Northern Question: A History of a Divided Country

A history of the UK&;s regional inequalities, and why they matterBritain has scarcely begun to come to terms with its recent upheavals, from the crisis over Brexit to the collapse of Labour&;s &;red wall.&; What can explain such momentous shifts? In this essential work, Tom Hazeldine excavates the history of a divided country: North and South, industry versus finance, Whitehall and the left-behind. Only by fully registering these deep-seated tensions, he argues, can we make sense of the present moment. Hazeldine tracks the North-South divide over the longue durée, from the formation of an English state rooted in London and the south-east; the Industrial Revolution and the rise of provincial trade unions and the Labour party; the dashed hopes for regional economic renewal in the post-war years; the sharply contrasting fates of northern manufacturing and the City of London under Thatcher and New Labour; to the continuing repercussions of financial crisis and austerity. The Northern Question is set to transform our understanding of the politics of Westminster&;its purpose, according to Hazeldine, to stand English history on its head.