1997: The Future that Never Happened

Description

'Beautifully written, brilliantly insightful' Owen Jones Tony Blair and Noel Gallagher shaking hands at No. 10. Saatchi's YBAs setting the international art world aflame. Geri Halliwell in a Union Jack dress. A time of vibrancy and optimism: when the country was united by the hope of a better and brighter future. So why, twenty years on, did that future never happen? Richard Power Sayeed takes a provocative look at this epochal year, arguing that the dark undercurrents of that time had a much more enduring legacy than the marketing gimmick of 'Cool Britannia'. He reveals how the handling of the Stephen Lawrence inquiry ushered in a new type of racism. How the feminism-lite of 'Girl Power' made sexism stronger. And how the promises of New Labour left the country more fractured than ever. This lively, rich and evocative book explores why 1997 was a turning point for British culture and society - away from a fairer, brighter future and on the path to our current malaise.

Richard Power Sayeed is a writer and documentary maker based in London. This is his first book, and he has somehow managed to finish it without losing his love for the minutiae of nineties Britain.

A well-researched history of Britain in 1997 ... Sayeed captures neatly how Blair's drive to modernise the UK left behind large sections of the country, most notably working class people. * Prospect * Activists will find in this critique of New Labour the serious warning that a radical message, however creatively promoted, is useless without real action. * Peace News * Richard Power Sayeed establishes himself as the definitive critical chronicler of the Blair years with his superb book 1997: The Future That Never Happened * Open Democracy Books of the Year * It is difficult to do justice to Sayeed's qualities as a writer. He brings a sympathetic eye, attention to detail, a knack for evoking scenes, and acute thumbnail sketches of characters ... Deceptively sophisticated, and sometimes lethal in its critique. * Jacobin * Phenomenal ... One of my books of 2017. * Aaron Bastani, Novara Media * A vital book that combines great storytelling with fresh insights, and says as much about the present as the recent past. * Alwyn W. Turner, author of A Classless Society: Britain in the 1990s * Richard Power Sayeed has vividly reprised the year 1997, when radical currents flowed into the mainstream, and the authorities "welcomed moderate reforms with satisfied contentment." Such promise - but what did it deliver? * Andy McSmith, author of No Such Thing as Society: A History of Britain in the 1980s * A dazzling, funny, and impressively detailed analysis of one of the most important years in modern British history. Both nostalgic and deeply critical, this book casts 1997 in an entirely new light. * Ellie Mae O'Hagan * A beautifully written, brilliantly insightful account of New Labour's Britain - and fundamental to our understanding of how this country ended up in this mess. * Owen Jones *