THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

1946 Present
Historical and social context
Great Britain and Ireland
At first the Second World War did not impinge greatly on the national
consciousness, and, in contrast with the patriotic fervour surrounding the beginning of
the First World War, there was even talk of a phoney or false war. However,
developments during 1940 made the nation realize the real danger it faced and a
coalition government under Churchill took power. It says much for the power of
Churchills rhetoric and charisma that he was able to catastrophic retreat from Dunkirk
in 1940 into a kind of moral victory. The Battle of Britain, the airborne battle between
the Luftwaffe and the RAF1 for British airspace and the Blitz, the German bombing of
large cities (in particular London), also took a heavy toll of lives, although government
propaganda emphasized the resilience and courage of the British in difficulties. A certain
insularity began to develop: Britain was by then the only major European power not
under Germanys control. The British Empire was gradually drawn into the war: colonies
first gave their support in goods and troops and later even became the theatre of war.
A long, hard struggle, which left Britain financially and emotionally scarred, gradually
turned the tide of German aggression, and with the help of the Americans, who entered
the war in 1941, the campaign following D-day in 1944 proved decisive. By 8th May
1945 the war in Europe was over. It took another three months (and two atomic bombs
dropped by the American allies on Hiroshima and Nagasaki) to end Japanese resistance
and the war in the Far East. Britain seemed to be without a role after the war: the empire
was falling apart at the seams and at home too the new egalitarianism which had arisen
during the war years, together with a new found faith in social planning, led to
widespread discontent with the old order of things. In a surprising election in 1945, the
war-leader Churchill was swept from power by the Labour Party, which gained an
enormous majority of 394 seats to the Tories 210. A new era had begun.
During the war years several important social reforms had been gestating. The
Beveridge Report (1942) laid down the outlines of a social security system which would
protect the poor and needy from the cradle to the grave. Other new policies in town
planning (green belts, new towns), and a commitment to full employment and
improvement of working conditions were in the air. Butlers new Education Act of 1944
paved the way for true universal secondary education.
The resulting consensus politics, based on a mixed economy and welfare state
was to remain the dominant model for the next 30 years, under both Labour and
Conservative administrations. Some of the immediate effects were nationalization (20
percent of British industry came under the control of the public sector and an ambitious
National Health Service (which became effective from 1948), as well as the provision of
large numbers of low-rent council houses.
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RAF Royal Air Force

The immediate post-war period is often remembered as a time of austerity:

certainly Britain had a huge debt and rationing of some products continued until 1954.
However, there were real improvements in the standard of living: wages rose and there
were better facilities and conditions all round. The Festival of Britain 1951, marking
the centenary of the Great Exhibition of 1851 at Crystal Palace, involved the
rehabilitation of a large area on the south bank of the Thames, and the construction of
a splendid arts complex, including concert halls, art galleries and theatres. During the
period 1951-64 the Conservative Party was in power, and gradually a new affluence
began to replace the austerity of the immediate post-war period; this was summed up
in their optimistic slogan: Youve never had it so good.
Britains international position was steadily declining: the years 1947-9 brought
independence for the colonial possessions India, Pakistan, Burma and Ceylon; and
during the 1950s most of the Suez crisis (1956). When Egypt threatened to seize control
of the Suez Canal and nationalize it, Britain indulged in a very dubious military invasion
(along with France), but the pressure of world opinion forced an embarrassing
withdrawal and the resignation of the prime minister, Eden.
Britains relationship with America became very close, especially after the
foundation of NATO2, and British foreign policy, to this day, is conditioned by the need
to demonstrate some semblance of independence (usually illusory) from its more
powerful ally.
Britains insularity made it hostile to the dawning of European unity in the
immediate post-war years. Finally, when Britain realized in 1963 the substantial
advantages of joining the European Common Market, the French Premier De Gaulle
vetoed its application.
During the 1950s and 1960s the general attitude became rather complacent;
Britain was well on the way to becoming an affluent, consumer society. Even their own
homes, cars, and holidays abroad. The influence of television became decisive. Society
became more permissive the early sixties saw the pop revolution symbolized by the
Beatles and the Rolling Stones, and by the fashion for miniskirts. However, the changes
that were occurring were not only at the superficial level of these trends. There was new
legislation on abortion and sexual freedom, and the traditional family structure began
to break up, with a rise in the divorce rate and in the number of single-parent families.
New universities sprang up, and there was increasing interest in mass culture.
As far as political developments were concerned, there was great interest in CND
(an anti-nuclear pressure group) and other protest movements. There was nationalist
ferment in Wales and Scotland, even extending to terrorist actions in some cases.
In Northern Ireland, civil rights marches by Catholics in the late sixties were
brutally repressed by the (Protestant) police; when the situation got out of hand, Britain
suspended the Northern Irish Parliament and sent troops to Belfast and other key areas
of Ulster. The troubles had begun again, and, even now, after more than thirty years,
the situation seems to be little better. Mass migration during the 1950s and 1960s,
especially from Britains ex-colonies such as the West Indies, India and Pakistan, led to
new problems of racial prejudice and discrimination. The economic problems which
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NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization

began to surface during the 1960s, such as rising inflation and unemployment, made
this problem still more acute. Industrial relations were very poor, with frequent strikes
which could even cause governments to fall on occasions.
In 1979 the Conservative Party won the election under the leadership of
Margaret Thatcher, who had become the leader of the party in 1973. Thatcher began to
dismantle the welfare state and to denationalize industry. Margaret Thatcher can be
characterized as a nineteenth-century Liberal rather than a Conservative in that she
wanted free trade, that is, low protective tariffs, and as little interference as possible by
the government in business and domestic matters. Much of the opposition to her,
however, stemmed from her unwillingness to make social reforms. In this, she differed
greatly from nineteenth-century Liberals.
Unfortunately, British economic decline continued. From 1979 to 1983 Britains
manufacturing production fell by 17 percent and unemployment rose from 1,250,000 to
over 3,000,000. Also, in 1983, for the first time since the Industrial Revolution, Britain
exported more goods than it imported.
Margaret Thatcher was elected two more times, becoming the first prime
minister in the twentieth century to win three consecutive elections. Her successor John
Major won the general elections for the Conservatives again in 1992.
The long reign of the Conservative in Britain ended with the landslide victory of
Labour in May 1997. This new Labour Party was led by a young lawyer, Tony Blair, who
had become its leader in 1994. Tony Blair presented more centrist ideas and ended
Labours nearly century-long efforts to turn Britain into a socialist state.
Two historic events marked Blairs first months in office. In June 1997, Blair went
to Hong Kong to be present at the end of Britains rule there; and in August, Diana,
Princess of Wales, was killed in a car accident in Paris. Her funeral was broadcast
worldwide and watched by around a billion people. Blair has made great efforts to bring
peace to Northern Ireland, but Britain still keeps its distance, for the time being, from
European Monetary Union. Another interesting action of Labour has been so-called
devolution, i.e., the setting up of parliaments in Scotland and Wales. Even though the
results were not as overwhelming as in 1997, Labour once again won the general
election of June 7, 2001.
The United States of America
Following the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, America joined the
Allies in their fight against Italy, Germany and Japan. Their contribution was to prove
decisive: 15 million men joined the armed forces, many of whom were deployed in
Europe, and the Allied war effort was much strengthened. In 1945, President Truman
gave orders to drop the atomic bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, and thus brought to
an abrupt end the Second World War.
Despite being allies throughout the war, Russia and the Americans were to
embark on a new kind of war after 1945: the so-called Cold War lasted up until very
recent times and was characterized by American attempts to contain the advancing
threat of communism throughout the world. America provided countries threatened
with communism with both financial and military aid up until the official collapse of the

Eastern Bloc in the late 80s. Both the wars in Korea (1950-53) and Vietnam (1957-75)
saw American troops deployed in an effort to crush the communist threat in these two
countries. If the Korean War ended in a truce between pro and anti-communist forces,
the war in Vietnam proved a costly enterprise in terms of both human lives lost and
national morale. Indeed, President Nixons decision to withdraw groundtroops from
Vietnam in 1973 was a formal recognition of defeat at the hands of the better organized
Northern Vietnamese Communist troops. The Americans took many years to recover
from the effects of this war. Nixons visits to China and the USSR3 in 1972 gave room for
hope that diplomatic relations between Communist and Western bloc countries would
improve and despite the continued growth of ever more sophisticated nuclear arms on
both sides, and the implicit threat of nuclear war, relations between East and West
slowly improved. Ronald Reagans presidency (1980-88) was influential in reducing
nuclear arms on both sides and the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 further
accelerated the end of the Cold War. The other main area of post-war American foreign
policy concern was the Middle East, where tensions between the Arab world and Israel
have posed a permanent problem in terms of worldwide security. Carters efforts to
negotiate peace between Israel and Egypt might be contrasted with the prompt military
response of the Bush administration to the threat to worldwide oil supplies following
Iraqs invasion of Kuwait in August 1990. Operation Desert Storm was a great military
success and an effective demonstration of vision of a New World Order did not,
however, convince an American public increasingly concerned with the failures of
domestic policy and in October 1992, the Democratic candidate Bill Clinton was voted
in by a considerable majority of American voters.
Home Affairs
Post-war American society was characterized by increasing material wealth on
the one hand and the continued division between rich and poor on the other. Although
subject to bouts of inflation and recession the American economy prospered once more
after the war. An ever-growing number of consumers the population rose by 28 million
between 1950 and 1960 provided a ready market for the wealth of goods available
cars, televisions, dishwashers, etc. There was a general move from the cities to the
suburbs during the post war period: by 1970, more people were thought to be living in
the suburbs than in the cities, and the automobile became an indispensable aspect of
modern American life.
Not everybody shared in the growing prosperity: large minority groups of blacks
and Hispanic Americans lived in the poverty stricken areas of urban America, and in the
1950s a chorus of organized protests made itself felt for the first time. This was to
culminate in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s: Martin Luther King (assassinated
in 1968) and Malcolm X became the active voices of Black American protest, and,
although measures were taken to improve the lot of blacks in America during the 60s,
minority groups continued to be discriminated against through the 70s and 80s. The

USSR Union of the Socialist Soviet Republics

gap between rich and poor became increasingly evident during the Reagan
administration.
Bill Clinton was re-elected in 1996, but most of his promises regarding social
issues were unfulfilled, especially those regarding national health care. Still, despite
many scandals, especially one over an extramarital affair with a White House intern, he
remained a very popular president.
His vice president, Al Gore ran for president and lost in 2000 against George W.
Bush, the son of former President, George Bush. This election was marked by numerous
doubts due to various irregularities in the counting of the vote. In the end, the election
was decided in favour of Bush, but many electors were left with the very bitter feeling
that American democracy had been compromised.

Source:
BRODEY, Kenneth e MALGARETTI, Fabio. Focus on English and American literature. Milan:
Modern Languages, 2002