THE TRANSFORMATION OF BRITISH LIFE 1950-2000

The book that will be reviewed in the following pages was written by Andrew
Rosen in the year 2003. Little is known about the author itself, it does not seem
that his biography has been interesting for the publishers of his books.
The information published about this author can be summarized in three
sentences; Andrew Rosen has pursued a career as a historian and university
administrator both in the United States and in Europe. He has lived in Oxford
since 1986 and he is the author of another book called, Rise up women!

As far as the book is concerned, Andrew Rosen analyses the change lived in
Britain during the second half of the 20th century. He focuses on three main
ideas to develop the whereabouts of the book.
The author argues that there are three major aspects that have contributed to
this transformation.
First, a notable increase in the standard of living matched with greater individual
freedom. Second, the decline of respect for orthodoxy and longstanding
institutions such as the monarchy and aristocracy, religion, the organized
working class, and marriage. Finally, the growing diversity of British life and
culture provided by new generational and ethnic identities and increasingly
strengthened by connections to America and Europe. These three trends
interact at many different levels and in many different ways developing the
gradual transformation of British life.

It is of great interest to highlight the methodology used by the author when

writing the book. Andrew Rosen combines statistics and narrative to achieve his
goal, which is to inform the readers as objectively as possible.
The book is full of numbers and charts with different data. This data shows the
reader objectively how British life has evolved since the fifties. However,
statistics, numbers, charts… are not enough for a clear understanding of the
book. The author gives a solution to this interpreting these charts and numbers
using an easy narrative.
I would say that the statistics (numbers, charts) are the skeleton of the book, but
the skeleton needs muscles, skin… to form a complete body. The author’s
interpretation and explanation would be the “muscles, skin” of this book.

Although it is not a too long book to read, nobody could doubt the effort made
by the author when writing the book. The bibliography in the last part of the
book shows the reader the never-ending list of newspapers, periodicals,
reports, articles, books… in which this book is based. It is undoubtly difficult to
summarize this great amount of information in 165 pages. Furthermore it is
even more difficult to make a reader with little knowledge of Britain have a clear
vision of how British society has changed the last fifty years. And in my opinion
the author has totally fulfilled his aim.

If a further analyze of the book is made the reader will find that the book is
divided into four different parts, using a short title for each part that will define
what in the following pages can be read. The book itself is organized in a way
that it gives the reader the opportunity to know what Britain was 50 years ago
and what Britain is nowadays.

The book explains how the rise in standards of living and the decline of support
for old orthodoxies have given the possibility for a freer and more diverse
society.

The first part of the book “Standards of living, qualities of life” shows how the
rise of standards of living gives British people plenty of choices in all aspects:
they eat a wider variety of food, the possessions have improved, they get more
information from a wider variety of sources…
In the second part “Orthodoxies in decline” the author argues how the decline of
support for long established institutions have helped to the diversity and choice.
Monarchy, aristocracy, religion, marriage and trade unions are exhaustly
examined in this section of the book.
Part three “new opportunities, new roles” points out the positive evolution of
various aspects in British society. The changes that happened in education, the
improving role women are getting and integration of ethnic minorities are some
of the topics the reader will find in this part.
The final section of the book “Redefining Britain” explores the ways in which
three developments of external origin redefine many aspects of British life;
international style in architecture, American culture and the changing
relationship with Europe.
The organization and division of the different chapters in the book could not be
better. It is a book that can be read easily without being an expert.

A particular strength of the book is the statistics appearing in it. There is no

doubt that the information presented is objective and comes from totally credible
sources. However, the way the narrative is carried out and some expressions
used by Rosen make me think that his aim of narrating everything objectively
has not been achieved.
From my point of view the author has showed quite clearly his preference
towards progress and evolution. Everything explained by the author represents
improvement and a step forward, but what happens with more conservative
people? Would they think in the same way?
I am sure that there are some aspects in this book that would create a certain
feeling of displeasure in certain readers. Sometimes he offers very subjective
observations on particular social problems, but these appear to be
impressionistic responses rather than strong or original arguments.

On the other hand, if I have to remark a particular “weakness” of the book, I

would point out that I do not find to much sense to “The new architecture”
chapter. There are plenty of topics that could fit in its place. Why architecture
and not, say, visual culture like film or television?Or popular leisure? I do not
think that there is a strong argument for architecture on its own as an example
of change in Britain.
Apart from that it seems that the author forgets the influence of the world
beyond Europe and America. During the transformation given in the second half
of the 20th century, almost everyone has learned to live with computers built in
China, televisions from Japan, news from the Middle East, neighbours from
Africa, food from Asia and premiership footballers from Brazil.

Finally and to conclude, although better and worse aspects of the book have
been mentioned, I would like to say that the book provides a quite clear picture
of what Britain is nowadays, maybe incomplete in some aspects, but more than
enough for readers like me that are learning its history at the moment. I would
recommend it to anyone interested in British society and its history.