Skip to main content
David Fowler

Dr David Fowler

University Teacher in British Politics, Society and Culture

School of Modern Languages

Email
FowlerD4@cardiff.ac.uk
Campuses
66a Park Place, Room Room CF25, Cathays, Cardiff, CF10 3AS
Users
Available for postgraduate supervision

Overview

Dr David M. Fowler is a University Teacher in British Politics, Society and Culture at Cardiff University. He also teaches History, Politics and the Sociology of Education at The University of Cambridge and is Honorary Fellow in the Department of History at The University of York. His books and articles on the history of youth cultures, the 1960s and student protest movements, among his many other cultural history specialisms (Richard Hoggart, F.R. Leavis, Rolf Gardiner, radicalisation and the cultural history of Angling among these), have been widely acclaimed. His new book, Oxford and Revolution: Student Power, "1968" and a British Cultural Revolt will be published by Oxford University Press in 2020. In 2018-2019 he was Visiting Scholar at Amherst College, Massachusetts, USA, where he researched his new book; a biographical study of Marshall Bloom, an American Transnational Student Activist of the 1960s. Whilst in the US, he also gave invited lectures at Princeton University, Cornell, Boston College, Rutgers, Northeastern, Williams College, the University of Connecticut and the University of Massachusetts. His current teaching interests embrace The Thatcher Age, 1975-1997, Cultures and Communities in 20th Century Britain; Intelligence Studies; and the Global 1960s. He has an extensive teaching and academic career and has previously held Lectureships and Research Fellowships at The Queen's University of Belfast, The University of Manchester and an Affiliated Lectureship at The University of Cambridge where he remains a Life Member at Clare Hall, Cambridge and a Supervisor for the colleges of The University of Cambridge.

Research

David Fowler's research career began with a revisionist study of young wage-earners between the Two World Wars: The First Teenagers: the Lifestyle of Young Wage-Earners in Interwar Britain (1995), described by the American Historical Review as 'important' and by Dominic Sandbrook in Never Had It So Good: A History of Britain From Suez to The Beatles (2005) as 'a very important work'. His second book, Youth Culture in Modern Britain, c.1920-c.1970: From Ivory Tower to Global Movement-A New History (Macmillan, 2008), received extensive coverage in the British and International Media, including leading articles in The Times, The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph and was widely acclaimed. His latest book, Oxford and Revolution: Student Power, "1968" and a British Cultural Revolt will be published by Oxford University Press in 2020. It represents the first major archival study of student protest movements in Britain's "1968" through the lens of Oxford and focuses on student cultures at the University of Oxford, the protest movements generated within and beyond the University during the 1960s (including the Women's Liberation movement, historical activism and academic as well as student radicalism); and also explores Oxford's global, colonial, postcolonial and anti-colonial history since the late 1960s.

Teaching

David Fowler's teaching interests include: Modern British Politics, Society and Culture; The Thatcher Age, 1975-1997; the Global 1960s; Intelligence History; and Cultures and Communities in 20th Century Britain, on which subject he has delivered courses at Cardiff University on British Cultural History from the Late 1950s to Cool Britannia in the late 1990s, and The Thatcher Age: Cultural and Social Revolution in Britain, 1975-1997. He has an enduring interest in musical cultures from the Beatles down to the Stone Roses and beyond; British and American.

Biography

David Fowler's academic career began at The University of Manchester where he researched his PhD on 'The Lifestyle of the Young Wage-Earner in Interwar Manchester, c1919-c.1939' during the halcyon Hacienda years of the 1980s (completed in 1988). It represented a pioneering archival study of young workers between the Two World Wars and was the foundation for his first book, The First Teenagers: the Lifestyle of Young Wage-Earners in Interwar Britain (Routledge, 1995). After a series of temporary lectureships he became a Lecturer in Economic and Social History at The Queen's University of Belfast in January 1993 and stayed in Belfast (with a two year break to take up a Research Lectureship in London) until 2002, when he returned to his alma mater, The University of Manchester, to take up a Lectureship in Modern British History. He moved to The University of Cambridge in September 2003 and has remained at the University of Cambridge to the present day; though he is delighted to have been given the opportunity to teach his own courses at Cardiff University on 'Cultures and Communities in 20th Century Britain', 'The Thatcher  Age, 1975-1997' and, most recently, 'British Politics, Society and Culture' in the excellent research and teaching environment of Cardiff University. 

Supervisions

David Fowler would welcome applications from potential research students to work on Modern British Politics, Society and Culture; the Global 1960s; Classes and Cultures in 20th Century Britain; and The Thatcher Era.