The subject of my next bio lived and worked in England in the 1950s, so I need to do a lot of research on that time and place. Important dates, events, people, social happenings, etc.
I’ve been doing Web searches but have come up blank so far—are there any Web pages or actual books detailing a chronology of the 1950s; specifically, the '50s in the UK? Even better, is there something like that on the whole 20th century? I seem to remember there being a “Day-by-Day” book; is it any good? Detailed?
I’m not sure whether you’re looking more for a social or a grand historical perspective. Issues that dominated the British perpective throughout the 1950’s would include:
Laying the groundwork to give up the Empire. (The earliest colonies became independent in the 1940’s and the bulk of the small ones became independent in the 1960’s, but the 1950’s sit astride the whole reassessment as a society of the Imperial attitude.)
The perception in some circles that a “retreat from empire” amounted to surrendering their torch of “world leadership” to the U.S. (Note that these are perceptions by different groups. The reality is much more complex.)
While sharing the fairly profitable economy that the U.S. experienced in the 1950’s (as the two industrial nations that had not been bombed to ruins), Britain staggered under a huge war debt that affected many of its decisions.
Continuing involvement in the Middle East. (The U.K. and France shared most of the “protectorates” that became Israel and the Arab nations in the 1940’s and they were dragged into several conflicts, there–and leaped at the chance to get into some others, with tragic results.)
Ongoing guerrilla warfare against Marxist revolution in Southeast Asia (with rather more successful results than France and the U.S. achieved).
The Cold War, of course.
The onset of what the U.S. refers to as “socialized medicine” along with a number of other national welfare programs that follow socialist models. This is a major social adjustment in British history.
Accession of Queen Elizabeth II (who, before her coronation had been fairly popular for her willingness to work among the people during WWII.) My memory is that she didn’t get stuffy until she had been on the throne a while.
I have checked most of my memories against Britain Since 1945 from the Encyclopædia Britannica and I was pleased to see that the EB and I have similar recollections. There should be links you can follow up, there, although I was disappointed to find a lack of direct links to social developments. You might try searching on Art, Theatre, Dress, Movies (cinema?), and similar topics, not for what the EB will provide, but for the books and web sites that they often link to.
I was born in the fifties and I speak English. Is that close enough? I can remember a lot of things but most of them are about my family, so I’m not sure you could use too much of it in your book.
“I’ll tell him but I don’t think he’ll be very keen. He’s already got one, you see!”
I seem to recall that the Britannica issued annual yearbooks as supplements for its encyclopedias. I’m sure they’re in a musty old backroom of a nearby public library.
Perhaps you could also find the English equivalent of Life magazine during that era.
I understand all the words, they just don’t make sense together like that.
Try www.historychannel.com. If you do a search by decade without a specific topic you’ll get a timeline of the 1950s by year along with a link to related websites. I didn’t explore it to any great degree (as my computer spontaneously rebooted for no apparent reason before I could) and undoubtedly there won’t be large quantities of in-depth material but there may be something there to point you in a better direction.
Thanks, Tomndebb, I bookmarked that site and will note some of the political happenings.
What I really need is a day-to-day chronology so I can find out what everyday living was like in Britain from the late 1920s till 1960; primarily the '50s. Important dates: coronations, disasters, scandals, etc. Also what was going on in the post-war recovery (I have a lot of information on the actual war years, that’s easy to come by), show biz, fashion, etc.
I think I have to look for a comprehensive 20th century chronology-I’m pretty sure there is such a book, does anyone know specifics? Or is there anything like that now on the WWW?
Check out newspapers on microfilm, and attend used book sales to get cheap items from the era that you can use to get a feel for the time.
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A few things that come to mind when I think of the UK in the '50s:
-The Cambridge Four spy ring.
-Women allowed into the House of Lords.
-Churchill’s second term as PM. (I think he was knighted in the '50s, too.)
-Suez, Sudan, Egypt mess.
-Skiffle
-Devorced war brides coming home from the US like Indian nabobs.
-James Bond novels.
If this link works, it should go right to Amazon’s selection of 20th Century Chronologies. My suggestestion would be to print out the page and take it to the library. I suspect that most of these are focused on the U.S. experience. The one work that may be more global (including Britain) would probably be The Oxford History of the Twentieth Century by Michael Eliot Howard(Editor), William Roger Louis (Editor): http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/feature/-/14727/102-2151395-7066463
The BBC had a series, My Century similar to the PBS People’s Century. It does not have the chronology you need, although there may be links to other information: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/mycentury/
I’m not getting through to the search results on the British Amazon link. Going directly to the home page and entering “20th century” while selecting the drop-down “books” brought me right back to the page I wanted. About halfway down are a whole series of books on the 20th Century by decade.
Ordering from Amazon UK is just as easy as ordering from Amazon US - the UK site recognizes you if you already have a US account. And the delivery is fast - you don’t have to wait forever for your books to arrive. It’s how I always manage to be the first on my block to have the latest Terry Pratchett.
An excellent book on post-war society in the UK, particularly the rise of the welfare society, is “Now That the War is Over,” by Addison. Here’s a link that someone has made for subjects covered by the book: http://www.packer34.freeserve.co.uk/nowthat.htm
I also found a mention of a book called The Best of Times: Growing up in Britain in the 1950’s by Alison Pressley.
The three volumes mentioned here http://www.petford.demon.co.uk/kaleidos/merchmn.htm are a history of British television from 1950 to 1997. I don’t know who the subject of your next biography is, but these books might contain some useful information.
This site is from Ulster not Britain but it’s a history of small town life in the 1950’s. Unfortunately it’s a goddamned Tripods site but if you can overlook that it’s at: http://members.tripod.com/nlpearce/index2.htm