230087 From Austerity to Affluence, from the Welfare State to Deregulation: Britain, 1945-97 (S) (WiSe 2013/2014)

Although emerging victorious from the Second World War, Britain' s involvement in the most costly war to date – both in human and monetary terms - had left the country severely weakened in other respects. This course will investigate the extent to which the reconstruction that took place after 1945 marked a break with the past with regard to economic, social and political conditions. In order to do so, we shall deal with topics such as the state of the British economy post-1945, the political programme on the strength of which the Labour Party won a landslide victory in 1945, and the long-term social effects of the Welfare State established by the post-war Labour government. Throughout, the course will pay particular attention to issues of class, gender and ethnicity. Developments will be charted up until 1997 when New Labour's landslide election victory put an end to eighteen years of Conservative rule. During that period, the government, for most of the time under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher, endeavoured to make a new beginning by reversing the policies that had characterized the decades since 1945.

Bibliography

Introductory reading:
David Childs: Britain since 1945: A Political History, London, 2001
Arthur Marwick: British Society since 1945, Harmondsworth, 1990