Download or read book Reconstruction Affluence and Labour Politics written by Nick Tiratsoo and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-12-07 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1990. Of all British cities, it is perhaps Coventry which has come to symbolise best the country's experience of World War II and the post-war period. An important engineering centre, Coventry immediately found itself geared up to produce armaments, a specialisation which inevitably brought considerable attention from the German Air Force, which in 1940 and 1941 destroyed much of the city centre. In the 1950s the city emerged as a boom town and as an exemplar of a new type of city, in step with the demands and aspirations of a modern, more democratic and equitable age. Yet this book is more than just a case study. By examining the experience of Coventry in particular, the author poses questions of significance to Britain's post-war development in general. Did the construction of the welfare state after 1945 inevitably hinder the country's long-term economic development? Can the rise and fall of the Labour Party's popularity be plotted in terms of increased popular affluence? By linking Coventry's specific history to wider questions, the book will be of interest to anyone who is concerned with Britain's post-war history.
Download or read book Reconstruction Affluence and Labour Politics written by Nick Tiratsoo and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using the reconstruction of Coventry after World War II as a model of Britain's post-war development, this study debates whether the welfare state hindered long-term economic development, and asks whether the rise and fall of the Labour Party's popularity is due to increasing affluence.
Download or read book Reform and Reconstruction written by Stephen Brooke and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the work and impact of the 1945-1951 Labour government led by Clement Attlee, drawing on documentary selections from the period including unpublished papers, speeches, Cabinet documents, newspapers, polls, and literary excerpts to discuss social and economic reform, foreign policy, and social history. The era saw the nationalization of the Bank of England, India's independence, and the establishment of the National Health Service and NATO. Includes a chronology. Distributed by St. Martin's Press. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Download or read book The Dignity of Labour written by Jon Cruddas and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2021-04-08 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Does work give our lives purpose, meaning and status? Or is it a tedious necessity that will soon be abolished by automation, leaving humans free to enjoy a life of leisure and basic income? In this erudite and highly readable book, Jon Cruddas MP argues that it is imperative that the Left rejects the siren call of technological determinism and roots it politics firmly in the workplace. Drawing from his experience of his own Dagenham and Rainham constituency, he examines the history of Marxist and social democratic thinking about work in order to critique the fatalism of both Blairism and radical left techno-utopianism, which, he contends, have more in common than either would like to admit. He argues that, especially in the context of COVID-19, socialists must embrace an ethical socialist politics based on the dignity and agency of the labour interest. This timely book is a brilliant intervention in the highly contentious debate on the future of work, as well as an ambitious account of how the left must rediscover its animating purpose or risk irrelevance.
Download or read book Routledge Library Editions The Labour Movement written by Various and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2021-07-28 with total page 13366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This set of 44 volumes, originally published between 1924 and 1995, amalgamates a wide breadth of research on the Labour Movement, including labour union history, the early stages and development of the Labour Party, and studies on the working classes. This collection of books from some of the leading scholars in the field provides a comprehensive overview of the subject how it has evolved over time, and will be of particular interest to students of political history.
Download or read book The Political Culture of the Left in Affluent Britain 19 51 64 written by L. Black and published by Springer. This book was released on 2002-12-11 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exploring relationships between politics, the people and social change, this book assesses the fortunes mainly of Labour, but also of the Communist Party and the New Left in postwar Britain. Using concepts like political culture, it looks at the left's articulation of 'affluence': consumerism, youth culture, America, TV, advertising and its disappointment at the people under the impact of such changes. It also examines party organization, socialist thinking and the use of new communication techniques like TV, advertising and opinion polling.
