Book Launch: The Halted March of the European Left: The Working Class in Britain, France, and Italy, 1968–1989 by Matt Myers
29 April 17:30
Colin Matthew Room - Faculty of History, 41-47 George St, Oxford
The sense of defeat of the old West European left after the 1970s tends to be explained as the inevitable result of de-industrialisation or, more precisely, the transition to a globalised world that abolished class as a great historical actor. This book suggests that choices that were made during a concentrated but pivotal transition during the late twentieth century also mattered. It offers a bold reinterpretation of contemporary European history and a feel for the culture of three leading countries using 27 archives, primary and secondary literature from seven countries, and a transnational and comparative approach. It explores how British, French, and Italian social democratic and Communist parties helped to stabilise their societies during a moment of crisis and manage the shift to a new era. It explains why the left also encountered a crisis of purpose and identity, a sense of lost opportunities, and the dissolution of the idea of a community of fate amongst a diverse new generation of workers. The book concludes that the denouement of a certain kind of industrial politics after the late 1970s had a lasting impact on European politics, society, and culture.
