John Benson is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Wolverhampton

'This is an ambitious and fascinating book.' English Historical Review 'A major achievement. Affluence and Authority offers an original and up-to-date history of twentieth-century Britain. As well as the conventional forces of greater prosperity and better health, he highlights the less obvious factors which have defined people's lives: the state, the influence of religion, education, the media, work, as well as the place of class and national allegiances in an increasingly fluid and multicultural Britain. He gives a genuine social history for the twenty-first century.' John Stevenson, Reader in Modern History and Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford