Britain’s Conservative Right since 1945

This book provides a detailed analysis of the evolution of the Conservative Right in Great Britain since 1945. It first explores the movement’s core ideas and highlights points of tension between its different strands. The book then proceeds with a thematically structured discussion. The Conservative Right’s views on the decline and fall of the British Empire, immigration control, European integration, the British constitution, the territorial integrity of the United Kingdom, Britain’s economy, the welfare state, and social morality and social change are all explored. In the concluding chapter, the author evaluates the extent to which the Conservative Right has succeeded in its core objectives since 1945 and addresses how it can best respond to a contemporary Britain in which it instinctively feels uncomfortable. The book is based on extensive elite interviews and archival research and will be of interest to anyone who seeks to place the contemporary Conservative Right in a greater historical context.

Kevin Hickson is Senior Lecturer in British Politics at the University of Liverpool, UK. He is the (co-)author or (co-)editor of over 15 books and has also written numerous journal articles and book chapters. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and of the Royal Society of Arts and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.