Living in ‘New Times’: Historicizing 1980s Britain

Abstract

This article explores ways of writing the history of 1980s Britain. It argues that historians should avoid an overreliance upon identifying the decade with the politics of Margaret Thatcher and her government. Instead, the article suggests that a richer historical understanding of the 1980s will be achieved if we look for other trajectories and developments that intersect with immediate political change, but are not entirely dependent upon events at Westminster. This article also offers thoughts on how historians might conceptualize social change in the 1980s. The article reviews both older literature on Britain in the 1970s and 1980s and more recent interventions and suggests directions in which research might proceed.

The politics of the unknown: Uncertainty and the nuclear threat in Britain, 1979–1985

“…These include such issues as unemployment or falling living standards, de‐industrialization, cuts to social services or global economic trends. This proposal builds on Stephen Brooke's observation that multiple and often contradictory “trajectories” were characteristic of 1980s Britain (Brooke, , p. 22). Andy McSmith has thus also applied the oxymoronic label “The Decade of Greed and Live Aid” to that decade (McSmith, , pp.…”

“…In an article in History Compass , Stephen Brooke commented on the burgeoning field of 1980s British social and cultural history (Brooke, ). To date, the more comprehensive analyses of this crucial period in British history have largely taken the form of popular histories (Beckett, ; McSmith, ; Stewart, ; Turner, ; for a notable exception, see the contributions in Hilton, Moores, & Sutcliffe‐Braithwaite, ) or have often focused on Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the supposed centrality of Thatcherism to this period (e.g., Jackson & Saunders, ; Moore, ; Vinen, ; Filby, ).…”

“…151-184;Eames, 2017;Stoddart, 2015;Stoddart, 2014;Dorman, 2001;Hampshire, 2015) or fairly specific social and cultural aspects of 1980s British Cold War history(Cordle, 2017; Hogg, 2016, pp. 133-158;Knoblauch, 2017b;Shaw, 2005).3 In an article in History Compass, Stephen Brooke commented on the burgeoning field of 1980s British social and cultural history(Brooke, 2014). To date, the more comprehensive analyses of this crucial period in British history have largely taken the form of popular histories(Beckett, 2016;McSmith, 2011;Stewart, 2013;Turner, 2010; for a notable exception, see the contributions inHilton, Moores, & Sutcliffe-Braithwaite, 2017a) or have often focused on Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the supposed centrality of Thatcherism to this period (e.g.,Jackson & Saunders, 2012a;Moore, 2013;Vinen, 2009;Filby, 2015).…”

Action for Cities: the Thatcher government and inner-city policy

“…The idea was brought to public attention by a 1978 speech at a special Bow Group dinner at the Waterman's Arms in the Isle of Dogs by Geoffrey Howe (although Joseph had posited something similar earlier), 49 and show some influence of left-field planning ideas of Peter Hall (although Howe himself could not have been clearer that Hall's 'Freeport' proposal was far too dramatic and 'not the one I am putting forward'). 50 Stephen Brooke sees enterprise zones as having 'physically [written] neo-liberalism into the language of some British cities', 51 whilst Sam Wetherell views them as 'arguably neo-liberalism's purist policy expression'. 52 As implemented through legislation passed in 1980, initially in seven inner-city areas, 53 enterprise zones were rather less radical than Howe's initial proposal, and indeed were criticized by many from the Right, including Anthony Steen, for the way that they were an intervention into the free market in favour of areas where the private sector had manifestly failed.…”

New Timesrevisited: Britain in the 1980s

“…45 As Stephen Brooke has suggested, we can see 'the stubborn persistence of social democracy in the attempt to construct a different world of social democracy at the local level' , as well as in support for the NHS and the revolt against the Poll Tax. 46 The effect of these accounts of Thatcherism is to suggest that not only was Thatcherism not inevitable, but that it was not even that successful on its own terms. Nevertheless, in these accounts, Thatcherism, neoliberalism and their effects on Britain in the 1980s remain centre stage.…”