Addison was part of the first generation of academic historians to study the conflict and is most notable for The Road to 1945 (1975) which traced the origins of the post-war consensus into the wartime period.

[1] His father was a Native American soldier in the United States Army who was posted in the country as part of the preparations for the "Second Front" during the Second World War.

[3] Along with his contemporary Angus Calder (1942–2008), Addison was among the first of a new generation of academic historians to examine the history of the Second World War critically without having personally experienced it.

[2] It followed the publication of Calder's influential The People's War (1969) but focused more narrowly on the causes of the landslide victory of the Labour Party in the 1945 general election.

He consisted that both Conservative and Labour parties had broadly converged on the need for a managed economy, limited nationalisation, and a welfare state in this period.

[2][3] It has been argued that Addison's influence led to Brown's decision to raise the top rate of income tax about 40% during his premiership.