Product Description

Written by leading international scholars, Twentieth Century Britain investigates key moments, themes and identities in the past century. Engaging with cutting-edge research and debate, the essays in the volume combine discussion of the major issues currently preoccupying historians of the twentieth century with clear guidance on new directions in the theories and methodologies of modern British social, cultural and economic history. Divided into three, the first section of the book addresses key concepts historians use to think about the century, notably, class, gender and national identity. Organised chronologically, the book then explores topical thematic issues, such as multicultural Britain, religion and citizenship. Representing changes in the field, some chapters represent more recent fields of historical inquiry, such as modernity and sexuality.      

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #94368 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 408 pages

Review

Praise for the First Edition

“An absorbing book….worth the attention of all those who teach and study modern British History an undergraduate and for A-level”

Andrew Thorpe, University of Exeter; The History Association

“Twentieth Century Britain… is a fascinating study of economic, social and cultural changes in our century ….it is an excellent up-to-date introduction to changing Britain.”

Day by Day

“I cannot praise this book highly enough for its breadth of scope and, above all, its sheer readability”

Ed Dixon, History Teaching Review

"The book includes some fascinating essays. The essays on our economy pre - and post-1945 are particularly useful."

Will Podmore

From the Back Cover

Reviews for the First Edition

“An absorbing book….worth the attention of all those who teach and study modern British History an undergraduate and for A-level” Andrew Thorpe, University of Exeter; The History Association

“Twentieth Century Britain… is a fascinating study of economic, social and cultural changes in our century ….it is an excellent up-to-date introduction to changing Britain.” Day by Day

“I cannot praise this book highly enough for its breadth of scope and, above all, its sheer readability” Ed Dixon, History Teaching Review

Blurb

Over the course of the twentieth century, British social conditions and expectations have improved significantly, as has economic performance.  War and work, political and social movements, technological and cultural change have all played their part in creating the Britain of today. 

Twentieth-Century Britain addresses the complexities of Britain’s changing character, providing an accessible and authoritative introduction to the economic and social development of modern Britain.  The first edition, published in 1994, is the market leading textbook in the field; this new edition builds on research conducted in the intervening years.  It now addresses the twentieth century as a whole, offering more material on the 1980s and 1990s and a close synthesis of the inter-relationship between the economic, social and cultural spheres.

This new edition retains the tripartite structure of the first edition created by Paul Johnson. While the spirit of the original publication remains the new edition has altered its focus and now includes a section covering the long 20th century as a whole, as well as essays addressing themes pre- and post-1945.  New contributions from leading scholars cover a broad range of topics including:

• Class and gender
• Motoring and modernity
• War and national identity
• The trade unions
• Youth
• Britain’s changing status in the international economy
• Immigration, multiculturalism and racism

Highly informative and accessible, each chapter features text boxes focusing on specific issues raised and selections of further reading.   Diagrams, tables and illustrations clarify textual arguments.  The book provides an up-to-date, engaging introduction to modern British history, and is a valuable repository of ideas for both students and teachers.

Francesca Carnevali is Senior Lecturer in Economic History at Birmingham University.  She has contributed to a number of volumes and is the author of Europe’s Advantage: Banks and Small firms in Britain, France, Germanyand Italysince 1918 (2005).

Dr. Julie-Marie Strange is Lecturer in Modern British History at Manchester University.  She is author of numerous articles, and a monograph, Death, Grief and Poverty in Britain, c.1870-1914 (2005)

About the Author

Paul Johnson is Reader in Social History, London School of Economics

Dr Julie-Marie Strange teaches at BirkbeckCollege, Universityof London

Customer Reviews

Useful study of recent British history
Francesca Carnevali, of Birmingham University, and Julie-Marie Strange, of Manchester University, have edited this collection of 23 essays. Its contributors are mainly from British universities, although there are also historians from Canada, Australia, France and Ireland.

Part One, on the whole century, includes essays on the British economy; modernity and modernism; class and gender; Britain's changing position in the international economy; and war and national identity since 1914. Part Two studies themes pre-1945 - suffrage and citizenship; motoring and modernity; the First World War and its aftermath; depression and recovery; consumption, consumer credit and the diffusion of consumer durables; the role of the state: taxation, citizenship and welfare reforms; leisure; and youth.

Part Three examines themes post-1945 - managing the economy, managing the people; immigration, multiculturalism and racism; the retreat of the state in the 1980s and 1990s; trade unions' rise and decline; sexuality; poverty and social exclusion; religion and `secularization'; Britain and Europe; and education and opportunity.

The book includes some fascinating essays, but unfortunately nothing on engineering or science. The essays on our economy pre- and post-1945 are particularly useful. Christopher Price, Lecturer in Economic History at Liverpool University, shows how Britain's economy grew by 3% a year after we ended free trade in 1931 by introducing a 10% tariff (raised to 20% in 1932). Keynes had pointed out that monetary policy, for example cutting interest rates to zero, was useless in a slump. We needed to increase demand for goods and services, for instance by raising wages and investing in useful projects.

Jim Tomlinson, Professor of Modern History at Dundee University, writes, "In the 1950s ..., and for most of the 1960s, the balance of payments problem was not (as government propaganda suggested) that Britain could not sell enough abroad to pay for its imports at a full-employment level of output. Rather, the problem lay elsewhere, with the ambition of successive British governments to have a large enough surplus of exports over imports to finance the significant proportion of `defence' spending sent overseas, and in addition to allow large-scale overseas investment. It was these expenditures, plus the vulnerability of the pound to periodic crises of confidence, due to its role as an international currency, that led to the frequency of balance of payments crises. It was not, to repeat, mainly due to some fundamental problems in British international competitiveness." Then as now, overseas military spending, foreign investment and an overvalued pound harmed Britain's economy.