At the end of World War II, Britain faced enormous financial and economic problems, made more intractable by the heavy defence expenditure demanded by colonial presence in Asia, Africa and the Middle East and the decision to go ahead with producing a British atomic bomb in the light of a growing Soviet threat.This book looks at how British defence policy has balanced the country's need to maintain the status of an independent nuclear power with its diminishing role in world politics, generally, concentrating on how that policy was applied in key events such as the Korean War, the Suez crisis...

Within twenty years of victory in the Second World War Britain had ceased to be a world power and her global empire has dissolved into fragments. With what now seems astonishing rapidity, and empire three centuries old, which had reached its greatest extent as late as 1921, was transformed into more than fifty sovereign states. Why did this great transformation come about? Had Britain simply become too weak in a world of superpowers? Had the pressure of colonial nationalism suddenly become overwhelming? Or had the British themselves decided that they no longer needed an empire, and that...

Britain has been a member of the European Community since the start of 1973, but it is only recently, with the publicity given to the plans for the creation of the single market in 1992, and the role of the community in environmental and social policies, that the mass of the population of Britain have begun to notice the possibilities that membership holds. Mrs Thatcher's government has played down and resisted the increased integration that seems to be taking place in Europe, but it is unlikely that Britain can stand apart from this process much longer.

This book examines the complex transformation of British sport in the second half of the twentieth century. Focusing on the key role of the media as a driving force for change, it also provides a fascinating account of the wider social and cultural history of post-war British sport.

This book examines the complex transformation of British sport in the second half of the twentieth century. Focusing on the key role of the media as a driving force for change, it also provides a fascinating account of the wider social and cultural history of post-war British sport.

The nature of the British Welfare State, established in the 1940s through the acceptance of the Beveridge Report's recommendations and assumptions, has long been the subject of an inconclusive debate, although knowledge of its history has been rapidly increasing as official papers have become open to access under the thirty year rule. What aims, interests and forces shaped its development before and after the Beveridge Report's appearance, from the Liberal innovations in social policy before 1914 to the collapse of full employment in the 1970s? The answers provided by historical research and...

Since 1945 there have been nine Prime Ministers of Britain. This book outlines and analyzes the way the office has developed in the past 45 years. It considers the social backgrounds, image, relations with cabinets, role in policy making, and power of the men and woman who have occupied this office.

This book provides a succinct overview of the development of the civil service since the Second World War. Adopting a broad, historical approach, it assesses the changes in organization, structure and management of the Whitehall machine, alongside the continuities in the policy and practice of public administration. Kevin Theakston draws on the full range of recent scholarship, documents in the Public Record Office, and the many postwar offical investigations and reports to provide a balanced analysis of the key themes and issues. The book will be welcomed by all interested in the development...

Margaret Thatcher's departure from office and the arrival of her successor, John Major, have had a profound impact on the way Britain is governed - and in this new edition of Consensus Politics, the authors examines the legacy of Thatcherite "conviction politics" and assesses the state of consensus in Britain's government today.

This chronicle of the rise and fall of the post-war consensus in five key policy areas - the mixed economy, full employment, trade unions, welfare and foreign policy - remains a superb introduction to one of the major debates of recent political...

This widely anticipated volume offers a systematic introduction to and striking analysis of the central issues animating current debate in moral philosophy.