HISTORY, SOCIETY AND CULTURE
1. THATCHER AND THATCHERISM
1.1 - Introduction
The first class will be delivered in the form of a traditional lecture with time for questions. The lecture
provides the essential political framework for the rest of the course, which will focus on the relationship
between the Thatcher governments and a wide-range of political, social, and cultural issues that came to
dominate life in 1980s Britain.
The lecture considers to what degree Thatcherism should be understood as a product of the crises of the
1970s, which finally undermined confidence in the ‘post-war consensus’. Although the scale of the crises are
debatable, the lecture identifies some of the ways in which Thatcherite policies were designed to highlight
and respond to the public’s perception of economic crisis and national decline. The lecture also reflects on
the legacy of Thatcherism and the degree to which it succeeded in bringing about serious social and cultural
change in the 1980s.
1.2 - Essential Reading/ Pensum
This week we focus our reading on two important interpretations of Margaret Thatcher’s politics and of the
meaning of ‘Thatcherism’. Andrew Gamble argues that Thatcherism was a wide-ranging and distinctive
political project, which sought to embrace the economic liberalism of the New Right and restore the
authority of the state in response to the economic and global crises of the 1970s.
Shirley Letwin argues that Thatcherism is difficult to pin down because it was a political undertaking
concerned with specific political problems. In other words, she sees Thatcherism as a historical phenomenon.
It was neither a theory or an ideology, but nor was it just a random collection of ideas and actions.
Furthermore, Letwin states that ‘Its aim has been to emphasize and promote the vigorous virtues in
individuals, promote the family as the organization in which those virtues are transmitted and nurtured, and
make Britain a flourishing island power through the liberation of the vigorous virtues’.
Key Questions
Gamble and Saunders texts:
- What conditions facilitated Margaret Thatcher’s rise to power in 1979?
Gamble and Letwin texts:
- What was ‘Thatcherism’? Was it a theoretical programme? An ideology? Or a pragmatic approach
to the politics of the late 1970s and 1980s?
Gamble, Letwin, and Saunders texts:
- Were all of the major policies we associate with the Thatcher governments planned before the
Conservative Party won the 1979 general election?
1
, The Lecture, Gamble, Letwin, Thane, Saunders, Brooke texts:
- Would it be correct to state that there was a ‘Thatcherite revolution’ in Britain in the 1980s?
- Why are the Thatcher governments still judged to be so important and controversial today?
We are still living in the 80s today. In Britain, the election campaign was mainly dominated by Brexit and
scetticism. Tacher was one of the most european politicians ever. By the time she left office, and then
became extreme anti-euro.
- Hard left socialist: many people did not want him to be leader and did not support him.
- Tatcherism vs. socialism
Both these issues have been still processing today. Today it is impossibile to have socialism and a real
democracy in Britain.
1.3 - Researching and studying in the 1980s: new times?
There was a big debate about what was really new in that period. How did Thatcherism fall?
- Periodization only works if we think of it as a political? Is that only a lazy way to periodize?
- Now a need to situate the 1980s within other long-term trajectories?
- 1980s Britain as much the consequence as cause of long-term historical processes? Not even a
majority supported that. Many people criticized it.
- What role did Thatcherism play in social and cultural change?
1.4 - Other factors behind social change
- Break down of Britain’s ‘postwar settlement’
- Including Keynesian economics, ‘full employment’ policies, and the welfare state
- Technology, the global economy, and international relations
- Perceptions of national ‘decline’ in 1960s & 1970s
Building a comprehensive welfare state and creating employment. This was a model that really governed
policy. In the 1970s this model started to break down. The economy became global, and Britain experienced
a rapid decolonization. Britain was no longer competitive as economic power.
1.5 - Stuart Hall, Martin Jacues, and Cultural Studies
Thatcherism was not the inevitable result of long-term social and cultural change. Important to decouple the
social, economic, institutional and cultural conditions of the 1980s from the ascendency of Thatcherism. Left
in Britain (particularly the Labour Party) needed to respond to major changes in British society in new ways
They run magazines. They were the first people to think more broadly about the crise. Thatcherism was not
the inevitabile result of long-term social and cultural change. They really wanted to separate cultural and
social conditions from Thatcherism itself. Although they were on the left, they criticized the Labour Party
because it did not respond to major changes in Britain society.
