Art of the Possible

Chris Williams is Professor of History and Head of the School of History, Archaeology and Religion at Cardiff UniversityAndrew Edwards is Senior Lecturer in History and Dean of Arts and Humanities at Bangor University

‘As is to be expected of a volume based on a conference which took place in 2012, aspects of the contributions collected in this volume will be familiar from other articles or books produced by the authors. Nonetheless, as the preceding survey indicates, this is a rich and varied volume, which indicates the continued health of twentieth-century political history in Britain and offers a fitting reflection of the influence of Duncan Tanner on its writing.’David Thackeray, University of Exeter, Journal of the Historical Association

• Introduction: Duncan Tanner and the art of the possible – Chris Williams1. The making and remaking of ‘common sense’ about British economic policy – Peter Clarke2. The ‘big state’ versus the ‘Big Society’ in twentieth-century Britain – Pat Thane3. ‘One meaning blots out another’? Liberals and Labour in the east midlands coalfield – David Howell4. Cartooning the rise of Labour, 1900–21 – Chris Williams5. Novels for ‘thinking people’: fiction and the inter-war broad left – Steven Fielding6. Myth and counter-myth in Second World War British politics – Andrew Thorpe7. Labour, nationalism and the problem of Welsh devolution, c.1939–64 – Andrew Edwards8. Defending the constitution: the Conservative party and the idea of devolution, 1945–74 – Matthew Cragoe9. Public and private languages of ‘class’ in the Luton by-election of 1963 – Jon Lawrence10. Community and the Labour left in 1970s London – John Davis11. Labour, the Union and the rebirth of Welsh devolution – Mari Elin WiliamDuncan Tanner: a select bibliography – Chris WilliamsIndex