Description

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A compelling account of the transformative changes Britain is facing today, exploring how we can build a post-COVID society.

2021 and 2022 were two of the most turbulent and disruptive years experienced by Britain in peacetime. Land of Shame and Glory: Britain 2021–22 addresses a series of unprecedented challenges that laid bare the fragility of Britain and the Union during this time. Beginning with the chaotic Fall of Kabul, which exposed Britain's military dependence on the United States, through the prolonged, unsatisfying removal of a prime minister—and the economically catastrophic, short-lived tenure of his successor—that further exposed the vulnerabilities of an unwritten constitution; to the country sweltering in record-breaking temperatures amid dire warnings of climate catastrophe; and finally, to the death of a much-loved monarch, who was a point of consistency during decades of tremendous social and technological change. Peter Hennessy considers the continuities and upheavals of the last seventy years, asking whether there can be said to have been a second Elizabethan Age and lamenting that the post-war period came to its close amid such upheaval and loss.
 

About the Author

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Peter Hennessy is an award-winning author of contemporary history books, including Never Again: Britain 1945–51, Having it So Good: Britain in the Fifties, and Winds of Change: Britain in the Early Sixties.

Praise For…

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"Land of Shame and Glory is short, thoughtful, full of insights and elegantly written."
— Francis Beckett

"Peter Hennessy understands just how Britain ticks."
— Lord Cormack

"Nobody knows more about the world of high politics in the United Kingdom than Peter Hennessy."
— Richard Evans