Having it So Good: Britain in the Fifties

by Peter Hennessy

Winner of the Orwell Prize for Political Writing, Peter Hennessy's Having it So Good: Britain in the Fifties captures Britain in an extraordinary decade, emerging from the shadow of war into growing affluence.

The 1950s was the decade in which Roger Bannister ran the four-minute mile, Bill Haley released 'Rock Around the Clock', rationing ended and Britain embarked on the traumatic, disastrous Suez War.

In this highly enjoyable, original book, Peter Hennessy takes his readers into front rooms, classrooms, cabinet rooms and the new high-street coffee bars of Britain to recapture, as no previous history has, the feel, the flavour and the politics of this extraordinary time of change.

'Utterly engaging ... a treat. It breathes exhilaration'
  Libby Purves, The Times

'If the Gods gossip, this is how it would sound'
  Philip Ziegler, Spectator Books of the Year

'A particular treat ... fine, wise and meticulously researched'
  Andrew Marr

'Stands clear of the field as our best narrative history of this decisive decade'
  Peter Clarke, Sunday Times

'A compelling narrative ... Hennessy's love of the flesh and blood of politics breathes on every page'
  Tim Gardam, Observer

'The late Ben Pimlott once described Hennessy as "something of a national institution". You can forget the first two of those five words'
  Guardian

Peter Hennessy is Attlee Professor of History at Queen Mary College, London, and the Director of the Mile End Institute of Contemporary British Government, Intelligence and Society. He is the author of Never Again: Britain 1945-51 (winner of the NCR and Duff Cooper Prizes), Having it So Good: Britain in the Fifties (winner of the Orwell Prize); the bestselling The Prime Minister and The Secret State.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, British Literature, Politics

768 pages, Paperback

First published October 5, 2006

About the author

Peter Hennessy is an English historian and academic specialising in the history of government. Since 1992, he has been Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History at Queen Mary University of London.

He was born in Edmonton, the youngest child of William G. Hennessy by his marriage to Edith (Wood-Johnson) Hennessy

Hennessy attended the nearby Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School, and on Sundays he went to St Mary Magdalene church, where he was an altar boy. He was educated at St Benedict's School, an independent school in Ealing, West London. When his father's job led the family to move to the Cotswolds, he attended Marling School, a grammar school in Stroud, Gloucestershire. He went on to study at St John's College, Cambridge, where he was awarded a BA in 1969 and a PhD in 1990. Hennessy was a Kennedy Memorial Scholar at Harvard University from 1971 to 1972.

Hennessy went on to work as a journalist during the 1970s and 1980s.
He went on to co-found the Institute of Contemporary British History in 1986.

From 1992 to 2000, Hennessey was professor of contemporary history at Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London. From 1994 to 1997, he gave public lectures as Professor of Rhetoric at Gresham College, London. From 2001, he has been Attlee professor of contemporary British history at Queen Mary.

Hennessy's analysis of post-war Britain, 'Never Again: Britain 1945–1951', won the Duff Cooper Prize in 1992 and the NCR Book Award in 1993.

Furthermore, his study of Britain in the 1950s and the rise of Harold Macmillan, 'Having It So Good: Britain in the 1950s', won the 2007 Orwell Prize for political writing

Hennessy was created a life peer on November 8, 2010.

Reviews

[Caroline · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book's title is a bit misleading as it is more about political personalities and decisions during the 1950s than life during that period. The book discusses things like the problems of maintaining the empire and coming to terms with Britain's loss of power on the world stage, the Suez crisis, the threat felt by the setting up of the EEC and Britain's unwillingness to join etc. Some of it was interesting but the writing felt quite old-fashioned (like it was written in the 50s, not 2006!).

Women are virtually absent throughout the whole book (except Queen Elizabeth's coronation) which is a massive gap.

Also it would have been interesting to consider whether the 'old boys' club' (most people in power attending the same schools and universitied) which ran Britain was partly responsible for some of the dreadful decisions and failure to arrest Britain's decline but the author focuses too much on personalities to pull back to take a wider view in retrospect.

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superb recount of British politcal life in the 1950’s. Hennessy makes excellent use of both archives and conversations with those in the know, producing fly-on-the-wall insight into the key political personalities and events of the era.

[Eviekins · Rating 4 out of 5]

love harold macmillan!

[Martin Samuels · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peter Hennessy is one of Britain's leading political historians and that shines through this volume. Hennessy tracks the path of Britain in the 1950s through a close examination of the thinking and concerns of the Prime Ministers of the time, with a focus on Churchill and Macmillan. Combining analysis of their personal papers with detailed examination of a number of key government documents, Hennessy brings out the central fixation of his main players with the twin issues of the implications of the atomic (and then hydrogen) bomb and Britain's place in the postwar world. Clearly, there was a strong linkage between these two issues, as so often politicians concluded that Britain's place at the 'top table' was dependent on their being a Bomb with a Union Jack on it.

While billed as a history of Britain in the 1950s, the book is primarily focused on political issues, and the chapters on social factors feel less clearly written and more discursive. The font size is also somewhat challenging at times - though the volume still comes out at a hefty 740 pages.

Overall, an excellent study of the minds of Britain's political leaders and of their attempts to find a role for a post-imperial Britain.

[MadgeUK · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an eloquently written sequel to Never Again : Britain 1945-51, reviewed elsewhere. I can comment no better than Peter Clarke, writing in The Sunday Times:

'Stands clear of the field as our best narrative history of this decisive decade...anyone over the age of sixty will relish the book for its masterly evocation of the 1950s. the other set of must-have readers is anyone under sixty. Here is their guide to a part of the past that will no longer be a foreign country.'

Or as Philip Ziegler wrote 'If the Gods gossip, this is how it would sound'!.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Frankly I was a bit disappointed. I was a young man in the 1950s and of course remember many of the incidents described by the author, which made it very interesting for me. However, I found it heavy going and was quite glad to reach the end, and tick it off, so to speak. Perhaps there is too much detail, or, more likely, my age has had an effect on my concentration skills.

[Ilona · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just started this book - the title comes from Harold Macmillan's comment sometime in the late 40s/early 50s (shame on me... should know this) that the people of Britain had 'never had it so good'.