The second part contains two essays published in the late eighties which review the conjectures of the original texts in the light of developments--political and intellectual--of the subsequent decades. "The Figures of Descent" reconsiders the problem of national decline; "A Culture in Contraflow" traces some of the intellectual reversals of the recent period. The book concludes with a survey of the political conjuncture after the fall of Thatcher, which considers the prospects of the Labour Party within the context of the wider changes that have reshaped European social democracy in these years.