Finding a Role?: The United Kingdom 1970-1990
Brian Harrison
Abstract
In 1970 the ‘cold war’ was still cold, Northern Ireland's troubles were escalating, the UK's relations with the European Economic Community (EEC) were unclear, and corporatist approaches to the economy precariously persisted. By 1990 Communism was crumbling world-wide, Thatcher's economic revolution had occurred, terrorism in Northern Ireland was waning, ‘multi-culturalism’ was in place, family structures were changing fast, and British political institutions had become controversial. Seven analytic chapters pursue these changes and accumulate rich detail on changes in international relations, ... More
In 1970 the ‘cold war’ was still cold, Northern Ireland's troubles were escalating, the UK's relations with the European Economic Community (EEC) were unclear, and corporatist approaches to the economy precariously persisted. By 1990 Communism was crumbling world-wide, Thatcher's economic revolution had occurred, terrorism in Northern Ireland was waning, ‘multi-culturalism’ was in place, family structures were changing fast, and British political institutions had become controversial. Seven analytic chapters pursue these changes and accumulate rich detail on changes in international relations, landscape and townscape, social framework, family and welfare structures, economic policies and realities, intellect and culture, politics and government. The concluding chapter ranges chronologically even more widely to bring out the interaction of past and present, then asks how far the UK had by 1990 identified its world role. This book includes a full chronological table and an ample index of names and themes. This book has two overriding aims: to show how British institutions evolved, but also to illuminate changes in the British people: their hopes and fears, values and enjoyments, failures and achievements.
Keywords:
cold war,
Northern Ireland,
multi-culturalism,
international relations,
family,
welfare structures,
landscape,
townscape
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2011 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199606122 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: March 2015 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199606122.001.0001 |
