State and society a social and political history of Britain since 1870

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Part I: the loss of confidence, 1870-1902. The retreat of the industrial revolution ; Not quite a democracy ; The Victorian state and its people ; Victorian values: myth and reality ; British national identity: unity and division ; Isolation and expansion -- Part II: the reorientation: the emergence of the interventionist state 1902-18. The state, social welfare and the economy ; The liberal-labour alliance ; Crisis and controversy in Edwardian Britain ; Politics and society in the Great War -- Part III: the period of confusion: collectivism versus capitalism, 1918-40. The failure of laissez-faire ; Mass democracy in an age of decline ; The ear of domesticity ; Imperial climax and decline -- Part IV: consensus: the age of the benign state, 1940-70. The people's war ; the Keynesian era ; The permissive society ; The loss of great power status -- Part V: the era of reaction and decline, 1970-2015. The breakdown of the post-war consensus, 1970-9 ; The era of Thatcherism ; New labour and the Blair era ; Crisis and coalition.

'State and Society' interprets political and social developments since the late Victorian era, with the relationship between the British state and its citizens as a central theme.