Creating the exemplary citizen: the changing notion of citizenship in Britain 1870-1939

Recent historiography on the development of citizenship in Britain has drawn attention to the changing nature of citizenship discourse, shifting from active to passive forms during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It will be argued here that this binary notion of passive or active citizenship tends to underestimate the subtle changes that the concept underwent between 1870 and 1939. Indeed, we argue that citizenship was an amorphous concept that was shaped by the cultural imperatives of the day. Thus the real value in examining the dissemination of citizenship between 1870 and 1939 is that it provides an insight into the hopes and anxieties of the authorities at both a local and national level during a period that underwent considerable social and cultural upheaval.