Britain Under Blair

Most commentators agree that the sense of newness embodied by Tony Blair and his government is due not simply to innovative policies, but just as much to his influence on the national mood. Like Margaret Thatcher, he is said to have created a new 'Zeitgeist'. Britain under Blair therefore examines developments since the 1997 landslide victory not only with regard to the key political areas that already sparked heated debates under the preceding Conservative governments, but also on the representational level. Analyses of New Labour's characteristic rhetoric and various cultural discourses of the time demonstrate the central role of discursive changes in this period. Indebted to a broad Cultural Studies approach, the volume brings together specialists from a wide range of disciplines. They come from both the UK and Germany, thus combining inside and outside perspectives on Blair's Britain.