Title: Affluence and authority : a social history of twentieth-century Britain /
Authors: Benson, John, 1945 July 23-
Publisher: Hodder Arnold ; Distributed in the United States of America by Oxford University Press,
Year: 2005
Subjects: Great Britain Social conditions; Great Britain Economic conditions
Abstract: "The turn of the millennium generated a spate of reflections on the state of the nation and the ways in which life in Britain had changed during the course of the twentieth century. Affluence and Authority contributes to this debate by providing a wide-ranging, well-informed and accessible interpretation of British social history during a hundred years of profound, and almost certainly unprecedented, economic, political, cultural, demographic and ideological change. John Benson's study lays particular emphasis upon material conditions in accounting for the underlying stability of society during the course of this turbulent century.
Contents: Introduction -- pt. 1. The growth of prosperity. Wealth, comfort and poverty ; Spending and saving ; Health, ill health and good health -- pt. 2. The acceptance of authority. The coercive power of the state ; The manipulative power of religion, education and the media ; The iron disciplines of work -- pt. 3. The accommodation of change. Men and women, parents and children ; The power of class, the power of the nation -- Conclusion.