Dr Ben Jackson

Dr Ben Jackson

Leslie Mitchell Fellow and Praelector in Modern British History

Research Interests

Dr Jackson is a historian of modern Britain, with particular interests in political thought, labour history and the history of economic and social policy. His current research focuses on the history of neo-liberalism, especially the international development of neo-liberal political and economic ideas between the 1930s and the 1960s. He is also working on the reception of these ideas in British politics in the 1960s and 1970s and on the history of Thatcherism. He continues to build on his earlier research on the political thought of the British Left, and is currently writing about the influence of socialism on the new liberals.

Dr Jackson teaches modern British history and the history of political thought. With Dr Marc Stears, Politics Fellow at University College, he convenes the Oxford History of Political Thought Seminar, which meets weekly in Michaelmas Term in University College.

Personal webpage

Contact Details

Department: Faculty of History
Contact phone: +44 (0)1865 276653
Contact email: Dr Ben Jackson

Selected Publications

Book

Equality and the British Left: A Study in Progressive Political Thought, 1900-64 (Manchester University Press, 2007. Paperback 2011), 259 + xii pp available here.

Articles and chapters

‘Freedom, the Common Good and the Rule of Law: Lippmann and Hayek on Economic Planning’, Journal of the History of Ideas, 73 (2012), forthcoming

‘The Think Tank Archipelago: Thatcherism and Neo-Liberalism’, in B. Jackson and R. Saunders (eds), Making Thatcher’s Britain (Cambridge University Press, 2012), forthcoming

‘Corporatism and its Discontents: Pluralism, Anti-Pluralism and Anglo-American Industrial Relations, c. 1930-80’, in M. Bevir (ed.), Modern Pluralism: Anglo-American Debates Since 1880 (Cambridge University Press, 2012), forthcoming

‘Socialism and the New Liberalism’, in B. Jackson and M. Stears (eds), Liberalism as Ideology: Essays in Honour of Michael Freeden (Oxford University Press, 2012), forthcoming

‘Property-Owning Democracy: A Short History’, in M. O’Neill and T. Williamson (eds), Property-Owning Democracy: Rawls and Beyond (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), forthcoming

‘An Ideology of Class: Neo-Liberalism and the Trade Unions, c.1930-79’, in C. Griffiths, J. Nott and W. Whyte (eds), Classes, Cultures and Politics: Essays for Ross McKibbin (Oxford University Press, 2011) pp. 263-81

‘At the Origins of Neo-Liberalism: The Free Economy and the Strong State, 1930-47’, Historical Journal, 53(1) (2010), pp. 129-51

‘The Rhetoric of Redistribution’, in J. Callaghan, N. Fishman, B. Jackson and M. McIvor (eds), In Search of Social Democracy (Manchester University Press, 2009), pp. 233-51

[Shortened version published as How to Talk About Redistribution: A Historical Perspective, History & Policy paper, Sept. 2008; Polish translation published as ‘Oniemiała Lewica’, Gazeta Wyborcza, 6 December 2008]

‘Social Democracy’, in S. Durlauf and L. Blume (eds), The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd Edition (Palgrave, 2008), pp. 606-13

‘Revisionism Reconsidered: “Property-Owning Democracy and Egalitarian Strategy in Post-War Britain’, Twentieth Century British History, 16(4) (2005), pp. 416-40

‘The Conceptual History of Social Justice’, Political Studies Review, 3(3) (2005), pp. 356-73

‘The Uses of Utilitarianism: Social Justice, Welfare Economics and British Socialism, 1931-48’, History of Political Thought, 25(3) (2004), pp. 508-35

Edited collections

‘Learning from the Rise of the Free-Market Right’, special issue of Renewal: A Journal of Social Democracy, 17(4) (2009)

In Search of Social Democracy: Responses to Crisis and Modernisation (co-edited with John Callaghan, Nina Fishman and Martin McIvor) (Manchester University Press, 2009), 300 + xii pp

Making Thatcher’s Britain (co-edited with Robert Saunders) (Cambridge University Press, 2012), forthcoming

Liberalism as Ideology: Essays in Honour of Michael Freeden (co-edited with Marc Stears) (Oxford University Press, 2012), 304 pp, available here.