 12. Sources and Methodology, p. 22. Structure and Arguments, p. 32. Chapter One: Capitalism and the ‘People’s Game’, p. 36. Football Club Directors and Chairmen, p. 42. Star Players and Working-Class Heroes, p 62. ‘The People’ and Commercialisation, p. 81. Conclusion, p. 94. Chapter Two: Becoming a Man in Post-War Britain, p. 96. Telling Football Stories in the Twenty First Century, p. 100. Post-War Rites of Passage at Football Matches, p. 118. Youth Cultures and the ‘Swinging Sixties’, p. 141. Conclusion, p. 148. Chapter Three: Constructing the Football Hooligan, p. 150. Framing Hooliganism in the 1960s and 1970s, p. 155. Reframing Hooliganism Since the 1990s, p. 183. Conclusion, p. 196. Chapter Four: Football Support and National, Regional and Local Identities, p. 199. National Identities and Local Football, p. 204. Local, Civic and Regional Identities, p. 220. Football Rivalries and Intra-Regional Fragmentation, p. 235. Conclusion, p. 245. Thesis Conclusion, p. 247. Bibliography, p. 253. Word Count: 78,391. 2 Abstract This thesis uses football as a case study to examine the identities of working- class boys and men in post-war Britain. As the most popular spectator sport in England for over a century, with a widely recognised status as a site for the expression, and tool in the construction, of collective loyalties and identities, football and the discourses around it provide a valuable window into working-class culture. Through the examples of Merseyside and North East football fans, this thesis re- evaluates the extent of cultural change in the post-war era, by demonstrating the persistence of long-standing traditions and bases of identification in relation to class, gender, age and place. It also, however, challenges popular and academic understandings of such traditional culture by presenting a complex narrative of coexisting and conflicting identities that differ from stereotypical images of the ‘working man’s game’. Drawing on a combination of retrospective personal testimonies from football fans and post-war public and press discourses, this thesis contributes to a number of debates that have emerged in existing historiographical literature of this period. Firstly, it builds on attempts to dispute the findings and predictions of contemporary social commentators over the impact of affluence on traditional working-class lifestyles, values and identities, by revealing the continuation of older community attachments and practices among football fans. Additionally, it intervenes in discussions of the emergence of ‘youth’ as a distinctive basis of identification capable of overriding identities associated with class, masculinity and place, or else as the subject of adult moral panic and a source of generational rupture and conflict. This thesis, in contrast, argues that football provided a means of inter-generational cooperation. The transmission of cultural values and identities across age groups, which football enabled, further emphasises the idea of cultural continuity presented throughout. This builds on growing historiographical reappraisals of the mythologised ‘swinging sixties’ as a decade of revolution. 3 Declaration and Copyright Statement No portion of the work referred to in the thesis has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institute of learning. i. The author of this thesis (including any appendices and/or schedules to this thesis) owns certain copyright or related rights in it (the “Copyright”) and s/he has given The University of Manchester certain rights to use such Copyright, including for administrative purposes. ii. Copies of this thesis, either in full or in extracts and whether in hard or electronic copy, may be made only in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) and regulations issued under it or, where appropriate, in accordance with licensing agreements which the University has from time to time. This page must form part of any such copies made. iii. The ownership of certain Copyright, patents, designs, trade marks and other intellectual property (the “Intellectual Property”) and any reproductions of copyright works in the thesis, for example graphs and tables (“Reproductions”), which may be described in this thesis, may not be owned by the author and may be owned by third parties. Such Intellectual Property and Reproductions cannot and must not be made available for use without the prior written permission of the owner(s) of the relevant Intellectual Property and/or Reproductions. iv. Further information on the conditions under which disclosure, publication and commercialisation of this thesis, the Copyright and any Intellectual Property and/or Reproductions described in it may take place is available in the University IP Policy (see http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/DocuInfo.aspx?DocID=487), in any relevant Thesis restriction declarations deposited in the University Library, The University Library’s regulations (see http://www.manchester.ac.uk/library/aboutus/regulations) and in The University’s policy on Presentation of Theses. 4 Acknowledgements Firstly, I would like to thank my supervisors, Dr Leif Jerram and Dr Charlotte Wildman, for all of their support, encouragement and guidance throughout the writing of this thesis. Their feedback and advice has been invaluable, not only to this project, but in terms of my personal and professional development, and I am greatly indebted to them for their time and patience over the years. I would also like to thank Professor Max Jones, whose constructive criticism and insightful perspectives during my panel reviews were enormously helpful. I am also thankful to the Arts and Humanities Research Council, without whose funding I would have been unable to undertake this research. Several libraries and archives assisted me in my work, particularly Liverpool Record Office, Newcastle Central Library and the Royal Society, but also including staff at the National Football Museum, who helped point me in the right direction in the early stages. I am also grateful to Dr Rogan Taylor, who generously spent time discussing his oral history research with me, as well as sharing his own unique insights into Merseyside’s football culture. Finally, I owe a great deal of thanks to my parents, sister and boyfriend for their understanding and support, especially during the latter stages of writing this thesis. 5 Introduction The significance of class, masculinity, nation and generation to identities are widely debated topics within modern British historiography, and this thesis uses football to explore these themes. As a pastime primarily enjoyed by large numbers of working-class men across their life course, at least until the late-twentieth-century commercialisation of the game, football spectatorship is a useful case study to examine the ways in which class, gender, age and place informed men’s identities in post-war Britain, and therefore to bring together the disparate historiographical debates surrounding them. Underlying this study is an attempt to reassess the nature and extent of working-class cultural change in this era. The issue of class in post-war Britain has largely centred on the contested impact of affluence and improved living standards on ‘traditional’ working-class culture and identities, as defined by contemporary social commentators such as Richard Hoggart, John Goldthorpe and Mark Abrams.1 Part of the landscape of ‘traditional’ working-class culture, Hoggart contrasted professional football support with the ‘candyfloss world’ of post-war consumerism and youth culture, characterised by newer leisure activities that were less indicative of collective loyalties and an ‘authentic’ culture.2 . Although the extent to which football was separate from such consumerism is questionable, as an example of an older leisure habit that was viewed as intrinsic to working-class life, it is able to contribute to historiographical revision of the extent to which working-class lifestyles and cultural values altered substantially 1 Richard Hoggart, The Uses of Literacy, (Harmondsworth, 1958); John Goldthorpe, David Lockwood, Frank Bechofer and Jennifer Platt, The Affluent Worker in the Class Structure, (Cambridge, 1969); Mark Abrams, Must Labour Lose, (Harmondsworth, 1960); Ferdinand Zweig, The Worker in an Affluent Society: Family Life and Industry, (London, 1961). 2 Hoggart, Uses of Literacy, p. 157. 6 in post-war Britain as a result of high employment levels, improved welfare provision and the increased accessibility of consumer goods.3 However, by interrogating this association and deconstructing the various meanings of football to working-class fans – including the appeal of football-related consumption and commercialising processes – football can also contribute to an interrogation of the ‘cultural stereotypes about “working-classness”’ and the ‘hypermasculine culture centred around the trade union, working men’s club, allotment, and football field’ upon which Hoggart and his contemporaries relied in order to stress the novelty of