Whirlwind, Hurricane, Howling Tempest: The Wind of Change and the British World

Abstract

Harold Macmillan’s invocation of the ‘wind of change’ (or its common embellishment, the ‘winds’ of change) has become a commonplace metaphor formajor processes of political or social renewal. The words appear prominently in the titles of some 134 books published since 1960, as well as countless article and chapter titles across the humanities and social sciences.2 Remarkably, the ‘wind of change’ has transcended the context of its African origins to become a catch-all phrase. A simple Google search bears this out. The words appear, for example, as the motto of a Danish wind turbine company, the name of a retail outlet for kites in Las Vegas, and the enormously popular 1990 rock anthem by the Scorpions. Newspaper and magazine journalists frequently invoke the wind of change in articles ranging from the fall of the Berlin Wall, to the use of renewable energy in Armenia, to the banning of smoking in Tokyo nightclubs. The many book titles brandishing the phrase address subjects as diverse as meteorology, cardio-vascular surgery, and the role of women priests in the Church of England. In short, it has become a conventional rhetorical device to convey a watershed, a turning point, a sweeping transformation — and invariably a change for the better.