What significant ways was British culture affected by these wars?

[Lizbeth Cuadras]

How were they affected by all the wars they battled, such as World War l and World War ll. I need the answer today.

[Mike]

One of the main cultural issues that has arisen in the UK since the wars of the 20th Century is a somewhat misguided sense of nostalgia - both World Wars are somehow seen to represent a high point of British power rather than the end of the British Empire.

On a day to day basis, the change in the UK labour market that happened in WWI meant that women were able to experience a degree of economic freedom within an industrial economy that was previously unknown and this was something that evolved during World War II (although the Sex Discrimination Act was only passed in 1975 - three decades after the war finished)

To some extent the experience of WWI for both men and women hastened the expansion of the right to vote, but there are a number of arguments that suggest universal suffrage in the UK would have occured at some point before WWII even if WWI hadn't happened. However, the irony of having to fight for a system that did not allow them to vote was not lost on millions of UK servicemen - or the government either, when they saw how ex-servicemen in Russia and Germany reacted after the war.

The changes and developments in the media also changed British culture - films such as 'The Battle Of The Somme' (1916) bought the reality of trench warfare into cinemas, which had a massive impact on audiences. In WWII the shared experience of radio broadcasts and newsreels paved the way for the type of 24 hour news coverage we have today.

Another significant way that British culture was affected by WWI and WWII was the idea of 'a land fit for heroes'. Despite various promises made by the coalition government after WWI, social reconstruction in the UK didn't take place and following the Depression and the outbreak of WWII this became something that British people of all ages, classes and backgrounds felt was necessary - a demand that lead to the introduction of the National Health Service in 1948.

I hope that's given you some useful information.