Overview
Furthers our understanding of the different traditions which make up the Conservative Party all the more timely, following the Conservatives party's election victory in 2015 and the disarray of the Labour party
Offers detailed research based on archival material, elite interviews, Conservative Party publications, relevant think tank pamphlets, and reports in the media
Contributes to the literature on British Conservatism, tracing its evolution and its relation to new currents on the right
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Table of contents (10 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
- Tories
- World War II
- post-imperial British identity
- Suez Group
- Monday Club
- Enoch Powell
- British empire
- immigration control
- European integration
- national sovereignty
- Euroscpeticism
- European Union
- Margaret Thatcher
- British constitution
- Labour government
- free market economy
- economic liberalism
- welfare state opposition
- social conservatism
- social liberalism
About this book
This book provides a detailed analysis of the evolution of the Conservative Right in Great Britain since 1945. It first explores the movement’s core ideas and highlights points of tension between its different strands. The book then proceeds with a thematically structured discussion. The Conservative Right’s views on the decline and fall of the British Empire, immigration control, European integration, the British constitution, the territorial integrity of the United Kingdom, Britain’s economy, the welfare state, and social morality and social change are all explored. In the concluding chapter, the author evaluates the extent to which the Conservative Right has succeeded in its core objectives since 1945 and addresses how it can best respond to a contemporary Britain in which it instinctively feels uncomfortable. The book is based on extensive elite interviews and archival research and will be of interest to anyone who seeks to place the contemporary Conservative Right in a greater historical context.
Reviews
“The beginning of conservatism is an ideal of political harmony and its end, the experience of political discord. The history of the Conservative Party records attempts to reconcile the compromises required by the latter in terms of the values proclaimed by the former. As an institutional artefact, the party always has been composed of diverse tendencies and the distinctions between them are as deep as their common identity is broad. Explaining both difference and commonality requires a subtle grasp of relations between principles, personalities and politics. Kevin Hickson’s thematic study of Britain’s Conservative Right since 1945 does just that. It makes sense of a paradox: thinkers and politicians who understand their beliefs to be the core of conservatism, yet who feel themselves to be on the margins of Conservative influence. In doing so, this book provides an important corrective to the dogmatic simplicities informing much of contemporary political discourse.” (Arthur Aughey, Emeritus Professor, Ulster University, Northern Ireland)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Kevin Hickson is Senior Lecturer in British Politics at the University of Liverpool, UK. He is the (co-)author or (co-)editor of over 15 books and has also written numerous journal articles and book chapters. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and of the Royal Society of Arts and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Britain’s Conservative Right since 1945
Book Subtitle: Traditional Toryism in a Cold Climate
Authors: Kevin Hickson
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27697-3
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Political Science and International Studies, Political Science and International Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2020
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-27696-6Published: 06 November 2019
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-27699-7Published: 06 November 2020
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-27697-3Published: 23 October 2019
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XI, 215
Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations
Topics: British Politics, Political History, Political Leadership, Public Policy, Political Economy/Economic Systems
Industry Sectors: Biotechnology