This broad-ranging and original text provides an accessible introduction to British politics since 1945, challenging many well-established orthodoxies. It focuses on conceptions of political consensus, evolution and transformation, continuity and discontinuity in presenting a consistent and distinctive account of social, political and economic change in the postwar years. The book offers a novel perspective on the development of the British state and of British politics over this period.

About the authors. Introduction: Explaining Change in the Postwar Period. (David Marsh). Part One: Key Themes of Postwar British Political Development. 1. Continuity and Discontinuity in British Political Development. (Colin Hay). 2. Britain's Economic Decline: Cultural Versus Structural Explanations. (Jim Johnston). 3. The Post-War Consensus: A Woozle That Wasn't? (Peter Kerr). 4. Crisis and Political Development in Postwar Britain. (Colin Hay). 5. Britain's Relations with the European Union in Historical Perspective. (Jim Buller). 6. Globalization and the Development of the British Political Economy. (Matthew Watson). Part Two: Key Narratives of Postwar British Political Development. 7. Questions of Change and Continuity in Attlee's Britain. (Jim Johnston). 8. Explaining Thatcherism: Towards a Multidimensional Approach. (Peter Kerr and David Marsh). 9. The Post-Thatcher Era. (Stuart McAnulla). Conclusion: Analysing and Explaining Postwar British Political Development. (Colin Hay and David Marsh). Bibliography. Index.