The Cultural Roots Of British Devolution

Arguing that cultural devolution preceded and indeed forced political change, the author places this change in the context of post-imperial Britain in the second half of the 20th century and looks at how underground cultures such as rave may have laid the foundations for a post-British culture.

A survey of two centuries of history, by Britain's commentator on the Balkans, Misha Glenny. It offers general readers a single narrative that explains the background to the terrible events on their television screens and provides insights into the roots of the region's reputation for violence. It also explores the origins of modern Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Greece, Bulgaria and Albania.

After Raymond Williams: Cultural Materialism and the Break-Up of Britain has two broad aims. The first is to re-examine the concept of cultural materialism, the term used by Raymond Williams to describe his theory of how writing and other cultural forms relate to general social and historical processes. Using this theory, the second objective is to explore the material ways in which contemporary British writing participates in one particular political process - that of the break-up of Britain. The general trajectory of the book is a matter of superseding Williams: the early chapters are devoted to extrapolating Williams's materialist theory of cultural forms, while later chapters are concerned with applying this theoretical material to a series of readings of books and films produced in the years since his death in 1988. This volume provides a detailed account of some of the writing produced in Scotland and Wales in the years surrounding political devolution, and also considers the ways in which different subcultural communities use fiction to renegotiate their relationships with the British whole.

With new devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, this book provides a study of developments in the major areas of social policy and a full comparison between the four UK nations.

"Considering an unprecedented range of literary, political and archival materials, it explores how questions of 'voice', language and identity featured in debates leading to the new Scottish Parliament in 1999"--Publisher description

This book maps the most active and vibrant period in the history of British women's writing. Examining changes and continuities in fiction, poetry, drama, and journalism, as well as women's engagement with a range of literary and popular genres, the essays in this volume highlight the range and diversity of women's writing since 1970.

This book explains devolution today in terms of the evolution of past structures of government in the component parts of the United Kingdom. Available in paperback for the first time, it highlights the importance of the English dimension and the role that England’s territorial politics played in constitutional debates. Similarities and differences between how the components of the UK were governed are described. It argues that the UK should be understood now, even more than pre-devolution, as a state of distinct unions, each with its own deeply rooted past and trajectory. Using previously unpublished primary material, as well as a wealth of secondary work, the book offers a comprehensive account of the territorial constitution of the UK from the early twentieth century through to the operation of the new devolved system of government.

A collection of major articles representing some of the best historical research by some of the world's most distinguished historians.