Marconi Scandal - Views

Views

In his 1936 autobiography, G. K. Chesterton credited the Marconi scandal with initiating a subtle but important shift in the attitude of the British public:

It is the fashion to divide recent history into Pre-War and Post-War conditions. I believe it is almost as essential to divide them into the Pre-Marconi and Post-Marconi days. It was during the agitations upon that affair that the ordinary English citizen lost his invincible ignorance; or, in ordinary language, his innocence.... I think it probable that centuries will pass before it is seen clearly and in its right perspective; and that then it will be seen as one of the turning-points in the whole history of England and the world.--G. K. Chesterton, The Autobiography of G. K. Chesterton (New York: Sheed & Ward), 205–206.

A completely opposite view is argued by Bryan Cheyette. He argues that the anti-Semitic 'Jewish financier' stereotype was present first, and indeed was established in British culture quite some time before the scandal broke.

It has been said that the scandal effectively ended the UK's chance of being the world leader in radio.


Read more about this topic:  Marconi Scandal

Famous quotes containing the word views:

    Experiences in order to be educative must lead out into an expanding world of subject matter, a subject matter of facts or information and of ideas. This condition is satisfied only as the educator views teaching and learning as a continuous process of reconstruction of experience.
    John Dewey (1859–1952)

    Taught from their infancy that beauty is woman’s sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and, roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison. Men have various employments and pursuits which engage their attention, and give a character to the opening mind; but women, confined to one, and having their thoughts constantly directed to the most insignificant part of themselves, seldom extend their views beyond the triumph of the hour.
    Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797)

    No work of art ever puts forward views. Views belong to people who are not artists.
    Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)