British policy towards European integration has been one of the most divisive issues in British politics since 1945. Based on a detailed evaluation of the newly-accessible government records, of the Conservative Party records, private papers and interviews, this timely book analyses British European policy between 1945 and de Gaulle's veto against British EEC membership in 1963. It explores, in particular, the ambiguities in Britain's first EEC application of 1961. The epilogue highlights some of the most important continuities in British European policy until the present.

This book presents a radical reappraisal of British policy towards West German rearmament until the Federal Republic's incorporation into NATO and contains a series of major new theses on British attitudes towards European integration, Anglo-Soviet relations and the 'Special Relationship'. It places policy in the context of Anglo-German distrust, American demands for a German contribution and British fears of antagonising the Soviets. It clarifies numerous controversial issues by demonstrating British willingness to compromise with the Soviets over German unification, the British military's...

In October 1962, the world went to the brink of Armageddon. This study provides a new archive-based account of the Cuban missile crisis, providing the first detailed and authoritative account from the British perspective. The book draws upon new British and US archival material and recent scholarship in the west and the former USSR. The diplomatic, military and intelligence dimensions of British policy are scrutinised. New material is presented and existing interpretations of UK-US relations at this crucial moment are reassessed. The book contributes a new aspect to the literature on the...

Nigel J. Ashton analyzes Anglo-American relations during a crucial phase of the Cold War. He argues that although policy-makers on both sides of the Atlantic used the term "interdependence" to describe their relationship this concept had different meanings in London and Washington. The Kennedy Administration sought more centralized control of the Western alliance, whereas the Macmillan Government envisaged an Anglo-American partnership. This gap in perception gave rise to a "crisis of interdependence" during the winter of 1962-3, encompassing issues as diverse as the collapse of the British...

Since 1945, Britain's political and cultural landscape has been transformed by social movements campaigning on issues of gender, race, disability, sexuality, the environment and peace. Yet until now there has been no methodical attempt to chart the histories of these movements alongside one another. From early attempts to decriminalise gay sex to the movement against globalisation, Sex, Colour, Peace and Power takes a comprehensive approach to social movements that allows fresh insight into a neglected side of British history.

For 30 years, the Labour Party was wracked by conflict over membership in the European Community, swinging back and forth, pro and anti, when in and out of office. It was a conflict that helped keep the party in opposition for 18 years until it abandoned its socialist basis under New Labor. As a journalist and European Union official, Roger Broad knew many of the major and minor players and brings this experience to bear.

Exploring relationships between politics, the people and social change, this book assesses the fortunes mainly of Labor, but also of the Communist Party and the New Left in postwar Britain. Using concepts like political culture, it looks at the left's articulation of "affluence" consumerism, youth culture, America, TV, advertising and its disappointment at the people under the impact of such changes. It also examines party organization, socialist thinking and the use of new communication techniques like TV, advertising and opinion polling.

In a new book about Northern Ireland historian Peter Rose argues that if Harold Wilson's government in the late sixties had pursued a different policy the province might have been spared The Troubles. Wilson had promised the Catholics that they would be granted their civil rights. However, new evidence suggests that Westminster was deliberately gagged to prevent MPs demanding that the Stormont administration ended discrimination in the province. Had the government acted on intelligence of growing Catholic unrest, it could have prevented the rise of the Provisional IRA without provoking an...

New research by several leading political historians creates a detailed and diverse study of Anglo-American relations in the twentieth century. Declassified documents provide unique insight into the personal relationships between Eisenhower and Eden, and Lyndon Johnson and Harold Wilson. This volume offers a breadth of scholarship drawn from three continents and examines the diplomatic negotiations, powerful personalities and political considerations at the heart of British-American affairs.

Looks at the 1963 crisis in the Western alliance following de Gaulle's veto of the British EEC application. This text shows that the breakdown came after Anglo-German and Anglo-American cooperation to ensure that de Gaulle was made the sole scapegoat, in order to isolate France within the EEC.