Britain in the 20th Century: The Conservative Reaction, 1951 1965

The Conservatives recovered remarkably rapidly from the debacle of 1945. Their narrow election victory in 1951 led to 13 years of Conservative rule. How was the party able to reassert itself so quickly and what did it do with its period in power Winston Churchill hoped to roll back the tide of socialism. Did he succeed, or did the Conservatives, by contrast, help to confirm a new consensus which, while not socialist, could also not be described as capitalist in the classical sense of the term The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website.