Ethos and Politics in the Youth Hostels Association (YHA) in the 1930s. Issue 2 (2nd April 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Cunningham, Michael
• Is Part Of: Contemporary British history. Volume 30:Issue 2(2016)
• Page Start: 177
• Page End: 202
• Publication Date: 2016-04-02
• Subjects: Youth Hostels Association -- rambling -- class -- unemployment -- access movement; Great Britain -- History -- Elizabeth II, 1952- -- Periodicals; Great Britain -- History -- 20th century -- Periodicals; 941.085
• DOI: 10.1080/13619462.2015.1124764
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1361-9462

Abstract

Abstract: The Youth Hostels Association (YHA) was a formally non-political organization founded to provide cheap accommodation for walkers and cyclists. However, the YHA drew on, and was influenced by, values and ideas which both attracted a particular kind of member and informed its domestic political interventions. The article specifically examines the connections between the YHA and other organizations, aspects of the politics of membership relating to the concepts of respectability and class and the political interventions of the YHA in the areas of unemployment and the access movement.