Introduction

In 2007, Francesca Carnevali and Julie-Marie Strange published 20th Century Britain: Economic, Cultural and Social Change. A textbook for undergraduate history students, the volume was the second edition of a work first put together by Paul Johnson in 1994. It is possible that were Francesca still with us, she would now be turning her attention to creating a third edition. In this chapter I want to speculate on what such an updated textbook might now look like, taking into consideration not only new directions in the field of modern British history, but also what we as teachers feel our students want to, and should, know. For reference, the table of contents of both editions appear at the end of this chapter.

In what follows I do not intend in any way to provide a definitive account of twentieth-century British historiography since 2007. The task would be enormous and the footnotes themselves would run to tens of thousands of words. Indeed, the sheer scale and specialist nature of much of what has been published is, in any case, worthy of consideration in itself. But I offer the following observations to continue a more general conversation about the current state of twentieth-century British history. This is a conversation which lies at the heart of what the University of Birmingham's Centre for Modern British Studies is trying to achieve, and this chapter emerges as much from my Birmingham colleagues’ reflections on the subject as my own. It is also one which would have been enriched by Francesca's presence, expertise and characteristically forceful interventions. Moreover, textbooks are there to be updated regularly and they have an opportunity to reflect our – and our students’ – concerns in the present. There are many criteria that can be used to organise a textbook and decisions to make as to whether chapters should be arranged by period, theme or subject. But I want to add too an additional criteria that the chapters should consider ongoing issues in public debate. The traditions of economic and social history from which the two editions of the textbook emerged were very much keen to engage with the world in the present as much as the past.