Britain Since 1945: The People's Peace

An excellent account of the period from 1945 to 2001. Very well written, and a very good balance between the political, the social and the cultural, and between trends and personalities. There is no over-simplification: while Morgan describes the problems that beset Britain - especially the economic ones which plagued her during her period of decline - he always shows that when times were exceptionally bad, as during the Heath-Wilson-Callaghan years - they were never wholly bad; and when Britain had `never had it so good', as in the Macmillan years, they were actually not as good as they seemed. Above all, he shows that, however despairing many people were at times when Britain appeared `ungovernable', there was never the danger of either revolution or dictatorship.

As a former Anglophile student of English from the University of Oslo I have read quite a lot about the British society since 45, but this book is the best I have read so far. The author takes us from the consensus politics of the Attlee government, via Churchill, Eden, Macmillan, Douglas-Home and the turbulent regime of Wilson, Heath and Callaghan, to the revolutionary Thatcher years followed by Tony Blair's presidential style at the turn of the century. He touches upon all aspects of society; culture, science, welfare and economy in a subtle and balanced way that is informative in the first place, but also compelling reading about a great power in decline, which nevertheless has retained its appeal to those of us who admire the British for their verbal capacity.