The People's Peace

Fülszöveg

The People's Peace is the first comprehensive study by a professional historian of British history from 1945 to the present day. It examines the transformation of post-war Britain from the planning enthusiasm of 1945 to the ethic of Thatcherism. Its themes include the troubles of the British economy; public criticism of the legitimacy of the state and its instruments of authority; the coexistence of growing personal prosperity with widespread social inequality; and the debates aroused by the process of decolonization, and by Britain's relationship to the Commonwealth, the transatlantic world and Europe. Changes in cultural life, from the puritanical 'austerity' of the 1940s, through the 'permissiveness' of the 1960s, to the tensions of recent years, are also charted. Kenneth Morgan examines the paradoxes of life in the modern United Kingdom: the growing affluence and internal peace of mainland Britain, with its underside of disillusion and discontent.
Using a wide variety of... Tovább

Fülszöveg

The People's Peace is the first comprehensive study by a professional historian of British history from 1945 to the present day. It examines the transformation of post-war Britain from the planning enthusiasm of 1945 to the ethic of Thatcherism. Its themes include the troubles of the British economy; public criticism of the legitimacy of the state and its instruments of authority; the coexistence of growing personal prosperity with widespread social inequality; and the debates aroused by the process of decolonization, and by Britain's relationship to the Commonwealth, the transatlantic world and Europe. Changes in cultural life, from the puritanical 'austerity' of the 1940s, through the 'permissiveness' of the 1960s, to the tensions of recent years, are also charted. Kenneth Morgan examines the paradoxes of life in the modern United Kingdom: the growing affluence and internal peace of mainland Britain, with its underside of disillusion and discontent.
Using a wide variety of sources, including the records of political parties and the most recently released documents from the Public Record Office, Kenneth Morgan brings the story right up to date and draws comparisons with the post-war history of other nations. This penetrating analysis by a leading twentieth-century historian will prove invaluable to anyone interested in the development of the Britain of today.
Kenneth O. Morgan is the Principal of the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, and a Fellow of the British Academy.
Jacket illustration by Bill Sanderson
Back jacket photos by permission of the Hulton Picture Co. Vissza