Making Thatcher's Britain

Margaret Thatcher was one of the most controversial figures of modern times. Her governments inspired hatred and veneration in equal measure and her legacy remains fiercely contested. Yet assessments of the Thatcher era are often divorced from any larger historical perspective. This book draws together leading historians to locate Thatcher and Thatcherism within the political, social, cultural and economic history of modern Britain. It explores the social and economic crises of the 1970s; Britain's relationships with Europe, the Commonwealth and the United States; and the different experiences of Thatcherism in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The book assesses the impact of the Thatcher era on class and gender and situates Thatcherism within the Cold War, the end of Empire and the rise of an Anglo-American 'New Right'. Drawing on the latest available sources, it opens a wide-ranging debate about the Thatcher era and its place in modern British history.

Introduction: varieties of Thatcherism Ben Jackson and Robert Saunders; Part I. Making Thatcherism: 1. 'Crisis? What crisis?': Thatcherism and the seventies Robert Saunders; 2. The think-tank archipelago: Thatcherism and neo-liberalism Ben Jackson; 3. Thatcher, monetarism and the politics of inflation Jim Tomlinson; 4. Thatcherism, morality and religion Matthew Grimley; 5. 'A nation or no nation?': Enoch Powell and Thatcherism Camilla Schofield; Part II. Thatcher's Britain: 6. Thatcher and the women's vote Laura Beers; 7. Margaret Thatcher and the decline of class politics Jon Lawrence and Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite; 8. Defiant dominoes: working miners and the 1984–5 strike David Howell; 9. Thatcherism, unionism and nationalism: a comparative study of Scotland and Wales Richard Finlay; 10. 'Just another country?': the Irish question in the Thatcher years Marc Mulholland; Part III. Thatcherism and the Wider World: 11. Thatcherism and the Cold War Richard Vinen; 12. Europe and America Andrew Gamble; 13. Decolonisation and imperial aftershocks: the Thatcher years Stephen Howe; Appendices Prepared by Peter Sloman; Further reading.

Ben Jackson is a University Lecturer in Modern History at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of University College. He is the author of Equality and the British Left (2007).
Robert Saunders is a Lecturer in History and Politics at the University of Oxford. He is the author of Democracy and the Vote in British Politics (2011).