Every aspect of British history since the second world has been shaped by its global connections. From its involvement in colonial and postcolonial conflicts in Africa, Asia and the South Atlantic to its key role in NATO and attempts to define a ‘special relationship’ with the USA, from its decline and rebirth as a global financial centre to its role in the global financial crisis of 2008, from its absorption of large immigrant populations from its former colonial possessions to its troubled membership of the European Union, from its eager consumption of American popular music to its unique contribution to the global development of rock, the United Kingdom since 1945 has been defined by its situation as a declining imperial power in a globalising world, a decline so profound that England must seriously contemplate the prospect of losing its centuries-old dominion in the British Isles.

In this course we will examine British politics, society, economy and culture through the lens of Britain’s deep and changing engagement with the wider world, considering phenomena as diverse as wars, Beatlemania, currency crises, the rise and fall of the postwar welfare state, nationalist movements in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and the transformation of British eating habits. We will also examine British people's reflections on their country's changing place in the world, and in particular their use of history to account for the underlying causes of postwar 'decline'.