British social trends since 1900 : a guide to the changing social structure of Britain /

An important and authoritative resource that incorporates and is a sequel to Trends in British Society Since 1900, ed. by A.H. Halsey (1972). Written by many of the same contributors, this work is larger, corrects earlier errors, employs more tables and new graphs, assembles data up to c. 1984, and more thoroughly interprets the data presented. Chapter headings are nearly identical to those in the earlier work (although the chapter on leisure has been dropped); however, some chapters are so much more sophisticated in data gathering analysis as to make their earlier counterparts obsolete. This is especially true for the chapters on population (written by the master demographer, D.C. Coleman), social mobility (an area of study that has come into its own only since the earlier study was published), and immigration and ethnicity. All chapters now have bibliographies (although footnotes have been changed to chapter endnotes), and they have been extensively rewritten. In at least one instance, new data analysis has changed the figures for the whole century (vide GNP from 1900 onward). All libraries should have this valuable book, but they should not discard its predecessor. M.J. Moore Appalachian State University