Download or read book An Affluent Society written by Lawrence Black and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-28 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During an election speech in 1957 the Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, famously remarked that 'most of our people have never had it so good'. Although taken out of context, this phrase soon came to epitomize the sense of increased affluence and social progress that was prevalent in Britain during the 1950s and 1960s. Yet, despite the recognition that Britain had moved away from an era of rationing and scarcity, to a new age of choice and plenty, there was simultaneously a parallel feeling that the nation was in decline and being economically outstripped by its international competitors. Whilst the study of Britain's postwar history is a well-trodden path, and the paradox of absolute growth versus relative decline much debated, it is here approached in a fresh and rewarding way. Rather than highlighting economic and industrial 'decline', this volume emphasizes the tremendous impact of rising affluence and consumerism on British society. It explores various expressions of affluence: new consumer goods; shifting social and cultural values; changes in popular expectations of policy; shifting popular political behaviour; changing attitudes of politicians towards the electorate; and the representation of affluence in popular culture and advertising. By focusing on the widespread cultural consequences of increasing levels of consumerism, emphasizing growth over decline and recognizing the rising standards of living enjoyed by most Britons, a new and intriguing window is opened on the complexities of this 'golden age'. Contrasting growing consumer expectations and demands against the anxieties of politicians and economists, this book offers all students of the period a new perspective from which to view post-imperial Britain and to question many conventional historical assumptions.
Download or read book The Labour Party since 1945 written by Kevin Jefferys and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 1993-08-17 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What caused the 'strange death of Labour Britain'? Why did the party that swept to power in 1945 - and governed for half of the next twenty five years - falter so badly in the 1970's and 1980's? Here the author weighs up the conflicting arguments, and also takes a broader look at the interaction of policy, ideology and organisation in Labour's history. By drawing together these themes, Dr Jeffreys provides a wide-ranging introductory study: the first historical overview of the Labour party to cover the whole period between the eras of Clement Attlee and John Smith.
Download or read book Ideas and Policies Under Labour 1945 1951 written by Martin Francis and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Francis examines the relationship between socialist ideas and the policies of the 1945-51 Labour government, insisting that Labour ministers applied specifically socialist precepts to the exercise of power during this period.
Download or read book The British Labour Party in Opposition and Power 1979 2019 written by Patrick Diamond and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-01-18 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a novel account of the Labour Party’s years in opposition and power since 1979, examining how New Labour fought to reinvent post-war social democracy, reshaping its core political ideas. It charts Labour’s sporadic recovery from political disaster in the 1980s, successfully making the arduous journey from opposition to power with the rise (and ultimately fall) of the governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Forty years on from the 1979 debacle, Labour has found itself on the edge of oblivion once again. Defeated in 2010, it entered a further cycle of degeneration and decline. Like social democratic parties across Europe, Labour failed to identify a fresh ideological rationale in the aftermath of the great financial crisis. Drawing on a wealth of sources including interviews and unpublished papers, the book focuses on decisive points of transformational change in the party’s development raising a perennial concern of present-day debate – namely whether Labour is a party capable of transforming the ideological weather, shaping a new paradigm in British politics, or whether it is a party that should be content to govern within parameters established by its Conservative opponents. This text will be of interest to the general reader as well as scholars and students of British politics, British political party history, and the history of the British Labour Party since 1918.
Download or read book The Crosland Legacy written by Diamond, Patrick and published by Policy Press. This book was released on 2016-07-20 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anthony Crosland bequeathed a significant intellectual legacy to the Labour Party including his celebrated treatise The Future of Socialism published sixty years ago. In this timely book, Patrick Diamond argues that Crosland continues to serve as a vital reference point for today’s Labour Party. He considers a wide range of Crosland’s writings on the economy and politics, relating his ideas to ideological debates taking place within the Labour Party about egalitarian social democracy, electoral strategy, the European question, and the importance of progressive liberalism on the British centre-left. This is the first substantial work to fully consider Crosland’s legacy for British social democracy. Written in a clear and persuasive way, it will appeal to a broad audience of?thinkers and activists with an interest in the history of?the?Labour Party and the British Left.
Download or read book British Trade Unions and Industrial Politics written by John Mcllroy and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-06-26 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1999, this volume describes the political climate and state of trade unions after the second world war in Britain. Detailing the transition of individuals who had survived in the war or had taken part in the war effort to going back a civilian life in 1945. Following the rise of the Labour party in Britain until 1964.
