Readers are essential tools for students, where vital extracts from key source materials, carefully chosen by historians in daily contact with student needs and course requirements, are pared to essentials, explained and placed into context. The introductions and explanatory materials are vital in giving the latest and state of the art' historiography, and providing ideas and summaries - so important for essay writing and examinations. Readers are therefore in wide use in universities in the both Britain and North America as combining the old strengths of individual detailed study guided by specialists with access to original materials, often scarce in contemporary colleges.
Keith Laybourn and Christine Collette, established authors with extensive experience of teaching and modern student needs, have put together a carefully selected collection of materials culled from primary and secondary sources and covering the major themes of British history from Margaret Thatcher to Tony Blair and ranging from Thatcherism'; the Welfare State,rolling back' and Blairite Third Way'; the attack on trade unionism; the fall of Old' and the rise of New' Labour; The Social Democratic Party, Liberals and Liberal Democrats; rise of nationalist parties in Scotland and Wales and develotion; the European debate; Eurocommunism and the end of the Cold war and collapse of the Communist Party; the feminist and gender debate and position of women in British society; immigration and racial equality; Ireland; Conclusion; Bibliograpical essay.