ABSTRACT
The transformation of Britain in the sixty-five years since the end of the Second World War has fundamentally changed the British way of life and the nature of the life course. Changes in each of these areas have been examined with respect to the statistical profile compiled from large-scale cross-sectional surveys, and the policies and the legislation that made up the distinctive sets of circumstances characterising each of the post-war generations’ lives. Periods reflect slices of historical time whereas cohorts, subject only to human mortality, extend across all of them. The concept of generation, with its emphasis on common features and influences on development linked to a period of birth, provides a useful lead into the consideration of cross-cutting themes and issues that can be identified across the domains. The high hopes of a more equitable and less deferential post-war society, in which the five evils that Beveridge identified were eliminated, were moderated by continuing post-war austerity.
