Chapter 1
- Your story. Research online to find events across British politics and society, either in the year you were born, or in another year of significance. Identify which were the most important events of that time and why. For example, who was prime minister? Which party was in power? Begin the search using Wikipedia + year + politics + UK.Follow up with an exploration of key names, terms and their importance.
- In the same way, begin researching other areas of cultural and artistic interest such as film, television and popular music, to build up a complete cultural portrait of Britain in that year. Don’t just describe what happened, but aim to explain why the events you mention were significant. Organise the information into an essay format, or give a short presentation, incorporating images and information gathered online.
- Briefly summarise the most important political and social changes in Britain since 1945. Which decade do you find the most interesting from a political and economic point of view?
- Should the government subsidise the arts, or should they exist independently like any other commercial enterprise?
- Consider the social changes that have taken place in the UK in recent years. Think about different sections of the community, such as youth, women and immigrants, their economic level and position in society. Compare and contrast these changes with those of another country with which you are familiar.
- Identify a distinctive period in recent British history and the cultural elements and symbols that are associated with it, such as songs, books, films, TV shows, art and popular music. Make a comparison with a distinctive period in another country’s recent history. What similarities and differences do you notice, and why?
Books
Biressi, A. (2013)Class and Contemporary British Culture,London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Black, J. (2004) Britain Since the 1970s: Politics and Society in the Consumer Age, London: Reaktion Books.
Booker, C. (1969) The Neophiliacs, London: Collins.
Burston, P. and Richardson, C. (1995) A Queer Romance: Lesbians, Gay Men and Popular Culture, London: Routledge.
Chambers, I. (1986) Popular Culture, the Metropolitan Experience, London: Routledge.
Cook, M (2011) A Gay History of Britain, Westport, CT: Praeger.
Evans, E. (2004) Thatcher and Thatcherism, London: Routledge.
Gardiner, J. (1999) From the Bomb to the Beatles: The Changing Face of Postwar Britain 1945–65, London: Collins & Brown.
Green, J. (2002) All Dressed Up: The Sixties and the Counterculture, London: Pimlico.
Halsey, A.H. and Webb, J. (2000) Twentieth Century British Social Trends, London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Hoggart, R. (1957) The Uses of Literacy, London: Chatto & Windus.
Hunt, L. (1998) British Low Culture: From Safari Suits to Sexploitation, London: Routledge.
James, O. (2002) Britain on the Couch, London: Routledge.
Jennings, R. (2007) A Lesbian History of Britain, Westport, CT: Greenwood.
Lewis, P. (1978) The Fifties, London: William Heinemann.
Lynch M. (2008) Britain 1947–2007, London: Hodder Education
Marr, A. (2010) A History of Modern Britain, London: Pan
Marwick, A. (1998) The Sixties, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Melly, G. (1970) Revolt into Style, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
Mirza, H.S. (ed.) (1997) Black British Feminism: A Reader, London: Routledge.
Oakland, J. (2010) British Civilization, 7th edn. London: Routledge.
Pugh, M. (2000) Women and the Women’s Movement in Britain, 1914–1999, London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Phillips, M. and Phillips, T. (1998) Windrush: The Irresistible Rise of Multi-Racial Britain, London: HarperCollins.
Rowbotham, S. (1997) A Century of Women: The History of Women in Britain and the US, London: Viking.
Sampson, A. (2004) Who Runs This Place? The Anatomy of Britain in the Twenty-First Century, London: John Murray.
Sked, A. and Cook, A. (1993) Post-War Britain: A Political History, London: Penguin.
Turner, A. (2013) Crisis What Crisis: Britain in the 1970s, London: Aurum.
Turner, A. (2014) A Classless Society: Britain in the 1990s,London: Aurum.
Wambu, O. (ed.) (1998) Empire Windrush – 50 Years of Writing about Black Britain, London: Gollancz.
York, P. and Jennings, C. (1995) Peter York’s Eighties, London: BBC Books.
Office for National Statistics (annual) Social Trends, London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Journals
The daily and weekly quality newspapers provide good sources of material to follow political and cultural trends, while journals such as The Economist and the Guardian Weekly also contain articles on current affairs and cultural life. All are now available online. See also the data from Social Trends and the General Household Survey, which provides data on a variety of social matters.
Detailed timeline 1947–2005
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/timeline/present_timeline_noflash.shtml
BBC website for links to matters of cultural, social and political interest
The BBC History website
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/modern/overview_1945_present_01.shtml
British politics – general
The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953
Windrush – the story of the first immigrants into Britain
Enoch Powell’s inflammatory ‘rivers of blood’ speech on immigration in 1968
Feminism in Britain - documentary
and subsequent episodes
Youth culture in the 1960s
Decade review of the 1970s by historian Dominic Sandbrook
Cold War Britain documentary series by Dominic Sandbrook
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZi_rrZX4bo&list=PLtHrZQh4oQ7kOqpCVwUGWzFBVQwAQ5rxl/
The Downing Street Years documentary on Margaret Thatcher’s time as prime minister
Documentary on Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher and the IRA
Documentary on Britain in the 1990s
London riots in 2011