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Age of Austerity: Essays
Edited by Sissons and French with pieces by Susan Cooper, Michael Frayn, Godfrey Hodgson and David Pryce-Jones, et al.
- GenresHistory
337 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1963
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February 1, 2014
The period immediately after the second world war was, if anything, more of an age of austerity than the one we are currently living through. Wartime devastation, the slow demobilisation of military manpower and the struggle to deal with numerous shortages, as well as one of the bitterest winters ever seen in Britain, in 1947, prolonged hardship for many years after battles came to an end.
Yet even the term 'austerity' evoked something different from the notion of present-day punitive attack on ordinary citizens to the radicals of those days, viewed as something like a bracing cold shower that would focus the mind and the body's energies on the challenges ahead. A left Labour government had a plan to rebuild the economy which involved extensive nationalisation of loss-making industries, solving the housing crisis with a massive programme of building, as well as laying down the foundations of the NHS and the strengthening the welfare state.
Beyond the realm of government the population struggled with the realities of rationing, being encouraged to exploit the hitherto untapped resources of a tasteless fish to maintain body and soul, 'spiv' wide-boys obtained a legendary status for cutting the corners of officialdom, the 'New Look' fashion became available to women wanting to escape the drabness of war service, and international, Zionist terrorism in Palestine, the crisis in Greece, and the disaster of partition in India brought home the reality of Britain’s reduced standing as a world power.
All of these, as well as others in addition, are covered in this famous collection of essays first published in 1963. The overall tone is one of wondering why the hopes and ambitions of the period fell short, giving way in 1951 to the return of a Conservative government led by the now self-absorbed Churchill. The conventional answer is that, after its initial burst of radicalism and reform, Labour simply ran out of ideas on how to take their democratic revolution forward. Godfrey Hodgson's account of the effort to nationalise the steel industry expounds on that point but more is said about the bone-weariness of ordinary people with all the years to sacrifice and the increased urgency of their desire to find the way to something a little brighter and more joyous.
In the end this account of the earlier age of austerity does provide an insight as to why so little has come out of the modern-day version in the way of real change. The book does not develop the argument in these terms, but the cleavage that the liberal parliamentary state requires between politics and the cultural life of citizens means that the latter so often becomes a reservoir of frustration that ends up undermining the hopes and ambitions that are developed in the realm of the former. The extent to which the achievements of the early years of the post-war government did extend into the 1960s and beyond, the NHS being the obvious example, it was because the schism between politics and the culture of the masses was overcome.
But in so many other areas, particularly with regard to the economy, Labour's politics fell far short of achieving this. That seems to be the real lesson to learn from the Age of Austerity.
Yet even the term 'austerity' evoked something different from the notion of present-day punitive attack on ordinary citizens to the radicals of those days, viewed as something like a bracing cold shower that would focus the mind and the body's energies on the challenges ahead. A left Labour government had a plan to rebuild the economy which involved extensive nationalisation of loss-making industries, solving the housing crisis with a massive programme of building, as well as laying down the foundations of the NHS and the strengthening the welfare state.
Beyond the realm of government the population struggled with the realities of rationing, being encouraged to exploit the hitherto untapped resources of a tasteless fish to maintain body and soul, 'spiv' wide-boys obtained a legendary status for cutting the corners of officialdom, the 'New Look' fashion became available to women wanting to escape the drabness of war service, and international, Zionist terrorism in Palestine, the crisis in Greece, and the disaster of partition in India brought home the reality of Britain’s reduced standing as a world power.
All of these, as well as others in addition, are covered in this famous collection of essays first published in 1963. The overall tone is one of wondering why the hopes and ambitions of the period fell short, giving way in 1951 to the return of a Conservative government led by the now self-absorbed Churchill. The conventional answer is that, after its initial burst of radicalism and reform, Labour simply ran out of ideas on how to take their democratic revolution forward. Godfrey Hodgson's account of the effort to nationalise the steel industry expounds on that point but more is said about the bone-weariness of ordinary people with all the years to sacrifice and the increased urgency of their desire to find the way to something a little brighter and more joyous.
In the end this account of the earlier age of austerity does provide an insight as to why so little has come out of the modern-day version in the way of real change. The book does not develop the argument in these terms, but the cleavage that the liberal parliamentary state requires between politics and the cultural life of citizens means that the latter so often becomes a reservoir of frustration that ends up undermining the hopes and ambitions that are developed in the realm of the former. The extent to which the achievements of the early years of the post-war government did extend into the 1960s and beyond, the NHS being the obvious example, it was because the schism between politics and the culture of the masses was overcome.
But in so many other areas, particularly with regard to the economy, Labour's politics fell far short of achieving this. That seems to be the real lesson to learn from the Age of Austerity.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review