Research Catalog

Title

Labour's promised land? : culture and society in Labour Britain, 1945-51 / edited by Jim Fyrth ; with an introduction by Victor Kiernan.

Publication

London : Lawrence & Wishart, 1995.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Fyrth, Jim

Description

xxxii, 320 p.; 22 cm.

Summary

The Labour governments of 1945-51 were the high point of Labour's popularity and enthusiasm for reform. They also established the framework for the post-war political consensus. This new collection of essays explores the cultural climate of Labour Britain and the framework of post-war political culture and welfare policies which conditioned that climate. Labour's Promised Land? resists the temptation to view British culture of the period through rose-tinted glasses. The contributors critically assess the successes and failures of the Governments' policies, and cover issues such as: British cinema of the period, working-class consumer culture, the founding of the NHS, Labour's attempts to house and educate the heroes and their families, post-war feminist activity and the response of the right to their crushing defeat.

Subject

• Labour Party (Great Britain) > History > 20th century
• Since 1900
• Great Britain > Social conditions > 1945-
• Great Britain > Economic conditions > 1979-1997
• Great Britain > Politics and government > 1945-

Genre/Form

History

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

• Introduction: Missing the Tide / Victor Kiernan -- Days of Hope: the Meaning of 1945 / Jim Fyrth -- 'To Make Men and Women Better Than They Are': Labour and the Building of Socialism / Steven Fielding -- A Golden Past? The Labour Party and the Working Class in 1945 / Robert Looker -- 'Daughter of the Newer Eve': The Labour Movement and Women / Christine Collette -- Wives and Citizens and Watchdogs of Equality: Post-War British Feminism / Catherine Blackford -- A 'Third Way'?: The Labour Left, Democratic Socialism and the Cold War / Jonathan Wood -- Towards Isolation: the Communist Party and the Labour Government / John Callaghan -- Defeat and Renewal: the Ideology of the Right / Martin Durham -- The Welfare State: a New Society? / John Callaghan -- An Historic Compromise: Labour and the Foundation of the National Health Service / Steve Iliffe -- Housing the People / Alison Ravetz
• Equality of Opportunity? The Labour Government and the Schools / Douglas Bourn -- The Government, the People and the Festival / Alan Sinfield -- Betrayed Spring: The Labour Government and the British Literary Culture / Andy Croft -- British 'McCarthyism' and the Intellectuals / Steve Parsons -- The Days of the New Look: Working-Class Affluence and the Consumer Culture / Angela Partington -- Adults Learning -- For Leisure, Recreation and Democracy / Roger Fieldhouse -- Art and Architecture for the People? / Nigel Glendinning -- Myths of Consensus and Fables of Escape: British Cinema 1945-51 / Andy Medhurst -- Recording a Landscape: Growing up in Dormanstown / Rosalind Delmar.

ISBN

0853158118

LCCN

^^^95171976^

OCLC

• 32410264
• SCSB-11619877

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library