Reassessing a Turbulent Decade: the Historiography of 1970s Britain in Crisis
Type de matériel :
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Historians have only recently regained interest in the 1970s. Since the global financial crisis broke out in 2008, they have studied the 1970s again in order to set into perspective key concepts relating to this decade, such as those of “crisis,” “decline” (relative or absolute), the “failures” of governments to handle the economic and political crisis, and “declinism.” In order to grasp the historiographical rebirth of 1970s Britain in crisis, this article aims to shed light on clichés and the popular memory of events. It will question whether this decade is to be seen as a continuation of the Swinging Sixties, or a unitary political and economic sequence of its own. The historiography of the 1970s has depended on the evolution of analyses of various political sub-sequences, such as the Heath years, or the Wilson-Callaghan ones. The Winter of Discontent also attracted much attention from historians, and sometimes at the expense of comprehensive analyses of the decade as a whole. From 2009 onwards, marking both the thirtieth anniversary of the Winter of Discontent and the end of this turbulent decade, there has been a major renewal of historical interest in the 1970s, as primary sources and archives have all become available to historians and political scientists.
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