Kenneth Morgan has won wide acclaim as one of the finest historians of twentieth century Britain. His works have been hailed as "history at its very best" by New Society--the finest combination of rigorous scholarship and lucid, enjoyable writing. Now comes The People's Peace, the most comprehensive and authoritative look at post-war Britain ever written.
In The People's Peace, Morgan paints a richly detailed portrait of British social and political history from the end of the Second World War up through the rule of Margaret Thatcher. It was a time when the British, having pulled together to win what was called "the people's war," looked forward to a people's peace--a peace of plenty and equality, provided by the Labour government's dramatic new welfare programs. But Morgan shows how the nation staggered under the debt of the war, struggling to rebuild its economy for a rapidly changing world. He examines Britain's fitful retreat from its imperial legacy, depicting the surprising popularity of the withdrawal from India and other colonies, and the shock of the Suez Crisis--when the U.S. made Britain's reduced role in the world painfully clear. Morgan also provides an insightful look at the changing popular culture, from the Teddy Boys to the massive adulation of the Beatles, as well as rising consumerism, permissiveness, and
the ugly racism that met the tide of African, Asian, and Caribbean immigrants.
From the debates over the welfare state, to the Profumo scandal, to the disillusionment with Wilson's chaotic Labour regime (leading to rumors of a military coup), to the crisis of strikes and economic decline that brought Margaret Thatcher to power, Morgan provides a lucid narrative of Britain's post-war politics. Even after Thatcher's apparent revival of the U.K.'s vitality, he writes, it still remains a land of tremendous inequality, split between a decaying industrial north and a growing high-tech south, the Celtic fringe and English heartland, the well-paid and the unemployed--locked into decades-old patterns. "In forty-four years," he writes, "the British had yet to recover from victory in the Second World War, even though the Germans and Japanese had so manifestly recovered from defeat."
Industry Reviews
`A major achievement ... It is the most comprehensive, detailed, and objective interpretation we have on this controversial and still undigested period ...It will undoubtedly become a standard work of the now familiar modern Oxford kind, politics with the social history put back in.'
Twentieth Century British History Vol 2 no 2
`the structure is very sound, and this lengthy book is fluently and beguilingly written. I look forward to periodic updates as the archives are opened'
Christopher Harvie, Welsh History Review
`It is an outstanding work: comprehensive, lucid and judicious.' Ben Pimlott, Sunday Times
`Kenneth Morgan's account of the Suez crisis and Macmillan's wretched performance in it is masterly ... Often our historians have been our best prophets, and it is good to see Oxford upholding that splendid, iconoclastic tradition.'
Michael Foot, Guardian
`a major academic study of Britain from 1945 to the present day'
Cambrian News
`... a useful read for the comprehensive survey it makes of post-war Britain.'
John Biffin, Church Times
`Morgan's is, as one would expect, a thorough and readable narrative, mainly of the high politics of this period. No one should underestimate the sheer difficulty of putting together so lucidly such a mass of data without losing sight of the central issues. Morgan blends the narrative with analysis and comment, in my view sensibly ... He is - again refreshingly - sceptical of conventional interpretations, such as that consensus followed the war, when in
fact, it was "partisanship rather than common identity [that] marked the popular mood" in the later 1940s. But he is at his best, as he has shown elsewhere, in his perceptive sketches of leading
politicians, notably of Edward Heath.'
Pat Thane, New Statesman and Society
'Often our historians have been our best prophets, and it is good to see Oxford upholding that splendid, iconoclastic tradition.'
Michael Foot, The Guardian
`...anyone who studies politics will want to possess his book.'
Noel Annan, The Independent on Sunday
`another example of this eminent historian's ability to capture the significant elements of a debate and place them in their proper context ... a comprehensive account of the sociological and political changes that have taken place during the past 45 years ... a penetrating analysis of contemporary Britain'
David Cornock, Western Mail
`A Major academic study of Britain from 1945 to the present day.'
Emyr Williams, Daily Post
`will obviously become a "standard work" ... It will be recommended as such to a generation or so of university students. It is the weightiest history of postwar Britain yet to appear.'
Frank Johnson, Sunday Telegraph
`... an outstanding work: comprehensive, lucid and judicious.'
Ben Pimlott, Sunday Times
`... tour de force of narrative compression, running all the way from Attlee to Thatcher, from the Festival of Britain through flower power to the Falklands (and beyond).'
John Campbell, The Times
`... an achievement of astonishing scope and thoroughness which would be beyond the reach of most other scholars writing in English today. ... full of shrewd insights ... Morgan's admirable textbook will certainly hold the field for many years to come ...'
