Divided Kingdom

Pat Thane is a Research Professor in Contemporary British History at King's College London. Previously Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Sussex and the Institute of Historical Research, University of London, she has been a Visiting Professor in New York, China, Australia, Japan, Taiwan, and Chile. She is also a convenor of History and Policy and President of the Social History Society UK and a Fellow of the British Academy. Her publications include Sinners? Scroungers? Saints? Unmarried Motherhood in Twentieth Century Britain (2013, with Tanya Evans), Unequal Britain: Equalities in Britain since 1945 (2010), Old Age in English History (2000) and The Foundations of the Welfare State (1996).

'A clear, lucid, authoritative survey of political history, social policy, and the persistent divisions cleaving twentieth-century Britain. Thane provides an especially incisive picture of the effects of shifting national policies on gender and class, demonstrating how the retrenchments of the Thatcher era recreated fissures not so very different from those in the first decades of the twentieth century. This highly readable and accessible text is a perfect companion for classes in twentieth-century Britain.' Judith R. Walkowitz, Professor Emerita of History, The John Hopkins University

• 1. United Kingdom? 1900–14; 2. The 'Great' War; 3. Reconstruction? 1918–22; 4. Democratic Britain? 1922–31; 5. The Thirties, 1931–9; 6. The peoples' war; 7. Facing the future: Labour Britain, 1945–51; 8. An affluent society? 1951–64; 9. A permissive society? 1964–70; 10. The Seventies; 11. The Iron Lady, 1979–90; 12. Son of Thatcher? John Major, 1990–97; 13. Things can only get better? New Labour, 1997–2010.