| Unit name | New Labour in its Historical Context |
|---|---|
| Unit code | HISTM2011 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | M/7 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Professor. Pemberton |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | Department of History (Historical Studies) |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This unit focuses on 'New Labour's' political strategy, and specifically on the construction of its social and economic programme, in the lead-up to Labour's landslide victory in the general election of 2001 and thereafter in its first term. Its starting point, however, is an assumption that New Labour cannot be understood without reference to the past from which it sprang. The unit therefore seeks to place the rise of New Labour in the context of the history of the party over the preceding century, a previous landslide victory in 1945, the history of 'revisionism' in the party since the 1950s, the party's experience in government in the 1960s and 1970s, its electoral failure and internecine conflict after 1979, and the economic changes wrought by the Thatcher government in the 1980s.
