Stephen Haseler – författare

The English Tribe is about the crisis of nation and national identity facing the English - and the British - as we meet the challenges of the global economy and absorption into a federal Europe. It asks: what does it mean to be English - and British - at the very end of the twentieth-century? And it argues that as Britain becomes part of a federal Europe there will be no need for the centralized United Kingdom (monarchy, Westminster and Whitehall) as power is divided upwards to Brussels and downwards to the nations, regions and cities of Britain.

With the Euro successfully launched and a European army a real prospect, Europe is now a recognizable political entity on the world scene. A population of over 300 million and the world's largest economy have already turned the EU into a super-power, but it is now on the verge of being a super-state. Haseler examines why the new European super-state has emerged, how it will inevitably rival the United States and how the Americans are reacting to this new world player. Super-State explores what this new EU super-state means for the citizens of Europe, looking specifically at how Eurosceptic Britain will fit into this new structure.

In 2012, Britain and the Commonwealth celebrate the 60th anniversary of Elizabeth II's accession to the throne. The royal family have overcome a number of obstacles in its recent history, yet today it appears to be riding on a wave of popular affection. But has Elizabeth II's reign been a good thing for the UK? Or have the style, rituals and underlying culture of the modern monarchy held Britain back from its potential in the 21st century world? In this groundbreaking and thought-provoking new book, Stephen Haseler argues that the class structure which the monarchy has continued to encourage has retained outdated, yet seemingly entrenched, attitudes which have negatively affected Britain's economy, capacity to innovate and international stature. He provides an alternative political and social history of modern Britain which will be a provocative yet entertaining and informative read in the Queen's anniversary year.

In 2012, Britain and the Commonwealth celebrate the 60th anniversary of Elizabeth II's accession to the throne. The royal family have overcome a number of obstacles in its recent history, yet today it appears to be riding on a wave of popular affection. But has Elizabeth II's reign been a good thing for the UK? Or have the style, rituals and underlying culture of the modern monarchy held Britain back from its potential in the 21st century world? In this groundbreaking and thought-provoking new book, Stephen Haseler argues that the class structure which the monarchy has continued to encourage has retained outdated, yet seemingly entrenched, attitudes which have negatively affected Britain's economy, capacity to innovate and international stature. He provides an alternative political and social history of modern Britain which will be a provocative yet entertaining and informative read in the Queen's anniversary year.

The English Tribe is about the crisis of nation and national identity facing the English - and the British - as we meet the challenges of the global economy and absorption into a federal Europe. It asks: what does it mean to be English - and British - at the very end of the twentieth-century? And it argues that as Britain becomes part of a federal Europe there will be no need for the centralized United Kingdom (monarchy, Westminster and Whitehall) as power is divided upwards to Brussels and downwards to the nations, regions and cities of Britain.

The Battle for Britain is about a nation in transition. The ‘enterprise revolution’ of the 1980s has recast both popular attitudes and national institutions, leaving few aspects of British life untouched. The trade unions have rarely been weaker, but the traditional aristocratic establishment has never been so threatened. The middle class professionals, the arts, the universities, the broadcast media, all are affected by the new radicalism. Britain’s comfortable and complacent illusions, bred in the era of Empire, have finally started to give way to a more realistic view of the modern world and Britain’s place in it. Merit and ability are replacing the values of inherited position. Paternalism, whether of the left or right, is at an end.This is not a book primarily about Mrs Thatcher. It is a book about momentous changes in Britain that ‘Thatcherism’ has made possible. Written by an academic and politician whose own career and thinking has been intimately affected by these changes, it argues that sooner or later the ‘Thatcher revolution’ was inevitable - with or without Mrs Thatcher.Stephen Haseler provides portraits of a generation of establishment politicians whose vision was too firmly rooted in the past. He shows how a small group of radicals around Mrs Thatcher was able to set Britain on a new course. The 1980s has witnessed the arrival of a new middle class, whose individualist self-confidence is a force for progressive social change. Ultimately this will undermine the hold on the popular imagination of Britain’s outdated ancien régime - the Monarchy, the House of Lords, and the Established Church. The real contest now is not between Labour and Conservative or between left and right, but between the old and the new: between those forces who wish to perpetuate an insular, conservative, class-based nation, and those who are creating a new open society, able to compete in Europe and the world. As a result, Britons in the twenty-first century will live in a society that is founded on the more open, liberal and bourgeois models already found elsewhere in the Western world.