THE PEOPLE'S PEACE: British History 1945-1989

by Kenneth O. Morgan ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1990

Here, Morgan (Principal of The Univ. College of Wales, Albertswyth) presents a fine scholarly narrative history of postwar Britain. Morgan claims that WW II's great moral achievement was the spirit of national unity that brought British classes together in a people's war. Ideally, a People's Peace would follow, when Attlee's new Labour government of 1945, backed by powerful trade unions and Keynesian economic theories, promised to redress inequalities of class and region. But instead, Morgan finds, cracks in the ""mask of unity"" developed when shortages and austerity persisted into the postwar years. Rising taxes, inflation, bureaucracies, public debt, and trade deficits brought the Conservatives to power, which compromised socialist trends. Morgan recounts how patricians and others mourned the retreat from Empire that culminated in the disaster at Suez, and he discusses the revival of nationalism in deprived Celtic areas of Scotland and Wales and the racism that followed the waves of black and Asian immigration. Finally, Morgan describes the toppling of Wilson's Labour regime by strikes and economic decline, and its replacement by the Thatcher group and the rising middle classes. He concludes that the average Briton, despite problems, enjoyed a time of peace and stability in these times, while not missing the burdens of Empire. Comprehensive and well-detailed, as Morgan illuminates the complacency of British society and the irony of Britain's decline in the postwar world in contrast to the rise of defeated Germany and Japan.

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1990

ISBN: 0198227647

Page Count: -

Publisher: Oxford Univ. Press

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1990

Categories: NONFICTION