How Political Eras End: 1906 and 2017

This book examines the frequently expressed assertion by political commentators and historians that the UK is currently experiencing ‘the end of a political era’. It does this by analysing the seismic shifts in the way politics have been conducted in recent years, principally since the EU Referendum in 2016. It also considers these developments in the light of the relative political stability which lasted from the end of the Second World War, and it compares this with another discrete ‘political era’, spanning from 1832 to the 1906 election. Comparisons between the two periods make a compelling case for contemporary claims and also provide a broad definition of what constitutes a political era. The book will be of importance to historians and students of history, but in its broader treatment of such current issues as democracy, voter motivation, electoral systems, globalisation, national and local identities, and migration, it will also appeal to the politically-minded general reader.


After graduating in law, Eric Caines spent the major part of his career as a senior civil servant in a number of Whitehall Departments, where he held a succession of high-level managerial posts. He was a Director of both the NHS and the UK Prison Service and a member of a Government Inquiry into Policing. He also worked on secondment from Whitehall at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, DC. On leaving government service, he became Professor of Health Service Management in Nottingham University, UK. In all these posts, he spoke and wrote extensively on public sector management, and he is an acknowledged expert on industrial relations. He holds an Oxford University doctorate in Modern History. Combining his strong sense of how politics works with more formal historical study, in 2017 he published a book entitled Heath and Thatcher in Opposition.

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ISBN: 1-5275-4572-5

ISBN13: 978-1-5275-4572-4

Release Date: 16th March 2020

Pages: 305

Price: £64.99

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