Routledge The Democracy of Affluence: Intellectuals and the Affluent Society in Britain, Italy, and the US, 1958-1979 (The Routledge Global 1960s and 1970s Series)

Analyses of post-World War Two Western Europe have mostly adopted an international perspective whose main argument, in comparison with the failures of the interwar years, focused on the links between economic growth and democratic stabilization, highlighting the acceleration of modernization, the enormous improvement in living standards, and above all the rising post-war consumerism. This book explores the question of affluence in Europe from the early 1950s, when the years of reconstruction and austerity gave way to optimism and economic growth, up to the crisis of the late 1970s, when the European economic and political miracle was in profound crisis About the Author Marzia Maccaferri is Lecturer in Politics at Goldsmiths College, the University of London, UK