
Yesterday
The United Kingdom from Thatcher to Covid
Brian Harrison(Author)
Princeton University Press
Published on 12. May 2026
Book
Hardback
896 pages
978-0-691-26987-0 (ISBN)
Description
The first major account of this transformative period in the history of Great Britain
Between 1990 and 2020, the United Kingdom experienced tension between unparalleled social change and a pragmatic political culture which sought continuity, compromise and gradualism. Thatcher's legacy was slowly digested, Blair's 'New Labour' thoroughly scrutinized and the decision was made after forty-seven years to leave the European Union. The UK's long-established major institutions-monarchy, parliament and the union between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland-were sorely tested. Yesterday provides the first fully documented history of this pivotal time in Great Britain.
Was the UK in decline? Brian Harrison points to Britain's unsuccessful adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan and its relative economic decline, underfunded hospitals, sink schools, over-filled prisons and terrorism of both Irish and Islamic varieties. Yet there were successes. Harrison shows how the UK's participatory institutions outmanoeuvred terrorism and precariously surmounted regional, intergenerational, ethnic and social-class tensions. This vibrant, creative society saw major improvements in time, place and recruitment for work, as well as growth and innovation in conservation, digitization, tourism, consumerism, sport and the arts. Some changes were revolutionary: in family life and relations between the generations, and in the ever-changing electronic media. And if religious observance was in decline, immigrants were introducing new faiths and even a revived religious fervour while attitudes to health and death were changing fast.
A panoramic and wide-ranging analysis by a scholar at the height of his powers, Yesterday paints an evocative, richly textured portrait of a people who were shedding their complacency and insularity and bracing themselves to face a very different but promising future.
Between 1990 and 2020, the United Kingdom experienced tension between unparalleled social change and a pragmatic political culture which sought continuity, compromise and gradualism. Thatcher's legacy was slowly digested, Blair's 'New Labour' thoroughly scrutinized and the decision was made after forty-seven years to leave the European Union. The UK's long-established major institutions-monarchy, parliament and the union between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland-were sorely tested. Yesterday provides the first fully documented history of this pivotal time in Great Britain.
Was the UK in decline? Brian Harrison points to Britain's unsuccessful adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan and its relative economic decline, underfunded hospitals, sink schools, over-filled prisons and terrorism of both Irish and Islamic varieties. Yet there were successes. Harrison shows how the UK's participatory institutions outmanoeuvred terrorism and precariously surmounted regional, intergenerational, ethnic and social-class tensions. This vibrant, creative society saw major improvements in time, place and recruitment for work, as well as growth and innovation in conservation, digitization, tourism, consumerism, sport and the arts. Some changes were revolutionary: in family life and relations between the generations, and in the ever-changing electronic media. And if religious observance was in decline, immigrants were introducing new faiths and even a revived religious fervour while attitudes to health and death were changing fast.
A panoramic and wide-ranging analysis by a scholar at the height of his powers, Yesterday paints an evocative, richly textured portrait of a people who were shedding their complacency and insularity and bracing themselves to face a very different but promising future.
Reviews / Votes
"Despite its broadly declinist tone, Harrison is surprisingly positive about some aspects of life in 1980s Britain."---Diane Coyle, Financial Times "Despite Britain's diminution. . . . life in modern Britain is not a story of unremitting despair. . . . Harrison is superb on the texture of social change."---Pratinav Anil, The TimesMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
New Jersey
United States
Product notice
Trade binding
Illustrations
47 b/w illus.
Dimensions
Height: 238 mm
Width: 163 mm
Thickness: 44 mm
Weight
1198 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-691-26987-0 (9780691269870)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
05/2026
1st Edition
Princeton University Press
€44.49
Available for download
Person
Brian Harrison is emeritus professor of modern history at the University of Oxford and an emeritus fellow of Corpus Christi College. His many books include Seeking a Role: The United Kingdom, 1951-1970; Finding a Role? The United Kingdom, 1970-1990; and Drink and the Victorians: The Temperance Question in England, 1815-1872. From 2000 to 2004, he was general editor of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.