Higher History Liberal Reforms Help

Does anyone have any notes on how to answer the Liberal Reforms questions in the Higher History exam?
My teacher is TERRIBLE - these are the only questions I am struggling with and they apparently appear quite a lot!
It would be much appreciated! Thank you!

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Reply 1

yourmum

What do you need help with (I got an A in the prelim)

Reply 2

christopherp42

With the Liberal Reforms you get 2 types of essay questions, firstly reasons for the liberal reforms, for example the reports of booth and rowntree, new liberalism the second type of question is how successful were the liberal reforms, you would need to go through all of the Acts, and explain if they were successful for example Labour Exchanges were successful as they got many people into work, however the Old Age Pension Act 1908 did not go far enough to help solve problems of the old because the pensions were set at a rate that was still below the povery line.

Reply 3

accordions

That makes my notes make a bit more sense. Thank you! I'll just keep studying at it until I finally 'get' it!

Reply 4

lyrical_lie

There's the two types of questions, the what and why questions. I'll have a wee rummage and see if I can find anything on it. PM me your email address if you want and I'll forward you some stuff.

Reply 5

AminahEmm

Hi could anyone please please please please help me with liberal reforms ?? Any notes or sample essays, anything ?! Anything at all :/
And could u quote me if your replying thanks !!

Reply 6

Herzschmerz

Original post by AminahEmm

Hi could anyone please please please please help me with liberal reforms ?? Any notes or sample essays, anything ?! Anything at all :/
And could u quote me if your replying thanks !!

Just so happens I'm revising this just now for my Int 2 exam on Friday. :smile:

Reasons for Liberal Reforms

1) Research into poverty - Charles Booth's surveys in London discovering 30% poverty. Seebohm Rowntree's surveys in York finding 27% poverty, showing it was widespread.

2) Boer War (1899 - 1902) - High percentage of army recruits rejected (2/3 in Manchester) owing to malnourishment meant the Boer War took a lot longer than expected to win, leading to fears about national security.

3) National Efficiency - Britain was failing to compete economically and was overtaken by US and Germany.

4) Political Pressure - Establishment of Labour Party 1900. Liberals wanted to gain support of working class who they feared would vote for labour if reforms were not passed.

5) New Liberalism - Lloyd George and Churchill influenced by new political ideas bringing a more humanitarian approach by improving social welfare.

6) Example of Germany - Britain was impressed by pensions and insurance schemes brought in by Bismarck in Germany.

Those are the main reasons for the reforms. Do you need notes about the actual reforms passed from 1906 - 1911 as well?

Reply 7

AminahEmm

Original post by Herzschmerz

Just so happens I'm revising this just now for my Int 2 exam on Friday. :smile:

wow! thanks alot :biggrin:

and yes please if you have any. thanks so much! :smile:

Reply 8

Herzschmerz

These I think are the most important ones (or at least are the ones I'm learning about)

Provision of School Meals Act - 1906
Schools provided meals to children, however it was not compulsory for the school to provide them so many chose not to (to save money).

Medical Inspections - 1907
Medical inspections offered at schools, but no treatment was offered.

The Children's Charter - 1908
Prevented children begging, put measures in to reduce abuse of children and made sale of alcohol to under 16s illegal.

Old Age Pensions Act - 1908
5 shillings per week provided to over 70s, though few people actually lived to that age, and the pension itself was meagre.

Labour Exchanges -1909
Helped people find work.

National Insurance Act - 1911
Health insurance for workers earning under £160 annually. Was a tripartite system - the worker, employer and government all paid a portion.

National Insurance Act (Part 2) - 1911
Unemployment benefit of 7 shillings per week for 15 weeks, however, this only insured people in 7 areas of employment.

As I said, there were lots of reforms but I think these are the most important ones you should know about. A question quite often asked is how successful were the liberal reforms in creating the foundations for a welfare state, so you can go through each reform stating the benefits and restrictions I mentioned above. Hope this helps. :smile:

Good luck.

