Affluence and Authority

The turn of the millennium generated a spate of reflections on the state of the nation and the ways in which life in Britain had changed during the course of the twentieth century. Affluence and Authority contributes to this debate by providing a wide-ranging, well-informed and accessible interpretation of British social history during a hundred years of profound, and almost certainly unprecedented, economic, political, cultural, demographic and ideological change. This book lays particular emphasis upon material conditions in accounting for the underlying stability of society during the course of this turbulent and troubled century. It argues that despite the fact that many groups shared only haltingly and uncertainly in the benefits of economic growth, it is the long-term improvement in the standard of living that provides the single most important key to understanding the social history of twentieth-century Britain. The balance between economic and social developments is analysed thoroughly. Indeed, one of this book's central purposes is to challenge the view that economic gains were undermined by social losses, that the British people failed to respond as constructively as they should to the economic improvements they enjoyed. John Benson's thought provoking study also suggests that social class should be set alongside categories such as age, gender and ethnicity when attempting to analyse the ways in which British social history developed during the course of the twentieth century.