Introduction

Abstract

This chapter describes population registration, why the British people opposed it and notes how this is not studied by histories of the period 1936–1984. It shows how the theoretical ideas of Michel Foucault, Nikolas Rose and Bruce Curtis can aid in conceptualising the thinking of those who wanted population registration in Britain however; it also argues that the way events unfolded was an empirical process. Thus, to understand the volte-face between post-war abolition and later attempts to reintroduce registration this book first, probes the political thinking that underpinned the relationship between those who wanted registration and the majority of the British who wanted to preserve their privacy. Second, using these insights the book explores the troubled course of the events around registration in this period.