Politics of the Past: Inter-war Memories and the Making of British Popular Politics, 1939–2009

di David Cowan (Autore)

Cambridge University Press, 2025

The inter-war period (1918–1939) is still remembered as a period of mass deprivation – the 'hungry thirties'. But how did this impression emerge? Thousands of conversations about life in the inter-war period – between parents and children around the dinner table; among workmates at the pub – shaped these understandings. In turn, these fed into popular politics. Stories about the embryonic welfare system in the early-twentieth century informed how people felt towards the National Health Service; memories of the Great Depression shaped arguments about state intervention in the economy. Challenging accounts of widespread political disengagement in the twentieth century, Politics of the Past shows how re-telling family stories about the inter-war period offered ordinary people an accessible way of engaging in politics. Drawing on six local case studies across Scotland and England, this book explains how stories about the inter-war working-class experience in industrial areas came to appear commonplace nationwide.

• Autore: David Cowan
• Editore: Cambridge University Press
• Collana: Modern British Histories
• Anno: 2025
• Rilegatura: Paperback / softback
• Pagine: 299 p.
• EAN: 9781009340311

Testo in English