The Oxford English Literary History Volume 12. 1960-2000. The Last of England?

Contemporary Review, Sept, 2004

The Oxford English Literary History Volume 12. 1960-2000. The Last of England? Randall Stevenson. Oxford University Press. [pounds sterling]30.00. xv 624 pages. ISBN 0-19-818423-9. The penultimate volume in this literary history begins on a sombre, not to say, depressing note by the emphasis on 'decline' as a central theme of British life between the 1960s and the end of the millennium.

Against this the author accepts the final death of Victorian civilisation in the 1960s and argues that a 'freer and more open' country emerged with 'wider affluence and improved education', changes that continued despite the economic crises of the 1970s and 'the conservative politics of the 1980s'. (So much for poor Mrs Thatcher who emerges, as in so much contemporary academic writing, as a whipping-girl because she insisted that reality had a role in politics.) Literary developments, as he accepts, do not follow history: 'what history refuses, culture provides' is his cryptic observation. The period was vibrant with the works of new writers and literature 'continued to enjoy as vigorous a life as ever'. The author uses his mastery of the sources to give us a thorough survey of not only fiction but of drama and poetry. He begins with a section devoted to 'histories' in which he discusses, from a suitably liberal political point of view, the political and social background of the period. He also provides potted biographies of leading writers.