ABSTRACT
It is a commonplace of twentieth-century social history that world war has been the agent, or at least the catalyst, of major change. What has been less noticed is the extent to which wartime forms of organization – born of the unusual conditions and needs of the moment – have created structural fossils in important areas of policy, surviving immutably in peacetime, but with no particular relevance to the post-war world. Broadcasting and education provide interesting examples of this process.
Both were drastically reorganized at the end of the Second World War. In each case the most striking feature of the reforms was the imposition of a ‘tripartite’ division, based on a supposed hierarchy of talent. The changes represented a sharp move away from a view of society as an aggregate of individuals and towards an official concept of particular groups with separate needs.
