Did British society change character in the 1920s or the 1980s.

Abstract

This is a response to Runciman's reply to my critique of his 1993 article. I argue that although the First World War brought about many changes in British society, it did not initiate a new stage in its development, for these changes were largely an acceleration of existing tendencies. Runciman's argument that the similarities between the 1930s and the 1980s show that British capitalism was essentially the same in both periods does not allow for the different directions in which British society was moving in the 1930s and in the 1980s. His treatment of the 1980s changes as another phase in the political cycle fails to grasp what was new about the 1980s or locate these changes in their wider economic and global context.