This chronicle of the rise and fall of the post-war consensus in five key policy areas - the mixed economy, full employment, trade unions, welfare and foreign policy - remains a superb introduction to one of the major debates of recent political history.

Dennis Kavanagh is Professor of Politics at the University of Nottingham. His many works include Political Science and Political Behaviour, Thatcherism and British Politics, British Politics: Continuities and Change and The Politics of the Labour Party. He has been the co-author of the Nuffield election studies since 1974.

Peter Morris, Lecturer in Politics at the University of Nottingham, has written on aspects of contemporary French politics and history and he has translated a selection of Raymond Aron's sociological writings. He is also an editor of Modern and Contemporary France.