{"product_id":"the-land-where-nothing-works-how-britain-lost-the-plot-9780691283630","title":"The Land Where Nothing Works: How Britain Lost the Plot","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eTracing the origins of Britain's current malaise to the abandonment of social democracy\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhat has happened to Britain? As drivers on its roads can attest, it is the pothole capital of Europe. Once-beautiful towns now feature peeling paint, weeds, and broken railings. Public services are no longer fit for purpose. A malaise seems to infect every aspect of British life: its economy, polity, social order, sense of well-being, domestic regional relationships, and place in the world. In \u003ci\u003eThe Land Where Nothing Works\u003c\/i\u003e, the distinguished historian A. G. Hopkins offers an explanation, tracing Britain's current problems to decisions made in the 1980s that abandoned its postwar experiment in social democracy and mimicked policies of deregulation and privatisation promoted by the United States. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn 1945, the new Labour government's development programme aimed at creating a social democracy that would benefit all members of society. The counterrevolution launched by Margaret Thatcher's government in 1979, which remains in force today, promoted individualism and deregulation. The transition from one programme to another was a response to the growth of finance and services centred on the City of London, and to decolonisation, which redirected trade to Europe. The expansion of credit led to the financial crisis of 2008 and the years of austerity that followed, and fuelled the populist movement that culminated in Brexit. Hopkins argues that, instead of following the free-market policies of its mentor, the United States, Britain should draw on its own history of social democracy and borrow from its neighbours in Europe, where communitarian principles continue to be upheld.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA. G. Hopkins\u003c\/b\u003e is the Emeritus Smuts Professor of Commonwealth History at the University of Cambridge, an emeritus fellow of Pembroke College, and a fellow of the British Academy. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eAmerican Empire: A Global History, Capitalism in the Colonies: African Merchants in Lagos, 1851-1931, \u003c\/i\u003e(both Princeton), \u003ci\u003e An Economic History of West Africa, \u003c\/i\u003eand (with P. J. Cain) \u003ci\u003eBritish Imperialism, 1688-2015. \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Princeton University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52179992707346,"sku":"9780691283630","price":29.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_652291d5-fb76-445b-9265-09905a13bfdc.jpg?v=1775642978","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-land-where-nothing-works-how-britain-lost-the-plot-9780691283630","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}