The rise and fall of the British nation : a twentieth century history 1900 1950: The country with no name Mightier yet! Globalization to nationalization Kingdom of capital British capitalism Knowledge and power Tomorrow perhaps the future A mirror of the nation at work From class to nation 1950 2000: A nation in the world Building the future National capitalism Warfare state Two classes two parties one nation Social democracy nationalism and declinism Possibilities Defending the nation Rulers revolt A nation lost New times New Labour It is usual to see the United Kingdom as an island of continuity in an otherwise convulsed and unstable Europe its political history a smooth sequence of administrations a story of building a welfare state and coping with decline. But what if Britains history was approached from a different angle What if we wrote about it with as we might write the history of Germany say or the Soviet Union as a story of power and of transformation David Edgertons major new book breaks out of the confines of traditional British national history to reveal an unfamiliar place subject to radical discontinuities. Out of a liberal capitalist genuinely global power of a unique kind there arose from the 1940s a distinct British nation. This was committed to internal change making it much more like the great continental powers. From the 1970s it became bound up both with the European Union and with foreign capital in new ways. Such a perspective produces new and refreshed understanding of everything from the nature of British politics to the performance of British industry. Packed with surprising examples and arguments The Rise and Fall of the British Nation gives us a grown up unsentimental history one which is crucial at a moment of serious reconsideration for the country and its future. Publishers description