No Turning Back: The Peaceful Revolutions of Post-War Britain

464 Pages·2010·3.03 MB·English

by  Paul Addison

No Turning Back
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No Turning Back
The Peacetime Revolutions of
Post-War Britain
PAUL ADDISON
1
3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP
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© Paul Addison 2010
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First published 2010
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Library of Congress Control Number: 2010925606
Typeset by SPI Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India
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ISBN 978–0–19–219267–7
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
For Rosy
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Acknowledgements
My thanks are due fi rst of all to the editorial staff of Oxford University
Press for the patient support and encouragement they have given to a
laggardly author. I am grateful in particular to Catherine Clarke,
Luciana O’Flaherty, and Matthew Cotton for constructive criticism
and advice. I have had the good fortune of knowing that I could rely
at all times on the guidance and friendship of my agent, Bruce Hunter
of David Higham Associates. Special thanks are also due to Mr John
Gilmour, Professor Keith Robbins, and Professor Peter Hennessy, for
reading and commenting on a draft of the book. Without their inter-
vention it would have many more faults than it does, but they are not in
any way responsible for the faults that remain. I am very grateful to Zoe
Spilberg for picture research, to Connie Roberston for copyright
research and clearances, and to Susan Beer for copy-editing.
In the School of History, Classics and Archaeology at the Univer-
sity of Edinburgh, and its predecessor the Department of History,
I have enjoyed the best of historical company for the better part of a
lifetime, and I must ask colleagues and former students to forgive me
if I do not express my gratitude to them all individually: the list would
certainly be a long one. In recent years I have had a new academic
home at the Centre for the Study of the Two World Wars, and although
this is not a book about war it would be incomplete without a warm
word of thanks to colleagues with whom it has been a pleasure to
work: Professor Jim McMillan, Dr Jeremy Crang, Dr David Stafford,
and Ms Yvonne McEwen.
My greatest debt, as ever, is to my wife Rosy, my sons James and
Michael, and their two grannies, Cath and Pauline.
Paul Addison
University of Edinburgh
Centre for the Study of the Two World Wars
February 2010
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Contents
List of Illustrations x
List of Graphs and Maps xii
Introduction 1
Part I The Aftermath of War 1945–1957
1. The Gentleman in Whitehall 7
2. Fair Shares for All 51
3. Victorian Values 76
4. When British Was Best 102
Part II The Quest for Modernity 1957–1974
5. Managing the New Britain 133
6. Great Expectations 168
7. The Liberal Hour 196
8. National Identities 222
Part III Transformations 1974–1997
9. Mrs Thatcher’s Revolution 259
10. Haves and Have-Nots 315
11. The Permissive Age 341
12. Uncharted Waters 364
The Long View 403
Notes 411
Further Reading 435
Copyright Acknowledgements 437
Index 439