1996 and the End of History

1996 And The End of History examines the year as it panned out in the UK not just in politics but in music, light entertainment and sport. It was the zenith of a decade which will go down as remarkably untroubled bymodern standards; following the collapse of the Berlin Wall, prior to 9/11, in which political conditions of peace and apparent economic prosperity created an overall mood of frivolity, postmodern anti-seriousness and a desire to get back to sunnier times before the grim onset of the strife-ridden 70's and 80's.

David Stubbs is a journalist and author who started working life at Melody Makerin1986. Since then he has written for NME, Uncut, The Wire, The Guardian, The Observer, The Sunday Times, The Daily Mash, When Saturday Comes and The Quietus among others. He is also the author of Fear Of Music: Why People Get Rothko But Don ’t Get Stockhausen (Zero), The Prince Charles Letters (Aurum) and Future Days: Krautrock And The Building Of Modern Germany (Faber & Faber), as well as books on Jimi Hendrix, Eminime & the footballer Charlie Nicholas He lives in East London.