Divided Kingdom
A History of Britain, 1900 to the Present

A clear, comprehensive survey of British history from 1900 to the present, integrating political, economic, social and cultural history.

Pat Thane (Author)

9781107612501, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 August 2018

502 pages
24.6 x 17.4 x 2.3 cm, 1.01 kg

'Divided Kingdom is an accessible, engrossing textbook. Thane deftly covers enormous ground, offering the reader both an authoritative survey of modern British history and important insights into its social dimensions especially … Divided Kingdom will find a welcome audience among undergraduates, for whom it will be an invaluable companion. Each chapter contains a number of sections, organized around easily digestible themes and moments, providing points of reference traceable back and forth through the book.' Naomi Lloyd-Jones, Hertford College, University of Oxford

How has the UK evolved into the country it is today? This clear, comprehensive survey of its history since 1900 explores the political, economic, social and cultural changes which have divided the nation and held it together, and how these changes were experienced by individuals and communities. Pat Thane challenges conventional interpretations of Britain's past based on stark contrasts, like the dull, conservative 1950s versus the liberated 'swinging sixties', and explores the key themes of nationalisms, the rise and fall of the welfare state, economic success and failure, imperial decline, and the UK's relationship with Europe. Highlighting changing living standards and expectations and inequalities of class, income, wealth, race, gender, sexuality, religion and place, she reveals what has (and has not) changed in the UK since 1900, why, and how, helping the reader to understand how our contemporary society, including its divisions and inequalities, was formed.

1. United Kingdom? 1900–14
2. The 'Great' War
3. Reconstruction? 1918–22
4. Democratic Britain? 1922–31
5. The Thirties, 1931–9
6. The peoples' war
7. Facing the future: Labour Britain, 1945–51
8. An affluent society? 1951–64
9. A permissive society? 1964–70
10. The Seventies
11. The Iron Lady, 1979–90
12. Son of Thatcher? John Major, 1990–97
13. Things can only get better? New Labour, 1997–2010.

Subject Areas: Politics & government [JP], Population & demography [JHBD], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], British & Irish history [HBJD1]