Download or read book Mothers of a New World written by Seth Koven and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-31 with total page 462 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First Published in 1993. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Download or read book Britain and the Economic Problem of the Cold War written by Till Geiger and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many accounts of British development since 1945 have attempted to discover why Britain experienced slower rates of economic growth than other Western European countries. In many cases, the explanation for this phenomenon has been attributed to the high level of defence spending that successive British post-war governments adhered to. Yet is it fair to assume that Britain's relative economic decline could have been prevented if policy makers had not spent so much on defence? Examining aspects of the political economy and economic impact of British defence expenditure in the period of the first cold war (1945-1955), this book challenges these widespread assumptions, looking in detail at the link between defence spending and economic decline. In contrast to earlier studies, Till Geiger not only analyses the British effort within the framework of Anglo-American relations, but also places it within the wider context of European integration. By reconsidering the previously accepted explanation of the economic impact of the British defence effort during the immediate post-war period, this book convincingly suggests that British foreign policy-makers retained a large defence budget to offset a sense of increased national vulnerability, brought about by a reduction in Britain's economic strength due to her war effort. Furthermore, it is shown that although this level of military spending may have slightly hampered post-war recovery, it was not in itself responsible for the decline of the British economy.
Download or read book The Labour Party Housing and Urban Transformation written by Phil Child and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2024-05-16 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Labour Party, Housing and Urban Transformation explores how the urban transformation of Britain between 1945 and 1970 was understood politically by the Labour Party. Placing the Labour Party at the centre of the discussion, the book covers the most extensive period of state-led urban change in British history, from the end of the Second World War to the decline of high modernism in the late 1960s. Taking a particular focus on housing to explore the implementation of modernist ideas to drive a far-ranging process of urban transformation in Britain, it challenges conventional understandings of Labour's urban legacy and puts political ideas at the heart of twentieth-century change. Utilising a breadth and range of material, including two distinct sets of archival sources, published secondary material, national legislation and Housing Acts, and various case studies, Child moves seamlessly between the national picture and its local impacts. It also draws from sources which had a crucial influence on political thinking throughout the mid-twentieth century to understand how urban transformation represented for Labour a political vision of the future. A timely contribution both to urban history and to the history of post-war Britain, it challenges existing interpretations of modernism, connects urban change to the political ideas that drove it, and allows us to comprehend the state of urban Britain today.
Download or read book The Labour governments 1964 1970 volume 1 written by Steven Fielding and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2013-07-19 with total page 429 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This electronic version has been made available under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) open access license. This book looks at how the British Labour Party came to terms with the 1960's 'cultural revolution', specifically changes to: the class structure, place of women, black immigration, the generation gap and calls for direct political participation.
Download or read book The City of Coventry written by Adrian Smith and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2006-10-27 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The image of Coventry in flames was one of the most haunting of the Second World War. Yet the excitement and optimism of the 1950s and 1960s were succeeded by a quarter century of urban blight and economic slump. The collapse of manufacturing industry - machine tools, aeroplanes, cars - left a proud community adrift and demoralised. Today a revitalised twenty-first century city, Coventry has embraced the new millennium and evolved from bleak post-industrial desert to vibrant cultural oasis, in the process rediscovering a sense of purpose and a vision for the future. "The City of Coventry" tells the story of an experiment in social democracy carried out by a Labour-controlled council which envisaged the bomb shattered city as a model of urban regeneration and imaginative planning. Post-war reconstruction could be a striking success, as in the pedestrian-friendly Precinct and the bold new cathedral, or a notable failure as in the ever more intrusive ring roads and grim high-rise flats. In offering a fresh perspective on the city, this innovative volume of essays rediscovers Coventry as an inspiration for poets and painters such as Philip Larkin and Terry Frost, musicians as varied as Benjamin Britten and The Specials, and film-makers such as Humphrey Jennings, whose "Heart of Britain" was shot in the immediate aftermath of the Blitz. Adrian Smith skilfully mixes memoir, family history and meticulous scholarship to paint a complete and incisive portrait of Coventry. Drawing on new research into topics as diverse as the place of Surrealism in West Midlands culture and the shadowy presence of rugby league in a union bastion, Smith brings a unique insight into the recent history of his native city. Attractively presented, highly readable and with broad appeal, "The City of Coventry" is a lively re-examination of an iconic city of the twentieth century illuminating the profound changes that engulfed industrial England during and after the Second World War.
