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Title:
In Search of a Past, 1925-1983

Subject Categories:
Social history - History
Rural life - Society and Culture
Social attitudes and behaviour - Society and Culture
Child development and child rearing - Social stratification and groupings
Family life and marriage - Social stratification and groupings

Depositor(s):
Fraser, R.

Principal Investigator(s):
Fraser, R.

Abstract:
This oral history project explored the author's own childhood. Particular reference was made to relationships within his upper class family and household during the 1930s and 40s. This was achieved through interviews conducted with the traceable and surviving members of that family and household made during the 1960s and 70s. Most - but not all - were used in the subsequent publication. This unusual work is both intensely personal, being driven by the author’s individual psychological journey to understand his own past, and historically illuminating, in its detailed examination of a particular sort of inter-war English country life and the changes to that way of life brought about by the Second World War.


Main Topics:
Family life; households; childhood; childcare; parent-child relationships; siblings; psychoanalysis; servants; domestic workers; rural society; class; upper class; class differentiation; community life; oral history; world war; refugees.

Coverage:
Time Period Covered: 1925-1983
Dates of Fieldwork: 1967-1979
Country: United Kingdom
Geography: Southern England
Spatial Units: No spatial unit
Observation Units: Individuals
Kind of Data: Textual data; Individual (micro) level; In-depth/unstructured interview transcripts; Interview notes; Correspondence.

Universe Sampled:
Location of Units of Observation:Subnational
Population:Family, household members and employees of the Fraser family.

Methodology:
Time Dimensions: Cross-sectional (one-time) study
Sampling Procedures: Purposive selection/case studies
Number of Units: 17
Method of Data Collection: Face-to-face interview
Weighting: Not applicable

Language(s) of Written Materials:
Study Description: English
Study Documentation: English

Access:
Access Conditions: Host archive conditions apply
Availability: These data are available from a service other than ESDS, UK Data Archive - National Social Policy and Social Change Archive. Albert Sloman Library Special Collections, University of Essex. Contact ESDS Qualidata, UK Data Archive, in the first instance.
Contact: Help desk: qualidata@esds.ac.uk
Please Note: Online documentation, prepared by ESDS Qualidata, is available via the link below.

Copyright:
Copyright Ronald Fraser

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