The History of the Times

This work covers a dramatic period in the life of "The Times" and of the late 20th century. It looks at the ownership of the Canadian entrepreneur Roy Thompson, followed by his son Kenneth, and the editorship of William Rees-Mogg. It was a period of great events and momentous change in the world. In Britain successive governments, Labour and Conservative, grappled with increasingly intractable economic problems, and with issues such as the resurfacing of violence in Northern Ireland. In the wider world, Vietnam, Biafra, the Moon landings, Middle East wars, Watergate and the oil crisis of 1973 fed the headlines. It was also a period of upheaval and turmoil at "The Times" itself, with the paper facing growing financial problems and an increasingly disruptive labour force, a struggle which climaxed with the year-long closure of the paper in 1978 and, ultimately its sale to Rupert Murdoch.