20th Century Britain: The Thatcher Age 1975-1997
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.
This course has now started
- Course Code: HBH87
- Dates: 24/04/24 - 12/06/24
- Time: 19:30 - 21:30
- Taught: Wed, Evening
- Duration: 8 sessions (over 8 weeks)
- Location: Online
- Tutor: David Fowler
Course Code: HBH87
Duration: 8 sessions (over 8 weeks)
Please note: We offer a wide variety of financial support to make courses affordable. Just visit our online Help Centre for more information on a range of topics including fees, online learning and FAQs.
What is the course about?
This course offers a radically new understanding of cultural and social change during the Thatcher Age (1975-1997). It contends that the Thatcher Decade experienced a social and cultural “revolution” as significant in many ways as Marwick’s “Cultural Revolution” of the 1960s.
But whereas cultural change in the 1960s was driven, overwhelmingly, by elites-the upper classes and ‘Oxbridge set’ who produced the Satire Boom, who opened the nightclubs of Swinging London, and the aspirational pop stars who bought country estates and became the new ‘Swinging Meritocracy’; social and cultural change during the 1980s was of a different kind: driven forward by entrepreneurial outsiders like Tony Wilson (‘Mr Manchester’), the proponents of a Multicultural Britain (Jerry Dammers, Specials, and Ska) and as much a product of working-class and grass roots movements (CND, Punk, Oi, Madchester, and the Rave culture) as the ‘Swinging Sixties’ was a product of social and educational elites.
There is, then, a hidden history to be probed in this course: the strange symmetry between the era of Margaret Thatcher, the ‘Grocer’s Daughter’ and Britain’s first female Prime Minister (1979-1990) and the transformative social and cultural change that this lower middle class Prime Minister presided over and, in complex ways, inspired.
This is a live online course. You will need:
- Internet connection. The classes work best with Chrome.
- A computer with microphone and camera is best (e.g. a PC/laptop/iMac/MacBook), or a tablet/iPad/smart phone/iPhone if you don't have a computer.
- Earphones/headphones/speakers.
We will contact you with joining instructions before your course starts.
What will we cover?
- The “Winter of Discontent” and the Birth of Thatcherism
- Punk and Post-Punk; New Romantics (“Thatcherism with Make-Up”)?
- Social Class in Thatcher’s Britain
- The Urban Riots of 1980-1981
- Consumers and Consumerism in 1980s’ Britain
- Tony Wilson (“Mr Manchester”) and Manchester’s Cultural Renaissance during the 1980s
- Protest in Early 1980s’ Britain: Anti-Nuclear Activism and the Anti-Apartheid Movement
- Student Protest and Youth Cultures of Resistance
- Margaret Thatcher and the Revolutions in Eastern Europe, 1989-1991.
What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...
- have acquired a greater understanding of the decade from recent scholarly research findings
- greater confidence and ability in discussing the course topics.
What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?
Imaginative engagement; Curiosity; a love of History and Reading. The course is an advanced Level course; but it is accessible to non-specialists who can demonstrate the skills outlined.
How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?
Tutor presentation, weekly reading and tasks for class discussion.
Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?
No additional costs.
When I've finished, what course can I do next?
Please explore our British history section for additional courses.
Dr David M. Fowler is an Historian of Modern Britain; the 1960s; and the Thatcher Decade. He is based at the University of Cambridge where he is a Life Member in Residence of Clare Hall, Cambridge and teaches for the Colleges and Faculties of the University of Cambridge. He has published two widely acclaimed books on the history of Youth Culture in Twentieth Century Britain and scholarly articles on aspects of Modern British Cultural History. His new book, Oxford and Revolution: Student Power, “1968” and a British Cultural Revolt is forthcoming with Oxford University Press and due out in 2023.
Please note: We reserve the right to change our tutors from those advertised. This happens rarely, but if it does, we are unable to refund fees due to this. Our tutors may have different teaching styles; however we guarantee a consistent quality of teaching in all our courses.
