The Postwar Moment: Progressive Forces in Britain, France, and the United States after World War II

Description

An incisive, comparative study of the development of Post–World War II progressive politics in the United States, Britain, and France After the end of World War II, Britain, France, and the United States were faced with two very different choices: return to the civic order of pre-war normalcy or embark instead on a path of progressive transformation. In this ambitious and original work, Isser Woloch assesses the progressive agendas that crystalized in each of the three allied democracies, tracing their roots in the interwar decades, their development during wartime, the struggles to establish them after the war’s end, and the mixed outcome in each country.   A fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, Woloch is a highly regarded scholar who adds the United States to a discussion that is usually focused solely on Europe. His enlightening work successfully argues that the postwar moment deserves a more prominent place in the history of progressive politics. CONTENTS PROLOGUE INTRODUCTION ABBREVIATIONS Part I: facing depression, fascism, and war 1. Britain: Labour’s Long Apprenticeship 2. The Travails of the French Left 3. The Roosevelt Era: From the New Deal to D- Day Part II: Descent from victory: charting new paths 4. Labour’s Moment: The Election of 1945 and After 5. Starting Over, with de Gaulle or without Him 6. Postwar Prospects in the U.S. Part III.Struggles and outcomes 7. Building Socialism British Style 8. Tripartism and Its Aftermath 9. The United States: Divided Government, Divided Nation Conclusion: Three Scenarios, One Story? ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Notes INDEX