In the Cold War battle for hearts and minds Britain was the first country to formulate a coordinated global response to communist propaganda. In January 1948, the British government launched a new propaganda policy designed to 'oppose the inroads of communism' by taking the offensive against it.' A small section in the Foreign Office, the innocuously titled Information Research Department (IRD), was established to collate information on communist policy, tactics and propaganda, and coordin...

In 2024, following years of austerity, political instability and external shocks including Brexit, COVID-19 and the cost-of-living crisis, the Labour Party was voted into power in the UK. This book is the first in-depth analysis of the Labour government from a social policy perspective.Through expert chapters covering broad themes such as public expenditure, public opinion and devolution, and substantive areas including children and families, health, education, housing, social secu...

Focusing on the policy approaches of Conservative governments since 2015, this book examines key social policy areas including education, health, housing, employment, children and young people, and more.Respected social policy researchers explore the degree to which the positions and policies of recent Conservative governments have differed from the previous Coalition government (2010–15). They consider the extent to which austerity has continued and the influence of other policy e...

Winner of the National Jewish Book Award (Holocaust Category)Winner of the Canadian Historical Association John A. Macdonald PrizeFeatured in The Literary Review of Canada 100: Canada’s Most Important Books[This] is a story best summed up in the words of an anonymous senior Canadian official who, in the midst of a rambling, off-the-record discussion with journalists in 1945, was asked how many Jews would be allowed into Canada after the war … ‘None,’ he...

Social policy encompasses the study of social needs, policy development and administrative arrangements aimed at improving citizen wellbeing and redressing disadvantage. Australian Social Policy and the Human Services introduces readers to the mechanisms of policy development, implementation and evaluation. This third edition emphasises the complexity of practice, examining the links and gaps between policy development and implementation and encouraging readers to develop a critical approa...

Recent events such as the Brexit vote and the 2017 general election result highlight the erosion of traditional class identities and the decoupling of class from political identity. The majority of people in the UK still identify as working class, yet no political party today can confidently articulate their interests. So who is now working class and how do political parties gain their support?Based on the opinions and voices of lower and middle income voters, this insightful book ...

In Britain we have lost touch with the Great War. Our overriding sense now is of a meaningless, futile bloodbath in the mud of Flanders -- of young men whose lives were cut off in their prime for no evident purpose. But by reducing the conflict to personal tragedies, however moving, we have lost the big picture: the history has been distilled into poetry. In The Long Shadow, critically acclaimed author David Reynolds seeks to redress the balance by exploring the true impact of 191...

An inspiring manifesto offering a radical vision for our political future.We live in an age of crisis and decline. The right presents ‘solutions’ that only worsen the situation, driving a downward cycle in which desperation leads to despair. But the left is also to blame: progressive politicians have consistently failed to recognise both the urgency of people’s need and their receptiveness to new solutions.In Act now, a team of leading researchers presents ...

Hailed on publication as a thought-provoking, authoritative analysis of the true beginnings of the Second World War, this revised edition of The Road to War is essential reading for anyone interested in this momentous period of history. Taking each major nation in turn, the book tells the story of their road to war; recapturing the concerns, anxieties and prejudices of the statesmen of the thirties.

Poverty in Britain is at post-war highs and - even with economic growth -is set to increase yet further. Food bank queues are growing, levels of severe deprivation have been rising, and increasing numbers of children are left with their most basic needs unmet.Based on exclusive access to the largest ever survey of poverty in the UK, and its predecessor surveys in the 1980s and 1990s, Stewart Lansley and Joanna Mack track changes in deprivation and paint a devastating picture of the...

The twentieth century in Europe witnessed some of the most brutish episodes in history. Yet it also saw incontestable improvements in the conditions of existence for most inhabitants of the continent - from rising living standards and dramatically increased life expectancy, to the virtual elimination of illiteracy, and the advance of women, ethnic minorities, and homosexuals to greater equality of respect and opportunity. It was a century of barbarism and civilization, of cruelty and tende...

Austerity, a response to the aftermath of the financial crisis, continues to devastate contemporary Britain.In The Violence of Austerity, Vickie Cooper and David Whyte bring together the voices of campaigners and academics including Danny Dorling, Mary O'Hara and Rizwaan Sabir to show that rather than stimulating economic growth, austerity policies have led to a dismantling of the social systems that operated as a buffer against economic hardship, exposing austerity to be a form of...