The period 1911-14 has, until late, been largely ignored by historians, and, like so many other periods, even when it has been covered, there has been little attempt to investigate the attitudes of the people of the time to the events. This thesis endeavours to compensate for this, at least to a small degree. It examines the class structure of the period, and then looks at the working class unrest of the time from the eyes of the community. It was an especially strike-prone age and for the first time, there were national stoppages and sympathetic walk-outs, with the threat of Syndicalism lurking in the background. Some believed that revolution was imminent. Unfortunately, the sources have been limited by the availability of material, but, nevertheless, the thesis represents the nearest approximation possible to public opinion. It reveals that the nation did not have a single view on any of the major disputes, and that the split was not entirely along •political lines. Some Tories were quite sympathetic to the working class, whilst certain Liberals were extremely traditional and authoritarian. Moreover, attitudes did not remain constant, but changed with events. Finally, the results of this study are looked at in relation to several theories on public opinion, and, as such, virtually represent a case study for sociological theorists.