1979 and All That: Writing Contemporary History The Historian’s Toolkit: Professor Mathew Thomson 1979 and All That: Writing Contemporary History

PART 1: 1979 and all that First published 1930

i) History becomes myth

ii) The power of the historical moment and its imagery Is 1979 and election of Margaret Thatcher a turning point in modern British history? The end of consensus over the welfare state and a form of social democracy that had come to fore in the Second World War? The move to a new ‘neo-liberal’ era?

Britain 1979: the ‘winter of discontent’ Strikes come to be seen as a symbol of what was wrong with Britain and of a nation in crisis and collapse before turning point of 1979

Britain 1979: Anarchy in the UK? Mirrored in popular culture by the way punk music and style symbolised a moment of crisis?

PART II: Aims of Block 1

i) Types of history Each block introduces another approach in the historian’s toolkit Block 1 introduces you to ‘contemporary history’ Other blocks introduce the big picture of development over long periods and involving comparison between countries. Block 1 turns to the history of a moment in time, and thus history in close-up and in a single national settting.

ii) From reading to making history Focus on a particular moment in time enables us to introduce the challenge of analysing original sources You will consider material drawn from Warwick’s Modern Records Centre, and you will be among the first people to analyse these documents in close detail You will produce an assignment focusing on one of these MRC documents that introduces you to original research and helps prepare you for the Making History Project in the summer term Involvement in an area of history that is in the process of being made: a collective research project

PART III: Structure of Block 4

Lectures Today: an introduction to the aims of the block and to contemporary history Tomorrow: an introduction to the historical problem of 1979 and its politics Weeks 3 & 4: thematic ways of thinking about 1979 (class, gender, ethnicity, popular culture) Week 5: historical research in progress (1979 and the NHS); and a debate pulling the themes and sources together to address the question of whether 1979 was a turning point

Seminars This week: thinking about the challenges of contemporary history and introducing discussion of 1979 via political change Week 8: discussion of themes of women/feminism and work/industrial relations Week 9: discussion of themes of race and identity politics Week 10: debate and analysis on the question of 1979 as turning point; use of sources to address in preparation for assignment

Additional activities/resources Modern Records Centre: open to students at any time; unique opportunity of having major archive integrated into undergraduate programme

Additional activities/resources Viewing of Stephen Frears film My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)

Additional activities/resources Digitised collection of MRC sources relating to problem of 1979, making access to this material easy

The Assignment Title: ‘How does one of the digitised MRC documents help you to address the question of whether Britain changed in 1979’ Length: 1o00 words; deadline Week 8 Detailed discussion of one of the MRC documents May involve discussion of surrounding or comparable material in digitised MRC collection Will involve link to secondary reading and themes explored in seminars

PART IV: Contemporary History

What is contemporary history? When does history end? Contemporary history sounds like a contradiction. Does it mean recent history? If so, how recent, and does it include the present? Geoffrey Baraclough (1967): ‘Contemporary history begins when the problems which are actual in the world today first take visible shape’

The shifting focus of contemporary history 1066 and All That sees English history as coming to an end in 1917 with entry of US to WW1 The dominant political/social/economic questions of the age of extremes: world war, the rise of fascism and communism, the holocaust (Journal of Contemporary History - founded 1966). In Britain, formation of Centre for Contemporary British History 1986; focus on history since 1945. Block 1 asks whether 1979 is now the key date ‘when the problems which are actual in the world today’ take shape?

Challenge 1: Perspective R.G. Collingwood (1924): ‘It is only after close and prolonged reflection that we begin to see why things happened as they did, and to write history instead of newspapers’ Danger of seeing the past as leading to the present (‘whig’ history) Reliance on oral history where witness views are shaped by the present Need for longer-term perspective

Challenge 2: Sources Time-lag in the creation of archives The law and access: the 30 years rule; data protection legislation Explosion of volume of material close to the present; sorting the wheat from the chaff The challenges of preserving, accessing and interpreting new media: film, television, audio, digital

In defence of a contemporary history focusing on 1979 Arguments for Britain (and perhaps the world) shifting around this date Putting this in the hands of the historian can provide perspective and save it from polemics: advantages of longer-term perspective; study of long-term roots; can bring comparative perspective; recognition that our own perspective is shaped by our own times A new generation of historians can be more objective

defence continued … 4. Historians’ recognition that political change needs to be understood and inter-related to social, economic, and cultural (eg rise of Thatcher not only, and not necessarily central story). Potential thereby to demythologise. 5. The range of sources and mix of media presents challenges, but is also rich and readily available: records now lie beyond 30-year rule; access strengthened by Freedom of Information; wealth of research undertaken at time by political and social science that can be re-examined to access history of the people and not just political elite; and wealth of material in MRC – the digitised sources just the tip of iceberg