This reader is meant for B.A. students taking English as a foreign language and trainees of vocational colleges such as the ‘Ecoles Normales Supérieure’ or ‘Ecoles Nationales d’Administration’. The book deals specifically with the fourth year British Civilization course. In the main, the manual surveys post-war Britain focusing on the major topics of the period 1945-2010. The study highlights the approaches of the alternating ministries to the issues facing the nation with emphasis on the following themes among others: Labour’s Reconstruction programme and foreign policy, the European Economic Community, the Conservative governments of the 1950’s, the Palestine Problem, the Suez Crisis, the Rhodesian Crisis, Thatcherism, the Falklands War and the New Labour Party. The conclusion shows that there was a trial and error pattern in the strategies followed by the post-war governments to achieve their specific party programmes and goals. Labour in particular shifted grounds in political and economic terms to remain a viable and electable party moving from a leftist stand in the mid-1940’s to a centre-right position in the mid-1990’s.
