The Struggle for Labour's Soul


Book Description

Contributors, ranging from Chancellor Gordon Brown to the Guardian newspaper's Polly Toybee, discuss the Labour Party's political philosophy and address key topics like globalization, constitutional reform, equality and the 'third way'.




Nostalgia and the Post-war Labour Party


Book Description

Through a detailed examination of the party's post-war development, this book outlines how nostalgia has shaped the party's trajectory. It argues that Labour's nostalgically-informed identity has determined the extent to which the party has been able to respond effectively to the changing nature of Britain.




Speak for Britain!


Book Description

Written at a critical juncture in the history of the Labour Party, Speak for Britain! is a thought-provoking and highly original interpretation of the party's evolution, from its trade union origins to its status as a national governing party. It charts Labour's rise to power by re-examining the impact of the First World War, the general strike of 1926, Labour's breakthrough at the 1945 general election, the influence of post-war affluence and consumerism on the fortunes and character of the party, and its revival after the defeats of the Thatcher era. Controversially, Pugh argues that Labour never entirely succeeded in becoming 'the party of the working class'; many of its influential recruits - from Oswald Mosley to Hugh Gaitskell to Tony Blair - were from middle and upper-class Conservative backgrounds and rather than converting the working class to socialism, Labour adapted itself to local and regional political cultures.




Britain’s Conservative Right since 1945


Book Description

***Winner of the Political Studies Association Conservatism Studies Group prize 2020*** This book provides a detailed analysis of the evolution of the Conservative Right in Great Britain since 1945. It first explores the movement’s core ideas and highlights points of tension between its different strands. The book then proceeds with a thematically structured discussion. The Conservative Right’s views on the decline and fall of the British Empire, immigration control, European integration, the British constitution, the territorial integrity of the United Kingdom, Britain’s economy, the welfare state, and social morality and social change are all explored. In the concluding chapter, the author evaluates the extent to which the Conservative Right has succeeded in its core objectives since 1945 and addresses how it can best respond to a contemporary Britain in which it instinctively feels uncomfortable. The book is based on extensive elite interviews and archival research and will be of interest to anyone who seeks to place the contemporary Conservative Right in a greater historical context.




The Labour Party since 1945


Book Description

What caused the 'strange death of Labour Britain'? Why did the party that swept to power in 1945 - and governed for half of the next twenty five years - falter so badly in the 1970's and 1980's? Here the author weighs up the conflicting arguments, and also takes a broader look at the interaction of policy, ideology and organisation in Labour's history. By drawing together these themes, Dr Jeffreys provides a wide-ranging introductory study: the first historical overview of the Labour party to cover the whole period between the eras of Clement Attlee and John Smith.




A History of the British Labour Party


Book Description

Andrew Thorpe's book rapidly established itself as the leading single-volume history of the Labour Party. This second edition takes the story to 2000 with a new chapter on the development of "New Labour" and the Blair government. The reasons for the party's formation, its aims and achievements, its failure to achieve office more often, and its remarkable recovery since its problems in the 1980s, as well as key events and leading personalities, are all discussed.




The Labour Party in Crisis


Book Description

First published in 1983. This study draws upon empirical findings on party activists, members and voters. It examines the origins and nature of Labour’s crisis in the 1980s, showing how the split leading to the formation of the SDP was merely a manifestation of deeply rooted problems which went back many years. It argues that this crisis had three distinct but interrelated aspects: first, the ideological schism within the party, which had grown in intensity over time; second, the electoral crisis, which produced the worst electoral performance at the 1983 general election since 1918; and, third, the membership crisis arising from the fact that the party had been losing more than 11,000 individual members per year on average since 1945. Using elite and mass surveys the book demonstrates the link between these crises and Labour’s policy performance in office set against a background of rapid economic decline.




Left Out


Book Description

'THE POLITICAL BOOK OF THE YEAR' Tim Shipman A blistering narrative exposé of infighting, skulduggery and chaos in Corbyn's Labour party, now revised and updated. * A Times, Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Sunday Times and i Newspaper Book of the Year * Left Out tells, for the first time, the astonishing full story of Labour's recent transformation and historic defeat. Drawing on unrivalled access, this blistering exposé moves from the peak of Jeremy Corbyn's popularity and the shock hung parliament of 2017 to Labour's humbling in 2019 and the election of Keir Starmer. It reveals a party at war with itself, and puts the reader in the room as tensions boil over, sworn enemies forge unlikely alliances and lifelong friendships are tested to breaking point. This is the ultimate account of the greatest experiment seen in British politics for a generation. 'Gripping... Every bit as good as people say' Guardian 'Reads like a thriller...told with panache and pace' Financial Times 'The definitive post-mortem of the Corbyn project' Sunday Times




The Rise of the Labour Party 1880-1945


Book Description

This popular study covers two major topics: the formation of the Labour Party and its emergence as the main rival to the conservatives. This transformation of the British political scene has been accounted for in a variety of ways. Dr Adelman examines these explanations and concludes that while there is a consensus about the reasons for the creation of the Labour Party there is no agreement about why it rose to such prominence.




The Labour Party Since 1945


Book Description

This book provides a critical overview of the changing Labour Party in postwar Britain. Adopting a thematic approach within a structured, chronological framework, the book revolves around one central question: what has the Party been about and what specific objectives has it striven to realize? The author examines the so-called transformation from "Old Labour" to "New Labour", and not only identifies the key stages in its evolution, bur highlights, too, the major determinants of the change.