Making Thatcher's Britain

This book situates the controversial Thatcher era in the political, social, cultural and economic history of modern Britain.

Ben Jackson (Edited by), Robert Saunders (Edited by)

9781107683372, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 August 2012

368 pages
22.6 x 15 x 2.3 cm, 0.57 kg

'Making Thatcher's Britain is a solid contribution covering a range of important issues that helped define Margaret Thatcher's leadership and Britain at the end of the Cold War. The book is at its best analyzing Thatcher's domestic support and ideological influences and providing detail about the antecedents and evolution of Thatcherism. Furthermore, the appendices - including a timeline of events, electoral data, unemployment statistics, union membership, and government revenue tables - complement the arguments of change and continuity from 1979 to 1990 … the book adds to our understanding of the sometimes contradictory policies and contested legacy of Thatcher's government by focusing on Thatcherism's intellectual roots, attraction, and consequences.' Ryan Shaffer, Journal of British Studies

Margaret Thatcher was one of the most controversial figures of modern times. Her governments inspired hatred and veneration in equal measure and her legacy remains fiercely contested. Yet assessments of the Thatcher era are often divorced from any larger historical perspective. This book draws together leading historians to locate Thatcher and Thatcherism within the political, social, cultural and economic history of modern Britain. It explores the social and economic crises of the 1970s; Britain's relationships with Europe, the Commonwealth and the United States; and the different experiences of Thatcherism in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The book assesses the impact of the Thatcher era on class and gender and situates Thatcherism within the Cold War, the end of Empire and the rise of an Anglo-American 'New Right'. Drawing on the latest available sources, it opens a wide-ranging debate about the Thatcher era and its place in modern British history.

Introduction: varieties of Thatcherism Ben Jackson and Robert Saunders
Part I. Making Thatcherism: 1. 'Crisis? What crisis?': Thatcherism and the seventies Robert Saunders
2. The think-tank archipelago: Thatcherism and neo-liberalism Ben Jackson
3. Thatcher, monetarism and the politics of inflation Jim Tomlinson
4. Thatcherism, morality and religion Matthew Grimley
5. 'A nation or no nation?': Enoch Powell and Thatcherism Camilla Schofield
Part II. Thatcher's Britain: 6. Thatcher and the women's vote Laura Beers
7. Margaret Thatcher and the decline of class politics Jon Lawrence and Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite
8. Defiant dominoes: working miners and the 1984–5 strike David Howell
9. Thatcherism, unionism and nationalism: a comparative study of Scotland and Wales Richard Finlay
10. 'Just another country?': the Irish question in the Thatcher years Marc Mulholland
Part III. Thatcherism and the Wider World: 11. Thatcherism and the Cold War Richard Vinen
12. Europe and America Andrew Gamble
13. Decolonisation and imperial aftershocks: the Thatcher years Stephen Howe
Appendices Prepared by Peter Sloman
Further reading.

Subject Areas: Political leaders & leadership [JPHL], Politics & government [JP], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], British & Irish history [HBJD1], History [HB]