But that brings me on to the second lesson of postwar history.

In postwar history, crises usually push politics to the right.

Being re-elected with unemployment above 9 per cent would be a unique accomplishment in the postwar history of the presidency.

But he had to face accusations, as historical material became available, that his own role in postwar history had been far from noble.

For all the talk of the 1960s cultural revolutions and political upheavals, the hinge of postwar history was the mid-1950s.

He believed that, with the growth of postwar prosperity, a new spirit of adventure and ambition had begun to stir in the land.

Ever since the postwar prosperity of the 1950s, meaningless shopping - as a leisure activity - has been part of our cultural programming.

Postwar prosperity brought another boom based around the automobile and the newly affordable fiberglas boat.

One of the key factors in postwar prosperity was a technology boom due to the experience of the war.

But the postwar prosperity of farming ended with the 1970s.

Since the banking crisis drove the country into its sharpest postwar recession, economists have watched the relatively robust employment figures with some disbelief.

Only part of this liability ended up on public books, but the credit crunch led to the world's worst postwar recession as lending and confidence evaporated in 2008-09.

The figures also reflect the impact of the country's deepest and longest postwar recession, which has pushed up unemployment and made it far harder for benefit claimants to find work.

As 2010 gets under way, the economy appears to be pulling out of its longest and deepest postwar recession.

This was short-lived, however, and the country fell into a postwar recession, and buyer reluctance slowed new car sales.

It was a time of postwar reconstruction and civic pride.

It was not the brief war itself, but the catastrophic mismanagement of postwar reconstruction that caused the disasters we see today.

However, the family remained in the region and was instrumental in postwar reconstruction.

He also admitted that the international community needed to improve at organising postwar reconstruction.

The rebuilding was a vital boost to national morale, but like much postwar reconstruction it was also hasty, and not always to the highest standards.

He was the great precursor of the wave of satire that, in the 1950s, announced the end of the deferential postwar world.

And yet the links between culture and commerce have probably never been so prominent as in our postwar world.

But far from being abandoned, the formula became part of the foundations of the postwar world.

History has come to regard the appeal as having saved the nation's honour and its place in the postwar world.

The two nations, and especially their leaders, had very different visions of the postwar world.

This four-part series takes a look at the official tours and state visits of the previous century, with tonight's episode concentrating on the postwar years.

In the postwar years he expanded into car heaters, air-conditioning and a nuclear insulation division.

This partly involves a reprise of his own childhood in the postwar years of austerity.

Her most significant appearances in the postwar years were in the new medium of television.

The idea that employment could be enjoyable was an alien concept in those postwar years.