This revised edition of David Childs' text offers a detailed account of Britain's history since 1939. An introductory chapter focuses on the inter-war years, setting the scene for analysis of political, social and economic developments since 1939, including the impact of the Second World War, the last days of Empire, Ireland, the decline of the Conservatives and the Blair experience. Childs concludes that, despite the serious problems Britain faces, Britons are better off than ever in terms of prosperity and personal freedom.

The first survey of British Immigration policy to include both its pre-World War Two origins and its development after the crucial 1962 Commonwealth Immigrants Act. An accessible introduction to a subject of increasing popularity.

A Companion to Contemporary Britain covers the key themesand debates of 20th-century history from the outbreak of the SecondWorld War to the end of the century. Assesses the impact of the Second World War Looks at Britain’s role in the wider world, including thelegacy of Empire, Britain’s ‘specialrelationship’ with the United States, and integration withcontinental Europe Explores cultural issues, such as class consciousness,immigration and race relations, changing gender roles, and theimpact of the mass media Covers domestic politics and the economy Introduces the varied perspectives dominating historicalwriting on this period Identifies the key issues which are likely to fuel futuredebate

In the past ten years or so there has been a remarkable growth of interest in Britain's recent past. Right-wing popularisers, such as Correlli Barnett, John Charmley and Andrew Roberts, inspired by Thatcherite politics, have produced a stream of polemics. Meanwhile liberal and academic historians have been left in the stalls. This book aims to rectify the absence of a left-wing version of history since the Second World War. Structured chronologically, it follows the broad phases of government since 1939 - the Attlee years, the Churchill government, the Eden and Macmillan governments, the Wilson years, the 1970s and the Thatcher Years. Leading historians in their particular fields take issue with recent right-wing accounts of the period and propose a coherent alternative of Britain's history since the Second World War.

During the Second World War, people arrived in Britain from all over the world as troops, war-workers, nurses, refugees, exiles, and prisoners-of-war-chiefly from Europe, America, and the British Empire. Between 1939 and 1945, the population in Britain became more diverse than it had ever been before. Through diaries, letters, and interviews, Mixing It tells of ordinary lives pushed to extraordinary lengths. Among the stories featured are those of Zbigniew Siemaszko - deported by the Soviet Union, fleeing Kazakhstan on a horse-drawn sleigh, and eventually joining the Polish army in Scotland via Iran, Iraq, and South Africa - and 'Johnny' Pohe - the first Maori pilot to serve in the RAF, who was captured, and eventually murdered by the Gestapo for his part in the 'Great Escape'. This is the first book to look at the big picture of large-scale movements to Britain and the rich variety of relations between different groups. When the war ended, awareness of the diversity of Britain's wartime population was lost and has played little part in public memories of the war. Mixing It recovers this forgotten history. It illuminates the place of the Second World War in the making of multinational, multiethnic Britain and resonates with current debates on immigration.

The Second World War was, for Britain, a 'total war'; no section of society remained untouched by military conscription, air raids, the shipping crisis and the war economy. In this comprehensive and engrossing narrative Angus Calder presents not only the great events and leading figures but also the oddities and banalities of daily life on the Home Front, and in particular the parts played by ordinary people: air raid wardens and Home Guards, factory workers and farmers, housewives and pacifists. Above all this revisionist and important work reveals how, in those six years, the British people came closer to discarding their social conventions than at any time since Cromwell's republic. Winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys prize in 1970, The People’s War draws on oral testimony and a mass of neglected social documentation to question the popularised image of national unity in the fight for victory.

This book offers a comprehensive overview of Britain's development since the end of the Second World War. It comprises 23 contributions from leading authorities and newer scholars, set in context with a foreword by Raymond Seitz. A comprehensive and fascinating introduction to Britain from the end of the Second World War Draws together the themes that have dominated discussion amongst scholars and media commentators The chapters are set in context with a foreword by Raymond Seitz Covers topics such as foreigh policy, political parties, the media, race relations, women and social change, science and IT, culture, industrial relations, the welfare state, and political and economic issues in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland