Conclusions

Abstract

This chapter examines two narratives that have recently developed a role in understandings of post-war Britain. First, the ‘rise of neo-liberalism’. Neo-liberalism has become a hugely influential narrative in academic circles, though it has had little resonance with governments or a wider public. It suggests a fundamental turning point in economic life in the 1970s, when Britain is said to have moved from a broadly social-democratic to neo-liberal policies. The second narrative, of deindustrialization, identifies not a revolution in political ideas about the economy but a structural shift, a shift that is said to have underpinned many of the other changes in economic life. In the 1970s deindustrialization briefly became a prominent topic of debate, but this quickly faded. Though less widely used as an overarching framework by academics than neo-liberalism, there is a growing body of work that sees it as having major significance in understanding post-war Britain.