'This is an ambitious and fascinating book.' English Historical Review 'A major achievement. Affluence and Authority offers an original and up-to-date history of twentieth-century Britain. As well as the conventional forces of greater prosperity and better health, he highlights the less obvious factors which have defined people's lives: the state, the influence of religion, education, the media, work, as well as the place of class and national allegiances in an increasingly fluid and multicultural Britain. He gives a genuine social history for the twenty-first century.' John Stevenson, Reader in Modern History and Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford