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Buxton Community School

Buxton Community School

History

 year 12 history preparation work

The A Level history course starts in 1951, however, to fully understand the situation in 1951, it is essential that we look at the key changes that took place after WW2.

I would like you to complete research into the changes that took place in Britain between 1945 – 1951 and prepare a presentation on these key changes. You need to focus on the political, social, economic and world affairs situation of Britain during this period.

  • Politically – Britain voted for the Labour leader Clement Attlee to their Prime Minister – getting rid of the infamous Winston Churchill. What type of leader was he? Was the Labour party united? What reforms did they pass?
  • Socially – we saw the implementation of the welfare state. What was this and what were they key features?
  • Economically - Britain needed to recover from the expense of the war. How did they raise this money, and did they get into any trouble along the way?
  • Foreign Affairs – Was Britain still a Superpower in 1945? Who had overtaken us? Which world events happened? What happened to the British Empire?

Do some research into Britain during this period and begin to make a presentation covering as many of these key themes as possible. A really good starting place for this is watching this Andrew Marr episode https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00brnr1/andrew-marrs-history-of-modern-britain-1-advance-britannia (but be quick as its only available for 30 days).

Equally, the following websites are also a good starting point for your research.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/mar/14/past.education

https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/attlees-britain/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zt4hvcw/revision/2