Bang!: A History of Britain in the 1980s

by Graham Stewart

Britain in the 1980s was a polarized nation. Determined to take the country in a radically different direction was the most dominant, commanding and controversial leader of her age, Margaret Thatcher. With the two main political parties as far apart as at any time since the 1930s, the period was riven by violent confrontation, beginning with the explosion of rioting that rocked England's cities in 1981 and again in 1985; a year-long fight with the National Union of Mineworkers, and then with print workers in Wapping. There was the war to retake the Falkland Islands and the re-escalation of the troubles in Northern Ireland, which began with hunger strikes and peaked with the attempt to assassinate the entire Cabinet in the Brighton bombing.

It was also a decade of political innovation - in the life and death of the Social Democratic Party, the mass privatization of state-owned industries, the sale of council houses and the deregulation of financial markets - and cultural ferment, with the rise and fall of indie pop, the emergence of house music, Channel 4 and the growth of alternative comedy; and Prince Charles's interventions on architecture.

Graham Stewart's magnificent and comprehensive history of the eighties covers all these events, and many more, with exhilarating verve and detail, and also examines the legacy of a decade that sowed the seeds of modern Britain.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, British Literature

906 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Amelia Stawpert · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me a long time to finish this - I'm not sure if it's dry prose that is the problem but it was hard going.

[Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this modern history of Britain in the 1980’s. However, it is important to note that the author has a definite conservative, and Conservative, bias that is evident throughout the book. He often outlines left/Labour arguments on different policy questions but usually goes on to attempt to refute them. I learned a great deal about the Thatcher government’s monetarist policies as contrasted with the Keynesian, corporatist model that the previous Labour governments had pursued. At times the level of detail was challenging for a layman reader like myself. The discussion of the different definitions of the money supply used in monetarist policy circles was particularly difficult to understand. I found that some sections of the book, such as the discussion of the Big Bang deregulation of the City, from which the book derives its title, were overly long. Conversely, other topics, such as the unintended consequences of the ‘care in the community’ policy in increasing homelessness were too brief. Although, the principle focus of the book is on government and politics there are also sections covering pop music and architecture.

[Trevor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I quite liked this, having been meaning to get round to reading for ages.

There's quite a lot of politics in this book, which I accept was very important in the 80's with lots of change, however to me, there is more to the 80's than just politics.

In fairness there is quite a decent section on music, from the rise of the new romantics through to acid house.

I was very interested to read about the miners strike and the goings on at Wapping. In the 80's I remember hearing about these on the news every night but was too young to appreciate what it was all about.

To be fair though, I thought Arthur Scargill was a prat when I was a kid, my opinion of him hasn't changed.

There's a lot about Maggie Thatcher too, and the book starts right in the 70's. There's laying the groundwork of a book and then there's going overboard, personal opinion is that it does the latter.

Overall as a lover of the 80's I quite enjoyed it but found it frustrating at times.

[Eyejaybee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book fascinating. The 1980s is the first complete decade of which I retain clear memories of the social and political issues that were to the forefront. As a decade, it is unusual in that one prime minister was in power throughout virtually the whole decade, and lent her name to the period.

I was just sixteen (and consequently too young to vote) in 1979 when Margaret Thatcher became prime minister. Nowadays she remains a divisive figure, subject to rampant vilification among much of the population. I recall, however, the feeling almost of euphoria when she won that first general election. The country had been through a long cold winter, and the seemingly interminable strikes by various groups of public workers (seized on and magnified by a predominantly right-wing press) had eroded public morale. The economy was struggling, and unemployment was high. One of the great ‘what-if’ questions about British politics is to speculate on what might have happened if James (“Sunny Jim”) Callaghan had called an election in the late summer or early autumn of 1978, as many pundits expected. Graham Stewart explores this particular issue in some depth.

One of the biggest problems that Callaghan faced was the bitter rift that developed between Labour and the Scottish Nationalists. He was also unlucky – it seemed that a disproportionate number of Labour MPs died throughout that Parliament, and the tiny majority that Callaghan had inherited from Harold Wilson was eroded by a succession of by election defeats. The SNP withdrew their support for the minority Labour government in March 1979 (branded by Callaghan as ‘turkeys voting for Christmas’), which led to the eventual loss of a confidence vote, prompting the general election.

Of course, recognising the cyclical nature of political history, the same question might be asked about Gordon Brown’s decision not to hold what might well have been a confirmatory election when he became prime minister following the resignation of Tony Blair in 2007. Like Callaghan, he had inherited the premiership from his predecessor, although in his case, without even a rigorous internal leadership election within the Labour Party, so remained open to accusations that he lacked a national mandate. (I am not convinced that this is entirely fair in Brown’s case, as Blair had announced his intention to step down mid-parliament before the 2005 election.)

