Rebuilding the family: 1940s–1950s
The chapter examines the idea of 'the family' within the context of the so-called 'Golden Age' in social and economic affairs that was said to prevail from the late 1940s through to the early 1970s. It begins with a survey of the social democratic ideals regarding 'mental progress', as expressed in sections of Atlee's Labour Party, and of the Party's failure to convert the electorate to socialist ethics. It then goes on to provide a sustained account of the ideas and popular influence of John Bowlby and Donald Winnicott, emphasizing the significance they attributed to family, home, and the 'the bonds of love', particularly between mothers and young children, for the evolution of an emotionally mature social democracy in the post-1945 atomic age.