Peace and Power in Cold War Britain: Media, Movements and Democracy, c.1945–68

About the Author Christopher Hill is a Research Fellow at Birmingham City University, UK. He is a cultural historian of modern Britain with interests in broadcasting and the press, decolonisation, nuclear weapons and social movements. Product Description Peace and Power in Cold War Britain explores the ban the bomb and anti-Vietnam War movements from the perspective of media history, focusing in particular on the relationship between radicalism and the rise of television. In doing so, it addresses two questions, both of which seem to recur with each major breakthrough in communications technology: what do advances in communications media mean for democratic participation in politics and how do distinctive types of media condition the very nature of that participation itself? In answering these, the book views the ban the bomb and anti-Vietnam War movements in relation to communication power and media discourse. It highlights how these movements intersected with parts of public life that were being transformed by television themselves, shaping struggles for social change among activists and public intellectuals on the streets, in the Labour Party and in the law courts. The significance of this relationship between media and movements was complex and wide-ranging. Christopher R. Hill demonstrates that it contributed to the enrichment of democracy in Cold War Britain, with radicals serving to innovate and pioneer creative forms of political expression from both in and outside of media organisations. However, the movements increasingly succumbed to news coverage and values that revolved around human interest and violence, feeding into the revolutionary spectacle of 1968 and the turn towards identity politics. Review "The book’s wide-ranging exploration of the interrelations between the media and postwar anti-war movements makes it required reading for anyone interested in their history, and for anyone interested in the history of twentieth-century social movements more broadly." - Technology and Culture“Christopher Hill's new book is especially welcome at a time when the political environment is ever more fraught and divided, while protest movements, both left and right, seek to use new media to win support in a rapidly changing landscape. He has written a persuasive and salutary study of the interactions of media organizations with civil society and the state.” – Michigan War Studies Review“A revealing book about the interactions between the media and political movements in sixties Britain. It blends history and communications theory to offer new insights into the cultural Cold War and to challenge prevailing views on Britain's radical decade.” ―Tony Shaw, Professor of Contemporary History, University of Hertfordshire, UK“This important book reveals how radical politics and new communications technologies were deeply entangled in the history of Cold War-era Britain. Drawing on extensive original research into the anti-nuclear movement, Christopher R. Hill shows how activists reconfigured existing traditions of political protest for a mass media age. It will be of great interest to scholars in history and communications studies.” ―Helen McCarthy, Reader in Modern British History, Queen Mary University of London, UK“In this timely and convincing account, Christopher Hill reframes postwar political history by showing how the changing format and reach of mass communication shaped shifts in cultural authority, political strategy, political protest, and the relationship between the leaders of radical movements and ordinary participants. This book is necessary reading for anyone interested in the relationship between information ecologies and campaigns for a more egalitarian political order.” ―Radhika Natarajan, Assistant Professor of History & Humanities, Reed College, USA