James Freeman
James Freeman
History, politics and data: writing on modern British politics, visualisations of its numbers, and occasional notes on higher education and teaching.
Senior Academic Fellow in History and Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor (Education), Faculty of Arts, Law and Social Sciences, University of Bristol.
Research
Thatcherism and neoliberalism
How neoliberal ideas moved from think tanks into government, traced through pensions policy and the Number 10 Policy Unit.
Conservatism and freedom
The Conservative Party’s language of liberty from Churchill to Thatcher, and where it did and did not owe a debt to neoliberalism.
Political promises and rhetoric
Why politicians make pledges, how their language changes over time, and what counting words can show that close reading misses.
Latest book, 2024
A Neoliberal Revolution? Thatcherism and the Reform of British Pensions
With Aled Davies and Hugh Pemberton. Manchester University Press.
Drawing on newly released archives, the book follows the Thatcher government’s attempt to turn Britain into a nation of risk-taking savers through private personal pensions, and explains why the revolution it planned fell short.
Selected articles
- 2023 Article
- 2021 Chapter
- 2018 Article
About
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