John Campbell, Times Literary Supplement
`What Dr Morgan has done, with great success, is to plunder the wider history of Britain for the enrichment of the political narrative. This is where the strength of his book lies. No one writes better than Dr Morgan of the rise and fall of governments, their personalities and policies, their fluid and shifting identities, their ultimate and inevitable exhaustion. He is particularly good at identifying the critical moments at which governments changed
course, or lost a golden opportunity for doing so. ... he is excellent on the Attlee governments and writes of them with renewed clarity and vigour.'
Paul Addison, London Review of Books
`excellent survey ... many people will enjoy Kenneth Morgan's bias, and anyone who studies politics will want to possess his book'
Noël Annan, Independent on Sunday
`Dr Morgan is always lucid and readable, enlivening his account with frequent indications of his own opinion, and shrewd comments on personalities.'
John Grigg, The Times
`I commend it as a useful read for the comprehensive survey it makes of post-war Britain.'
John Biffen, Church Times
`a tour de force of narrative compression ... authoritative, readable and skilfully evocative of the mood of different periods'
John Campbell, The Times
`... a quality book which will prove indispensable for teachers of both A-level history and politics. They have needed this volume for a long time.'
Peter Hennessy, The Times Educational Supplement
`It could hardly be expected to match Taylor's text as an arena for bon mots and displays of coruscating impishness, but it does succeed in combining a good measure of readability with a more consistent level of scholarly soundness. The structure of The People's Peace testifies to the renewed vogue for narrative history.'
Government and Opposition, Vol. 26 No.1
'This is an excellent piece of contemporary history and likely to be the standard work for students of post-war 1945 Britain for years to come ... this splendidly objective and excitingly written study is a major contribution to our understanding of ourselves and our times'
Stephen Pratt, Birmingham Post
'It is a fine narrative of considerable intellectual power, carefully weaving together domestic and foreign policy, economic analysis, social trends and problems, and cultural change ... a lively, sometimes witty, often ironic, style which makes a compellingly readable - as well as a highly important - book.'
Gordon C. Forster, Yorkshire Post
'this is a very good book and deserves to become the standard work on the subject in the coming years'
Richard Cockett
`this lucid, comprehensive and well-written overview of the post-war era will serve the next generation of students as a guiding explanation of the thirty-four years which preceded that extraordinary decade, as well as the Thatcher era itself ... Following the marker set down a generation ago when A.J.P. Taylor contained the whole period 1914-45 in a single volume, Kenneth Morgan has written an elegant work in the Oxford tradition, better balanced,
generally more accurate ... an elegant work in the Oxford tradition'
R.K. Middlemas, English Historical Review, Oct 1991.
'throughout this sweeping narrative, he also demonstrates an impressive mastery of detail and an enviable ability to condense densely-packed material into pithy and elegant phrases ... The People's Peace is authoritative and readable, and will doubtless take its place as a standard text'
Nicholas Owen, Christ Church, Oxford, Contemporary Record, Vol. 5, No. 3, Autumn 1991
`excellently timed...it is an outstanding work:comprehensive, lucid and judicious.'
Ben Pimlott, Sunday Times
'the book is a stimulating and entertaining read ... Morgan writes attractively and clearly.'
Michael Hopkinson, University of Stirling, Irish Historical Studies'
`The People's Peaceis popular history of a high order. ... The great strength of The People's Peaceis the author's narrative skills. Morgan writes well and always interests the reader. The period is treated thematically and chronologically.'
Dennis Kavanagh, History
'I ... remain deeply impressed by this great work of learning that looks at British history with the impartial but compassionate intelligence of an intensely questioning and observant mind. I read the book almost spell-bound and the more I read the deeper I became immersed in it. Kenneth Morgan's study will provide every intelligent member of our society with material for discussion. We should carefully study the informed vision and the topical wisdom that
this outspoken and masterly survey provides.'
Kurt Otten, Literatur in Wissenschaft und Unterricht, XXVI, 2. 1993
'lively, idiosyncratic, but broadly-based and essentially reliable narrative of British political history over the last forty-five years ... a worthwhile and reliable ... volume'
Michael St. John Parker, Parliamentary Affairs, Volume 47, No. 1, January 1994
'The People's Peace is an impressive achievement which will undoubtedly become, as it deserves, a basic work for all students of post-war British history.'
Vernon Bognador, Brasenose College, Oxford, Parliamentary History, Vol. 13, pt 3 (1994)
