Abstract
The wartime and immediate post-war period in Britain is held in popular memory as a time of austerity, and it is this time that is invoked today as a fitting historical parallel with what we are experiencing in the wake of the 2007–2008 global financial cataclysm. Both David Cameron and George Osborne have played on this reference to national unity in the face of adversity – in 2012, Cameron claimed that ‘this country is in the economic equivalent of war today, and we need the same spirit’ – but the historical analogy is commonplace and widespread and not solely the preserve of politicians. It is the particular relationship between past and present involved in the reference to austerity which is central to this book. Rebecca Bramall points out that different perspectives on, and accounts of, ‘Austerity Britain’ are available, as, for example, via the alternative version of ‘the people’s war’ or via the focus on the gender politics of the period in women’s history. Austerity discourse also characterises campaigns directed at the problems of consumerism and environmental degradation; the wartime message of ‘make do and mend’ is applicable to both. There are manifestly a number of contradictions and antagonisms between right and left uses of the virtues of austerity, and one of the main values of this book is its insistence upon them rather than on simplistic conceptions of ‘keep calm and carry on’ public compliance, or of nostalgia as necessarily regressive. People use ideas about austerity for different purposes; they use the past in diverse ways. In light of this, we should be wary about prejudging the meaning and significance of emergent uses of the past. Avoiding this is another value of the book. Bramall presents her work as a conjunctural analysis of austerity, and this involves bringing into the analytical frame the past/present articulations and disjoinings across various discourses and agencies in the current period. As well as questions concerning history and memory, ideology and discourse, she provides chapters dealing with other issues attendant on austerity: the environment, the welfare state and gender equality. Bramall demonstrates the need to move beyond already circumscribed ‘for’ and ‘against’ positions on austerity. She also enriches our thinking about progressive uses of the past and does so by opening up a space hitherto blocked off from an anti-austerity political agenda. The book is an important contribution to both memory studies and cultural studies, and will be of interest to many in both fields.