Présentation

The British Isles today

From Postwar Britain to Cool Britannia (1945 – 2007): Class identities, inequalities and conflicts

The course will resonate with ‘Contemporary literature S2’. Using various types of sources (media articles, archival sources, visual documents, documentaries …), the lectures will be devoted to the formation of the Labour party and the evolution of socialism in the second half of the twentieth century. The two concepts of “class” and “socialism” will be under scrutiny and the following topics will be broached:

1. The formation of the british Labour party (1890-1945)
2. The People’s War (1939-1945)
3. Postwar Britain (1945-1951): a socialist revolution?
4. Crisis and conflicts in the 1970s: reassessing the consensus
5. The fate of socialism under Thatcher (1979-1990)
6. Tony Blair and the Third Way (1997 - 2007)

In class, you will work on a group project to research primary sources using various research methods and platforms.