2
1. THATCHER AND THATCHERISM
1.1 - Introduction
The first class will be delivered in the form of a traditional lecture with time for questions. The lecture
provides the essential political framework for the rest of the course, which will focus on the relationship
between the Thatcher governments and a wide-range of political, social, and cultural issues that came to
dominate life in 1980s Britain.
The lecture considers to what degree Thatcherism should be understood as a product of the crises of the
1970s, which finally undermined confidence in the ‘post-war consensus’. Although the scale of the crises are
debatable, the lecture identifies some of the ways in which Thatcherite policies were designed to highlight
and respond to the public’s perception of economic crisis and national decline. The lecture also reflects on
the legacy of Thatcherism and the degree to which it succeeded in bringing about serious social and cultural
change in the 1980s.
1.2 - Essential Reading/ Pensum
This week we focus our reading on two important interpretations of Margaret Thatcher’s politics and of the
meaning of ‘Thatcherism’. Andrew Gamble argues that Thatcherism was a wide-ranging and distinctive
political project, which sought to embrace the economic liberalism of the New Right and restore the
authority of the state in response to the economic and global crises of the 1970s.
Shirley Letwin argues that Thatcherism is difficult to pin down because it was a political undertaking
concerned with specific political problems. In other words, she sees Thatcherism as a historical phenomenon.
It was neither a theory or an ideology, but nor was it just a random collection of ideas and actions.
Furthermore, Letwin states that ‘Its aim has been to emphasize and promote the vigorous virtues in
individuals, promote the family as the organization in which those virtues are transmitted and nurtured, and
make Britain a flourishing island power through the liberation of the vigorous virtues’.
Key Questions
Gamble and Saunders texts:
- What conditions facilitated Margaret Thatcher’s rise to power in 1979?
Gamble and Letwin texts:
- What was ‘Thatcherism’? Was it a theoretical programme? An ideology? Or a pragmatic approach
to the politics of the late 1970s and 1980s?
Gamble, Letwin, and Saunders texts:
- Were all of the major policies we associate with the Thatcher governments planned before the
Conservative Party won the 1979 general election?
1
, The Lecture, Gamble, Letwin, Thane, Saunders, Brooke texts:
- Would it be correct to state that there was a ‘Thatcherite revolution’ in Britain in the 1980s?
- Why are the Thatcher governments still judged to be so important and controversial today?
We are still living in the 80s today. In Britain, the election campaign was mainly dominated by Brexit and
scetticism. Tacher was one of the most european politicians ever. By the time she left office, and then
became extreme anti-euro.
- Hard left socialist: many people did not want him to be leader and did not support him.
- Tatcherism vs. socialism
Both these issues have been still processing today. Today it is impossibile to have socialism and a real
democracy in Britain.
1.3 - Researching and studying in the 1980s: new times?
There was a big debate about what was really new in that period. How did Thatcherism fall?
- Periodization only works if we think of it as a political? Is that only a lazy way to periodize?
- Now a need to situate the 1980s within other long-term trajectories?
- 1980s Britain as much the consequence as cause of long-term historical processes? Not even a
majority supported that. Many people criticized it.
- What role did Thatcherism play in social and cultural change?
1.4 - Other factors behind social change
- Break down of Britain’s ‘postwar settlement’
- Including Keynesian economics, ‘full employment’ policies, and the welfare state
- Technology, the global economy, and international relations
- Perceptions of national ‘decline’ in 1960s & 1970s
Building a comprehensive welfare state and creating employment. This was a model that really governed
policy. In the 1970s this model started to break down. The economy became global, and Britain experienced
a rapid decolonization. Britain was no longer competitive as economic power.
1.5 - Stuart Hall, Martin Jacues, and Cultural Studies
Thatcherism was not the inevitable result of long-term social and cultural change. Important to decouple the
social, economic, institutional and cultural conditions of the 1980s from the ascendency of Thatcherism. Left
in Britain (particularly the Labour Party) needed to respond to major changes in British society in new ways
They run magazines. They were the first people to think more broadly about the crise. Thatcherism was not
the inevitabile result of long-term social and cultural change. They really wanted to separate cultural and
social conditions from Thatcherism itself. Although they were on the left, they criticized the Labour Party
because it did not respond to major changes in Britain society.
2
