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Looking at secular books

A HISTORY OF MODERN BRITAIN
By Andrew Marr
Macmillan. 629 pages
£25.00 (£12.00 on Amazon)

If I’d bothered to find out how many pages this book has before I clicked ‘buy now’ on Amazon, I’d probably not be writing this.

It is a long, probably over long, book. But then Andrew Marr, the BBC’s one time political editor, and now Radio 4’s golden boy, has given himself an ambitious brief. Accompanying his TV series of the same name, this brick of a book takes the reader from 1945 to 2006, covering social, cultural and, centrally, political history. From Beveridge and the beginnings of the welfare state, through Teddy Boys, Rhodesia, the Three Day Week and on up to Iraq, Marr gives his readers lots of detailed information and an amount of wit.

As a child of the 70s I am grateful for this! Events I felt I really should know about, like the Suez Crisis and the Winter of Discontent, are now clear, as long as I can remember them!

Shaping understanding

But why review this book if it just recapitulates what I’m sure so many know already? Well, Marr’s series is proving popular and will define how many people understand this recent period and, of course, we use history to shape our understanding of ourselves and our present. Marr writes even-handedly, and what comes across is his uprightness; he despairs of materialism and celebrity obsession (a concern the broadsheets slated him for), does not go into the salacious details afforded by different scandals and seems genuinely impressed by the integrity of some.

But, again and again, Marr is forced to describe men and women setting out with high ideals (often coming from devout homes, he notes) who are amazed to see their legislation abused for selfish ends — abortion for rape victims turns into abortion on demand, the Thatcherite vision of Victorian values turns into ‘loadsamoney’. And after that what we have left is the postmodern abandonment of truth in the present Blairite government.

Over confidence

As when a reporter, Marr has a tendency to some over worked jokes, but does throw in some great nuggets about the general state of culture and quotes. With a useful index, preachers might find some good illustrations here; I noted down his words, ‘In celebrity land, everyone meant well, everyone could forgive themselves and be forgiven, and there was always a new dawn breaking over the swimming pool’, a pithy description of our Big Brother culture. I wonder, though, at the end of the book, if Marr himself isn’t infected by the over optimism he critiques elsewhere. He sees global warming as an opportunity for a new politics (and therefore culture) of substance. Just like those earlier liberals he is convinced of our innate goodness and unselfishness and vastly underestimates our sinful nature.

Sarah Allen