The Rise and Fall of the British Nation: A Twentieth-Century History

619 Pages·2018·26.13 MB·English

by  David Edgerton

David Edgerton

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE BRITISH NATION
A Twentieth-century History
Contents
List of Maps
List of Tables
List of Figures
List of Illustrations
List of Abbreviations
Maps
Introduction
PART 1
1900–1950
1 The Country with No Name
2 Mightier Yet!
3 Globalization to Nationalization
4 Kingdom of Capital
5 British Capitalism?
6 Knowledge and Power
7 Tomorrow, Perhaps the Future
8 A Mirror of the Nation at Work
9 From Class to Nation
PART 2
1950–2000
10 A Nation in the World
11 Building the Future
12 National Capitalism
13 Warfare State
14 Two Classes, Two Parties, One Nation
15 Social Democracy, Nationalism and Declinism
16 Possibilities
17 Defending the Nation
18 Rulers’ Revolt
19 A Nation Lost
20 New Times, New Labour
Illustrations
Notes
Bibliography
Further Reading
Sources
Acknowledgements
Follow Penguin
For Alicia Edgerton
List of Maps
Coalfields of Great Britain, 1910
Principal ports for the import of goods, and export of UK-produced goods, by
value, 1913
Accession to EFTA and the EEC/EU
List of Tables
Parliaments, governments and prime ministers, 1900–1950
Parliaments, governments and prime ministers, 1950–2000
1.1: The United Kingdom’s most important suppliers and export markets,
1928
3.1: Imports of food and animal feeding-stuffs to the United Kingdom, 1934–
44
4.1: The top eighteen colliery companies by size of labour force in 1935, with
senior figure if peer 9.1: Central and local government expenditure on
social services, 1920–38
9.2: The structure of interwar social services: expenditure and contributions
11.1: UK final energy consumption, 1948–98, million tonnes of oil
equivalent 12.1: Manufacturing shares of output, labour and capital in the
whole economy (per cent) 12.2: Output of manufacturing and services,
1948–2000 (1948 = 100) 13.1: Nine major conflicts by operational
deaths, UK armed services, 1945–
List of Figures
3.1: UK coal production, inland consumption and exports (including bunkers)
4.1: Share of total personal wealth by percentile, 1895–2015
8.1: Trade Union membership and the Labour Party vote, 1880–1960
10.1: Goods trade as a percentage of GDP, 1900–2000
10.2: Trade as a proportion of GDP, main Western European economies,
1950–90
11.1: UK food, feed and drink imports and exports at 2011 prices £000 (GDP
deflator) 11.2: Household consumption (grams per week) of selected
foods from the National Food Survey 18.1: Defence, NHS, education,
social security and public investment as percentage of GDP, 1948–2000
18.2: Inflation and interest rates, 1900–2000
19.1: Percentage of UK stock market owned by foreign capital, by value,
1963–2000
19.2: Real GDP, logged, 1948–99 (£ billion)
19.3: United Kingdom estimated gross value added by sector at constant
prices, 1948–2000 (£ million) 19.4: UK manufacturing output, 1948–
2014
List of Illustrations
Integrated illustrations
4.1: Low, ‘If Bolshevism Came to England. No. 1 – Capital Leaves the
Country’ (1928). (British Cartoon Archive LSE0435, Associated
Newspapers Ltd) 15.1: Vicky, ‘The New Cabinet’ (1958). (British
Cartoon Archive VY1066)
15.2: Vicky, ‘A Nation Neglects Its Eggheads at Its Peril’ (1964). (British
Cartoon Archive 06099, Associated Newspapers Ltd) 17.1: Steve Bell,
‘Falkland Victory’, If #0201 (1982). (© Steve Bell)
17.2: Steve Bell, ‘Argy Bargee’ If #0167 (1982). (© Steve Bell)
20.1: Steve Bell, ‘TUC Conference’ If #4564 (1999). (© Steve Bell)
Inset illustrations
1. Second World War Canadian propaganda poster showing different
administrative regimes in the British Commonwealth and Empire.
(Library and Archives Canada National Film Board of Canada fonds
e010753702) 2. The Edith Cavell monument in London. (Getty)
3. A Great War recruitment poster. (Library of Congress LC-USZC4-
10880)
4. British children in a bomb shelter. (Library of Congress LC-USW33-
021089-C) 5. An Indian soldier arriving in Singapore 1941 or 1942.
(Library of Congress LC-DIG-ds-04824) 6. Cartoon by Stanger
Pritchard, 1913, from Truth, December 1913. (CC BY Wellcome
Collection, no. 15781i) 7. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin with Foreign
Secretary Austen Chamberlain and Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston
Churchill in 1925. (Library of Congress LC-USZ62-111781) 8. Clement
Attlee, with Harry Truman and Joseph Stalin, in Berlin, August 1945.