Reply 9

Will Hoffmann

Hey,

I've created a notes section on all the potential essays that could come up for Britain so if you want a copy, PM me.

Will

Reply 10

AminahEmm

see how the exam is changed this year and they are adding appeasement and the road to war in it? (can someone only answer this question if they know 100% the answer! thank you so much :biggrin:

)
so the question is : If the appeasement question come in, will it be in the British topic? so that means I cant do women and appeasement or democracy and appeasement ? :/ so i would have to do appeasement and Hitler yeah?

someone reply fasttttttttttttt O_o i am confused!!!! :frown:

(quote me if ur replying thanks!) x

Reply 11

anyone_can_fly

Original post by AminahEmm

see how the exam is changed this year and they are adding appeasement and the road to war in it? (can someone only answer this question if they know 100% the answer! thank you so much :biggrin:

(quote me if ur replying thanks!) x

No. Appeasement is one of the European and World topics. You will have to do an essay on Britain (democracy/women/liberal reforms/the welfare state) and one on Appeasement (reasons for appeasement/reasons for fascist aggression/evaluation of appeasement/evaluation of fascist methods/evaluation of Munich agreement/why Britain went to war in the end). :smile:

Reply 12

Martyna156

Ugh, Appeasement. I know like nothing about it. Fingers crossed Hitler's rise to power or Life in Nazi Germany comes up. Otherwise, bye, bye Higher History.

Reply 13

anyone_can_fly

Original post by Martyna156

Ugh, Appeasement. I know like nothing about it. Fingers crossed Hitler's rise to power or Life in Nazi Germany comes up. Otherwise, bye, bye Higher History.

Don't want to panic you or anything, but they aren't essay topics in the Appeasement unit. Are you sure you're not doing Germany? (I don't know what's involved in the Germany topic.) :smile:

Reply 14

AminahEmm

Original post by anyone_can_fly

Don't want to panic you or anything, but they aren't essay topics in the Appeasement unit. Are you sure you're not doing Germany? (I don't know what's involved in the Germany topic.) :smile:

they have changed the higher course,as of this year there ARE essays on appeasement :/

Reply 15

AminahEmm

Original post by anyone_can_fly

okay, but where in Gods name does Hitler come in.
sorry i am just so damn confused!!

Reply 16

anyone_can_fly

Original post by AminahEmm

they have changed the higher course,as of this year there ARE essays on appeasement :/

I know there are essays, I'm doing it this year. :smile:

Original post by AminahEmm

okay, but where in Gods name does Hitler come in.
sorry i am just so damn confused!!

This is what I was saying. He doesn't, really. There aren't essays on Hitler in the Appeasement topic. You can talk about his methods (if you mention Mussolini as well) or you can evaluate his (and Mussolini's) success, but not his rise to power or life in Nazi Germany. That's not part of appeasement.

Reply 17

laridum

I'm trying to cut down my Liberals essay to an acceptable length for the exam. Is it okay to leave out the Medical Inspection of Children Act? I'm not sure what I can take out.

Reply 18

Martyna156

Original post by anyone_can_fly

Don't want to panic you or anything, but they aren't essay topics in the Appeasement unit. Are you sure you're not doing Germany? (I don't know what's involved in the Germany topic.) :smile:

what, I am confused. I am doing Germany. but Idid Appeasement as well, and people told me that appeasement will be in Germany?

Reply 19

Martyna156

Original post by laridum

I'm trying to cut down my Liberals essay to an acceptable length for the exam. Is it okay to leave out the Medical Inspection of Children Act? I'm not sure what I can take out.

mention them, but perfaps briefly For example: The medical Inspection Act 1907, was passed, ebcause the Government was alarmed by the health of children, and this act allowed the schools to act against parents of children in 'verminous conditions'. The medical inspections did very little to solve anything, and the free medical care for children was only available from 1912, which can suggest that this act wasn't really successful blah, blah, blah?