State and Society A Social and Political History of Britain since 1870

As a vigorous interpretation of political and social developments in Britain since the late-Victorian era, State and Society is one of the most respected and widely-read introductions to modern British history. Martin Pugh explores as his central theme the relationship between the British state and its citizens with characteristic skill and insight.

In this new fifth edition, Pugh brings his final chapter on Crisis and Coalition right up to the result of the May 2015 general election. An introduction and conclusion explain why and how far the secure idea of national identity enjoyed by the British in 1870 had unravelled by 2015. The text throughout has also been revised and extended to address themes such as women's history, social class, Scottish nationalism, the working of the monarchy and the British system of government, new perspectives on the history of the Labour Party, secularism and British attitudes towards Europe since the 1970s. Pugh explores these and other themes with perceptive and accessible prose, maintaining an ideal balance of socio-economic and political issues.

Also including new images, annotated further reading lists and appendices of election data, lists of ministries and other key political facts, this new edition of State and Society reaffirms its position as an essential text for students of modern British history.

List of Illustrations
List of Tables and Figures
Preface and Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I The Loss of Confidence, 1870-1902
1 The Retreat of the Industrial Revolution
2 Not Quite a Democracy
3 The Victorian State and its People
4 Victorian Values: Myth and Reality
5 The British Nation: Unity and Division
6 Isolation and Expansion
Part II The Reorientation: The Emergence of the Interventionist State, 1902-1918
7 The State, Social Welfare and the Economy
8 The Liberal-Labour Alliance
9 Crisis and Controversy in Edwardian Britain
10 Politics and Society in the Great War
Part III The Period of Confusion: Collectivism versus Capitalism, 1918-1940
11 The Failure of Laissez-faire
12 Mass Democracy in an Age of Decline
13 The Era of Domesticity
14 Imperial Climax and Decline
Part IV Consensus: The Age of the Benign State, 1940-1970
15 The People's War
16 The Keynesian Era
17 The Permissive Society
18 The Loss of Great-Power Status
Part V The Era of Reaction and Decline, 1970-2011
19 The Breakdown of the Post-war Consensus, 1970-1979
20 The Era of Thatcherism
21 New Labour and the Blair Era
22 Crisis and Coalition
Conclusion
Appendices
Index

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