This collection of essays highlights the variety of 1970s culture, and shows how it responded to the transformations that were taking place in that most elusive of decades. The 1970s was a period of extraordinary change on the social, sexual and political fronts. Moreover, the culture of the period was revolutionary in a number of ways; it was sometimes florid, innovatory, risk-taking and occasionally awkward and inconsistent. The essays collected here reflect this diversity and analyse many cultural forms of the 1970s. The book includes articles on literature, politics, drama, architecture, film, television, youth cultures, interior design, journalism, and contercultural “happenings”. Its coverage ranges across phenomena as diverse as the Wombles and Woman’s Own. The volume offers an interdisciplinary account of a fascinating period in British cultural history. This book makes an important intervention in the field of 1970s history. It is edited and introduced by Laurel Forster and Sue Harper, both experienced writers, and the book comprises work by both established and emerging scholars. Overall it makes an exciting interpretation of a momentous and colourful period in recent culture.

'A masterful work of social history and cultural commentary, told with much wit. It almost makes you feel as if you were there' ROGER LEWIS, Mail on Sunday The 1970s. They were the best of times and the worst of times. Wealth inequality was at a record low, yet industrial strife was at a record high. These were the glory years of Doctor Who and glam rock, but the darkest days of the Northern Ireland conflict. Beset by strikes, inflation, power cuts and the rise of the far right, the cosy Britain of the post-war consensus was unravelling – in spectacularly lurid style. Fusing high politics and low culture, Crisis? What Crisis? presents a world in which Enoch Powell, Ted Heath and Tony Benn jostle for space with David Bowie, Hilda Ogden and Margo Leadbetter, and reveals why a country exhausted by decline eventually turned to Margaret Thatcher for salvation.

The most dynamic, relevant and exciting British history book of the year, shedding a whole new light on overlooked recent history in Great Britain.

In Working Class Heroes, David Simonelli explores the influence of rock and roll on British society in the 1960s and '70s. At a time when social distinctions were becoming harder to measure, rock musicians appeared to embody the mythical qualities of the idealized working class by perpetuating the image of rebellious, irreverent, and authentic musicians.

First published in 1976, Working Class Youth Culture offers a much-needed alternative viewpoint to the law-and-order lobby which treats the youth question as a dreadful pest to be exterminated or caged in. The contributors describe the real conditions of life for working-class youth; how they make sense of the world; and how we can understand their perspective. The subjects discussed include Teddy Boys, Mods, Skinheads and the Glamrock Cult; dance-hall fights; picking up girls and going steady; how schools manufacture delinquency, truancy and vandalism; how working-class kids slide from bad schools to bad jobs, or to no jobs at all; Paki-bashing, racism and the competition over jobs and houses; how social change in post-war Britain has influenced youth culture; and how social scientists have hidden the real character of youth troubles behind the myth of a classless society. This book will be of interest to students of sociology and anthropology.

British culture after Empire is the first collection of its kind to explore the intertwined social, cultural and political aftermath of empire in Britain from 1945 up to and beyond the Brexit referendum of 2016, combining approaches from the fields of history, English and cultural studies. Against those who would deny, downplay or attempt to forget Britain’s imperial legacy, the various contributions expose and explore how the British Empire and the consequences of its end continue to shape Britain at the local, national and international level. As an important and urgent intervention in a field of increasing relevance within and beyond the academy, the book offers fresh perspectives on the colonial hangovers in post-colonial Britain from up-and-coming as well as established scholars.

Culture is defined in its broadest sense and areas covered include architecture, consumerism, education, ethnicity and belief, fashion and design, film and cinema, gender and family, intellectual life, literature, media, music, performing arts, politics and society, recreation, sport, video and television, visual arts, and youth culture."--Jacket.