Exploring relationships between politics, the people and social change, this book assesses the fortunes mainly of Labour, but also of the Communist Party and the New Left in postwar Britain. Using concepts like political culture, it looks at the left's articulation of 'affluence': consumerism, youth culture, America, TV, advertising and its disappointment at the people under the impact of such changes. It also examines party organization, socialist thinking and the use of new communication techniques like TV, advertising and opinion polling.

Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction Socialist Identity in the 1950s Branch Life Socialism and Social Change I: Youth, Culture and America Socialism and Social Change II: TV, Consumerism and Lifestyle Must Labour Lose? Revisionism and the 'Affluent Worker' Political Communication Conclusions Bibliography Index

LAWRENCE BLACK wasa Research Fellow at the University of Bristol and in 2002-3 Fulbright-Robertson Visiting Professor of British History at Westminster College, Missouri.