The People's Peace : British History 1945-1989

BL By a leading historian of the period BL Draws on sources recently released under the Thirty Year Rule 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 co-existence 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 documents recently released under the Thirty Years Rule, Kenneth Morgan brings the story right up to date and draws comparisons with the post-war history of other nations. This penetrating assessment by a leading historian of twentieth-century Britain will prove invaluable to anyone interested in the development of modern Britain.