Thatcher’s assumption and then retention of power was notable. In the early years of her premiership the economy faltered, and unemployment rose still further – particularly embarrassing as this had been one of the big issues in her election campaign. Certainly, the surge of patriotism (jingoism?) arising from the Falklands War played a significant factor in her huge majority in 1983, but Stewart points out that the continuing – indeed, deepening – rifts within the Labour Party, and the advance of the Social Democrats, would probably have ensured her second victory anyway.

Stewart goes through all of this in great detail, but with a flair and deftness of touch that prevents the book from ever seeming burdensome. In addition to his sharp analysis of the political history of the period, he provides interesting insight into cultural and social trends throughout the decade, recounting the rise of the video recorder and the introduction of the compact disk. His account of the Broadwater Farm riot in October 1985, in which Keith Blakelock, a London policemen (who lived just down the road from me in Muswell Hill, where there is still a memorial to him) is especially vivid.

I was prompted to read this book after seeing it appear in the Notes and Acknowledgments for Joe Thomas’s novels White Riot and Red Menace, which are set in the more tumultuous years of the decade. It complements the narrative of the two novels very closely.

[Lauren Barnett · Rating 4 out of 5]

It may be that this book reads differently if you are British vs. an outsider. My friends are British and though I have lived here for 13 years, I am not. And when I read it I thought it was really sensible and informative (although I have some issues which you can read below). My friends who read it initially got very upset. Some were "children of Thatcher" and felt the book was Thatcherite, but when they read it again, all three of them then called it honest and well done, and one told me it gave a very good sense of life in the 1980s (which is why I read it). I don't know why the change of heart among my friends on the second reading, but there you go! Now for my thoughts:

If you need to know anything about the political or social climate in Britain in the 1980s, this is clearly the book. Everything is covered from the things most people consider - strike action, Thatcher politics, the IRA, and punk - to things you may overlook or not realise - including changes in satellite television.
That being said, I found the arrangement of chapters frustrating. No one else I know who read it did, so maybe it's just me, but as I didn't live through 80s Britain (child of Reagan I suppose) I had to constantly flip among the chapters to get the timeline straight. The book isn't chronological, and as such it's hard to figure out when the miners strikes happened relative to musical revolutions relative to television changing relative to different policies on taxes and government subsidies. It was frustrating and took much longer to read as a result because I couldn't get everything straight. So only 4 stars - clearly well written and everyone else loved it, but I struggled with the chronology.

[Steve Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally got through it after a full year reading a page and a half at a time on the toilet.

I got what I wanted from it, in that I now have a far better understanding of the decade of my childhood, and those buzz phrases and names in the news now make much more sense.

However, it really is a heavy read in places, particularly when dealing with topics related to the economy and that slowed my progress as I read and reread sentences peppered with technical terms, not aided by the convoluted grammatical structure Stewart seems to favour.

Overall, a substantial treatment of the 80s, and having made allowances for the clear political bias of the author, very informative.

[Paddy McKeating · Rating 3 out of 5]

A detailed and somewhat gripping narrative history of the 80s. It’s written from an unashamedly right wing perspective so I would advise balancing with with ‘No Such Thing As Society’ to create a complete picture.

[Andy Rooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book with a great deal of interesting facts. However be aware that the author has a definite right wing lean to his perception of the decade. This does detract from the facts of the times. But a very good read none the less.

[Geoff Hendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very detailed information about the 1980s which reminded me of that period but also some insights which were not generally known at the time. A bit right-leaning and heavy going but well written

[Ipswichblade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting book about the 1980's which has more political and economics information rather than popular culture etc.

[mehtab · Rating 3 out of 5]

good enough for my purposes; a bit too unchronological, maybe

[Jeff Howells · Rating 4 out of 5]

In one of those strange quirks of fate, the weekend I attend the Changing Britain Festival at the Southbank Centre covering the period 1979 to 1997, I finish reading this book. Books covering postwar British history is an increasingly crowded market place but this one is particularly good. It is more concerned with political history than cultural history and possibly takes a slightly more right of centre stance but if you've enjoyed Dominic Sandbrook's sequence of books then you'll enjoy this one.

[Ade · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some revealing bits on the miner's strike and Falklands conflict. Bit too much rah-rah-rah for many of Thatcher's reforms. (I think that Big Bang stuff is gonna come back to bite you.)

[Keith Hamilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A chilling reminder of the hold that Thatcherism had over the UK in the eighties, a lot of our present day ills can be traced back to that decade of tory greed.

[James · Rating 1 out of 5]

Readable but annoyed me.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Modern history at its best. Easy to read and with the benefit of hindsight from the 21st century.

[Donna Boultwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't say that I read this book closely. It's more of a text book for someone studying the 1980s, economics and politics. I enjoyed a review of the issues. It brought back lots of memories!

[Karl Wilcox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this - a good companion to Alwyn's Turner's books on recent decades, there wasn't much overlap so both are worth reading. Always interesting to read history that one actually lived through!