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This broad-ranging and original text provides an accessible introduction to British politics since 1945, challenging many well-established orthodoxies. It focuses on conceptions of political consensus, evolution and transformation, continuity and discontinuity in presenting a consistent and distinctive account of social, political and economic change in the postwar years. The book offers a novel perspective on the development of the British state and of British politics over this period. In so doing, it represents a lively and engaging contribution to existing debates, demonstrating to students the highly contested nature of political change in the postwar years. The book, published at a crucial moment in the evolution of the British state, provides a reassessment of the era of Conservative dominance as well as an account of the meaning and role of New Labour couched in the broader context of the postwar years.
Postwar British Politics in Perspective will be essential reading for all students and academics concerned with questions of social, political and economic change in Britain and for all those interested in the prospects for British politics.
List of contents
About the authors. Introduction: Explaining Change in the Postwar Period. (David Marsh).
Part One: Key Themes of Postwar British Political Development.
1. Continuity and Discontinuity in British Political Development. (Colin Hay).
2. Britain's Economic Decline: Cultural Versus Structural Explanations. (Jim Johnston).
3. The Post-War Consensus: A Woozle That Wasn't? (Peter Kerr).
4. Crisis and Political Development in Postwar Britain. (Colin Hay).
5. Britain's Relations with the European Union in Historical Perspective. (Jim Buller).
6. Globalization and the Development of the British Political Economy. (Matthew Watson).
Part Two: Key Narratives of Postwar British Political Development.
7. Questions of Change and Continuity in Attlee's Britain. (Jim Johnston).
8. Explaining Thatcherism: Towards a Multidimensional Approach. (Peter Kerr and David Marsh).
9. The Post-Thatcher Era. (Stuart McAnulla).
Conclusion: Analysing and Explaining Postwar British Political Development. (Colin Hay and David Marsh).
Bibliography.
Index.
About the author
David Marsh, Jim Buller, Colin Hay, Jim Johnston, Peter Kerr, Stuart McAnulla and
Matthew Watson are all members of the Department of Political Science & International Studies at the University of Birmingham.
Summary
This broad--ranging and original text provides an accessible introduction to British politics since 1945, challenging many well--established orthodoxies.
