This major new reference work provides an authoritative and wide-ranging guide to archive sources now becoming available for British political history since 1945. With a user-friendly layout, the book presents a comprehensive range of 1,500 personal papers from leading statesmen, backbench politicians, writers, campaigners, diplomats and generals which cover the key aspects of British history since of the end of the Second World War. Compiled by an experienced archivist, this comprehensive, easy-to-use and authoritative guide is an invaluable resource for researchers of modern British history.

This new publication, a sister volume to the highly-acclaimed Routledge Guide to British Political Archives, provides a wide-ranging survey of the non-governmental archive sources for historians of post-war Europe. It provides, within a single volume, a rich treasure trove of resources drawn from the archives of the member states of the European Union and beyond. These major archive resources range from the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam to the Modern Records Centre at Warwick University, from the European University Institute at Florence to the Archive of Social Democracy near Bonn, from the Feltrinelli Institute in Milan to the Monnet Foundation in Lausanne. The volume also concentrates on providing resources for areas of Europe’s modern political past now increasingly attracting serious historical research. They include the initial post-war reconstruction era, the rebirth of social democracy in Germany and Italy, the beginning of European integration, relations with Eastern Europe, the Cold War, decolonisation, the fall of Communism, and so forth. A vital part of the story is represented by the papers of the principal architects of European integration, such as Monnet, Spaak, Spinelli, Mansholt, and so forth. However, the remit of this volume extends far beyond statesmen and politicians. It aims to embrace a wider spectrum of European political activism – from libertarians to environmentalists, economists and human rights activists, campaigners for women’s rights, peace activists, anti-globalists, trade unionists, leaders of the student movement, anarchists, federalists and anti-federalists, and a plethora of others. The wealth of information provided here will make this new publication the standard point of reference for students and historians.

The Routledge Companion to Twentieth-Century Britain is a jargon-free guide to the social, economic and political history of Britain since 1900. Opening with a general introduction and overview of twentieth century Britain, the book contains a wealth of chronologies, facts and figures, introductions to major themes, the historiography of twentieth century Britain, a guide to sources and resources, biographies of the most important figures and a dictionary of key terms, providing a comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to this key period of change and development in this most urban of nations. From the outbreak of World War One, to the introduction of the NHS, to the first television set, this book covers in detail some of the most important events that shaped twentieth-century Britain. Topics discussed include: class: the working and middle classes gender: women’s history ethnicity: immigration and the idea of multicultural Britain social policy: poverty and welfare economic paradox: decline and affluence economic change: manufacturing and services popular culture: music, fashion, sports, screen liberalisation: Victorian Values and permissiveness political parties: the major and minor parties governments: achievements and problems the wider world: Ireland; decolonization; European integration. Packed with useful information, this guide will be an indispensable reference tool for all those seeking an introduction to twentieth century British history.

A History of British Elections since 1689 represents a unique single-volume authoritative reference guide to British elections and electoral systems from the Glorious Revolution to the present day. The main focus is on general elections and associated by-elections, but Chris Cook and John Stevenson also cover national referenda, European parliament elections, municipal elections, and elections to the Welsh and Northern Irish assemblies and the Scottish parliament. The outcome and political significance of all these elections are looked at in detail, but the authors also discuss broader themes and debates in British electoral history, for example: the evolution of the electoral system, parliamentary reform, women's suffrage, constituency size and numbers, elimination of corrupt practices, and other important topics. The book also follows the fortunes not only of the major political parties but of fringe movements of the extreme right and left. Combining data, summary and analysis with thematic overviews and chronological outlines, this major new reference provides a definitive guide to the long and varied history of British elections and is essential reading for students of British political history.

Embassies are integral to international diplomacy, their staff instrumental to inter-governmental dialogue, strategic partnerships, trading relationships and cultural exchange. But Embassies are also discreet political spaces. Notionally sovereign territory ‘immune’ from local jurisdiction, in moments of crisis Embassies have often been targets of protest and sites of confrontation. It is this aspect of Embassy experience that this collection of essays explores and Embassies in Crisis revisits flashpoints in the recent lives of Embassies overseas at times of acute political crisis. Ranging across multiple British and other embassy crises, unusually, this book offers equal insights to international historians and members of the diplomatic community.

Chris Cook lifts the lid on the 'third Party;' charting their fascinating journey over the last century, from the landslide victory of 1906 under Asquith, via their descent into divisions and decline in the interwar years, to in-depth analysis of the 2010 British Election and their return to Government in the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition.

The Oxford Handbook of the Cold War offers a broad reassessment of the period war based on new conceptual frameworks developed in the field of international history. Nearing the 25th anniversary of its end, the cold war now emerges as a distinct period in twentieth-century history, yet one which should be evaluated within the broader context of global political, economic, social, and cultural developments. The editors have brought together leading scholars in cold war history to offer a new assessment of the state of the field and identify fundamental questions for future research. The individual chapters in this volume evaluate both the extent and the limits of the cold war's reach in world history. They call into question orthodox ways of ordering the chronology of the cold war and also present new insights into the global dimension of the conflict. Even though each essay offers a unique perspective, together they show the interconnectedness between cold war and national and transnational developments, including long-standing conflicts that preceded the cold war and persisted after its end, or global transformations in areas such as human rights or economic and cultural globalization. Because of its broad mandate, the volume is structured not along conventional chronological lines, but thematically, offering essays on conceptual frameworks, regional perspectives, cold war instruments and cold war challenges. The result is a rich and diverse accounting of the ways in which the cold war should be positioned within the broader context of world history.

'One of the most relentlessly brilliant studies of twentieth-century Britain ... these young historians have found a marvellous theme and stuck to it. Theirs is the glory!' Professor Arthur Marwick, History The 1930s - remembered as the decade of dole queues and hunger marches, mass unemployment, the means test, and the rise of fascism - also saw the development of new industries, the growth of comfortable suburbia, and rising standards of living for many. In Britain in the Depression, the authors look behind the legends for an objective - and timely - reassessment, as Britain again struggles with the economic and spiritual ills of recession and unemployment.

The British anti-psychiatric group, which formed around R.D. Laing, David Cooper, and Aaron Esterson in the 1960s, burned bright, but briefly, and has left a long legacy. This book follows their practical, social, and theoretical trajectory away from the structured world of institutional psychiatry and into the social chaos of the counter-culture. It explores the rapidly changing landscape of British psychiatry in the mid-Twentieth Century and the apparently structureless organisation of the part of the counter-culture that clustered around the anti-psychiatrists, including the informal power structures that it produced. The book also problematizes this trajectory, examining how the anti-psychiatrists distanced themselves from institutional psychiatry while building links with some of the most important people in post-war psychiatry and psychoanalysis. The anti-psychiatrists bridged the gap between psychiatry and the counter-culture, and briefly became legitimate voices in both. Wall argues that their synthesis of disparate discourses was one of their strengths, but also contributed to the group’s collapse. The British Anti-Psychiatrists offers original historical expositions of the Villa 21 experiment and the Anti-University. Finally, it proposes a new reading of anti-psychiatric theory, displacing Laing from his central position and looking at their work as an unfolding conversation within a social network.