The Myth of Consensus

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvii

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2. A Bloodless Counter-Revolution: The Conservative Party and the Defence of Inequality, 1945–51

   • Harriet Jones

   Pages 1-16

3. Consensus Here, Consensus There … but not Consensus Everywhere: The Labour Party, Equality and Social Policy in the 1950s

   • Nick Ellison

   Pages 17-39

4. ‘Not Reformed Capitalism, But… Democratic Socialism’: The Ideology of the Labour Leadership, 1945–1951

   • Martin Francis

   Pages 40-57

5. Conservative Leaders, Strategy — and ‘Consensus’? 1945–1964

   • Michael Kandiah

   Pages 58-78

6. Consensus and Consumption: Rationing, Austerity and Controls after the War

   • Ina Zweiniger-Bargielowska

   Pages 79-96

7. Butskellism, the Postwar Consensus and the Managed Economy

   • Neil Rollings

   Pages 97-119

8. The Politics of the ‘Social’ and the ‘Industrial’ Wage, 1945–60

   • Noel Whiteside

   Pages 120-138

9. Industrial Organisation and Ownership, and a New Definition of the Postwar ‘Consensus’

   • Helen Mercer

   Pages 139-156

10. Decolonisation and Postwar Consensus

    • Nicholas Owen

    Pages 157-181

11. Back Matter

    Pages 182-186

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This groundbreaking collection of essays challenges the notion that early postwar Britain was characterised by a consensus between the major political parties arising out of the experiences of the wartime coalition government. The volume collects for the first time the views of the revisionist historians who argue that fundamental differences between and within the parties continued to characterise British politics after 1945. Covering topics as diverse as industrial relations and decolonisation, the volume provides a welcome contrast to orthodox interpretations of contemporary Britain.

• Conservative Party
• economy
• government
• Policy
• politics
• revolution
• social policy
• socialism

• University of Luton, UK

  Harriet Jones

• Institute of Contemporary British History, UK

  Michael Kandiah

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