All Work and No Play: British Leisure Culture and the 1947 Fuel Crisis.

The impact that the 1947 fuel crisis and the subsequent drive to increase industrial output had on the standing of Clement Attlee's first Labour government has often been understood in primarily economic terms. This article demonstrates that for many Britons these events were not only the cause of daytime power cuts and short-term unemployment, but also the source of restrictions on a host of leisure pursuits that altered the established rhythms of everyday social and cultural life. Such restrictions, which affected, amongst other things, the cinema, theatre, radio and sporting events, helped to determine the experience of the fuel crisis and thereby shaped attitudes towards the government, not least because of the emotive way in which they were reported in the press. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]