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The Revolution that Wasn’t: Black Markets, Ressentiment, and Survival in Post-War British Film Noir

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Abstract

After the war, the Labour Government headed by Clement Attlee, 1945–51, claimed to be clearing a path to socialism, to a truly equal society, and a sharing of wealth. That government did institute much of what later came to be called The Welfare State; public housing, cradle-to-grave health insurance, and nearly full employment. However, it also clamped down on workers’ dissent in the wake of imposed mandatory wage levels and bans on striking; stifled dissent of its policies in general, which did little to change a rigid class system; and pursued an aggressive imperial foreign policy, barely distinguishable from the Conservatives. When they came to power for the remainder of the 1950s, the Conservatives increased the repression, furthering the ‘mild McCarthyism’ that had, in fact, been instituted under the Labour Government.

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© 2014 Dennis Broe

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Broe, D. (2014). The Revolution that Wasn’t: Black Markets, Ressentiment, and Survival in Post-War British Film Noir. In: Class, Crime and International Film Noir. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137290144_3

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