CULTURAL BRITAIN SINCE 1945

Maria Pérez i Medina / 1631440

Història Actual de les Illes Britàniques
Estudis Anglesos 2021-2022
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION

2. THE END OF WORLD WAR TWO

3. BRITISH SOCIETY

4. AMERICAN INFLUENCE

5. CHRISTIAN BRITAIN

6. ARTS AND ENTRETAINMENT

6.1 Music
6.2 Art
6.3 Writing
6.4 Cinema

7. CONCLUSION
 1. INTRODUCTION

World War II, the most destructive war in history, was a massive driver for cultural
change in Britain in 1945. The Second World War was a military conflict that involved
the major part of the nations in the world, including all the primary powers at the time,
organized in two military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers . This war caused the
death of between 50 to 60 million people, in big part civils, which is almost the 3% of the
world population at the time. It is considered to be the most lethal conflict in history, and
the first one to use nuclear weapons.

Britain had a fundamental paper in World War II. It was the only one (apart from Australia
and New Zealand) that fought during the whole war. Since the very first moment, it was
in disagree with Hitler, and afterwards also against Italy and Japan.

Even though Britain won the war, it suffered huge consequences during the period of
post-war. The war and post-war period leaded to a drastic change in British culture and
society.

In this paper, it is going to be analysed and explained this social change experimented
since 1945 as a consequence of the war. Different aspects, such as, the American
influence and the change that that leaded to, the change in cultural aspects such as music,
theatre, writing and other entertainments of British society, and even the change that was
experimented in their religious beliefs. In the following pages these aspects will be
developed and well analysed, and this will show the connection to the Second World War,
to argue that all of those changes were nothing more than another consequence of it.
REFERENCES

Bell, M. (2010). ‘Quality’, Cinema and the ‘Superior Woman’ Persona: understanding
women’s film criticism in post‐war Britain (1945–59). Women's History Re-
view, 19(5), 703-719. doi: 10.1080/09612025.2010.509150

Berridge, V., & Loughlin, K. (2005). Smoking and the New Health Education in Britain
1950s–1970s. American Journal Of Public Health, 95(6), 956-964. doi:
10.2105/ajph.2004.037887

Catterall, P., & Obelkevich, J. Understanding Post-War British Society (1st ed.).
Routledge.

Ellmeier, A. (2003). Cultural entrepreneurialism: on the changing relationship between

the arts, culture and employment¹. International Journal Of Cultural
Policy, 9(1), 3-16. doi: 10.1080/1028663032000069158a

Frith, S., Brennan, M., Cloonan, M., & Webster, E. The history of live music in Brit-
ain (1st ed.). London: Routledge.

Garnett, J., Harris, A., Grimley, M., Whyte, W., & Williams, S. (2007). Redefining
Christian Britain. London: SCM Press.

Harris, A. (2015). Faith in the family (2nd ed.). Manchester University Press.

Massey, A. (1995). The Independent Group. Manchester: Manchester Univ. Press.

Pronay, N. (1988). <i>The British Post-bellum Cinema: A survey of the films relating
to World War II made in Britain between 1945 and 1960</i>. Historical Journal
Of Film, Radio And Television, 8(1), 39-54. doi: 10.1080/01439688800260021

Sinfield, A. (1989). Literature, politics, and culture in postwar Britain. Berkeley: Uni-
versity of California Press.