Clement Attlee: The Man Who Made Modern Britain

by John Bew

Overview

Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, Winston Churchill's wartime heroics and larger-than-life personality propelled him to the center of the world stage. To most, he remains Great Britain's greatest Prime Minister, his fame and charisma overshadowing those who followed in his footsteps. Yet while he presided over his country's finest hour, he was not its most consequential leader. In this definitive new biography, John Bew reveals how that designation belongs to Clement Attlee, Churchill's successor, who launched a new era of political, economic, and social reform that would forever change Great Britain. Bew's thorough and keen examination of Attlee, the former leader of the Labour Party, illuminates how his progressive beliefs shaped his influential domestic and international policy. Alternatively criticized for being "too socialist" or "not radical enough," Attlee's quiet tenacity was intrinsic to the success of his party and highly pertinent to British identity overall. In 1948, he established the National Health Service as part of his "British New Deal"-a comprehensive, universal system of insurance, welfare, and family allowances to be enjoyed by all British citizens. Attlee also initiated key advancements in international relations by supporting the development of both the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and by granting independence to India, Burma, and Ceylon. More controversially, he sanctioned the building of Britain's nuclear deterrent in response to the rise of the Soviet Union and the threat of atomic bombs. Clement Attlee: The Man Who Made Modern Britain explores his tenure in the years after the war, as he presided over a radical new government in an age of austerity and imperial decline. Bew mines contemporary memoirs, diaries, and press excerpts to present readers with an illuminating and intimate look into Attlee's life and career. Attentive to both the man and the political landscape, this comprehensive biography provides new insight into the soul of a leader who transformed his country and by extension the vast empire over which it once ruled.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190203429
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	02/02/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	752
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

John Bew is Professor of History and Foreign Policy at the War Studies Department at King's College London. Previously, he was a Lecturer in Modern British History at Cambridge. In 2013, he was named to the Kissinger Chair at the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress. He is the author of five books, most recently Realpolitik: A History.

Table of Contents

Prologue Part One: Patriot, Citizen, Soldier, 1889-1918 1. Introduction: The Red Flag 2. "With apologies to Rudyard Kipling" 3. DDS News from Nowhere 4. The Soldier Part Two: The Making of a Politician, 1918-1931 5. Looking Backward 6. Building Jerusalem 7. Fame is the Spur Part Three: Albion's Troubles, 1931-1940 8. The Bullion Family 9. The Anti-Cromwell 10. The Major Attlee Company and the Clenched-Fist Salute 11. A Word to Winston Part Four: Finest Hour, 1940-1945 12. All Behind You, Winston 13. The Hunting of the Snark 14. The Invisible Man Part Five: New Jerusalem, New Deal, 1945-1947 15. To Hope Till Hope Creates 16. English Traits, American Problems 17. The British New Deal 18. Empire into Commonwealth Part Six: After New Jerusalem, 1948-1955 19. In Barchester All is Not Well 20. Taxis, Teeth and Hospital Beds 21. The Pilgrim's Progress Part Seven: Mission's End, 1955-1967 22. Few Thought He Was Even a Starter 23. Epilogue: The Promised Land Acknowledgements Notes Bibliography Index

Editorial Reviews

"I was not expecting to learn much new about the man ranked by our colleagues as the twentieth century's most successful prime minister (in a 2004 IPSOS-MORI poll of historians and political scientists). In this respect, I was, however, pleasantly surprised ... This is a compassionate biography that seeks to celebrate Attlee as a decent and humble man whose heart was in the right place and who was impressively adept at holding his party together after the electoral catastrophe of 1931 and in delivering on the promises of the 1945 election manifesto." — Laura Beers, Journal of Modern History

"[A] superb biography..."—Ferdinand Mount, New York Review of Books

"Easily the best single-volume, cradle-to-grave life of Clement Attlee yet written. Professor Bew updates but also betters all the other biographies with this intelligent, well-researched and highly readable book. Scholarly and perceptive, it tells the story of how quiet determination and impeccable political timing wrought a peaceful revolution."—Andrew Roberts

"In this monumental biography, John Bew sets out to explore, not just the scale of the achievement, but to discover what made Attlee tick."—Chris Mullin, Guardian

"This biography makes a strong case for Attlee's greatness Such contradictions deserve a discerning biographer, and in John Bew, Attlee has the man he deserves. He has written with verve and confidence a first-rate life of a man whom he correctly argues has been under-appreciated...What a life and what a man."—Daniel Finkelstein, The Times

"Outstanding Bew's achievement is not only to bring this curious and introverted man to life, but to make him oddly loveable. He steps out like a character from the pages of the social novels of H. G. Wells or George Orwell."—Robert Harris, Sunday Times

"So how did a man who was the object of so much private derision by his peers come to preside over Labour's greatest (some might say only) radical government? Bew puts the question at the core of his story. He answers it convincingly by mixing arresting narrative with a thorough study of the people and policies of the Labour movement at a time of hardship interspersed by war and fierce ideological difference."—John Kampfner, Observer

"Magisterial. A great work of personal biography, social history, political philosophy, international relations and ferrets-in-a-sack Labour Party infighting As the Labour Party retreats towards ideological self-immolation, as Britain stumbles on the world stage, and as European social democracy stands in peril, we need another Attlee more than ever. In the absence of which, we have Bew's brilliant book."—Tristram Hunt, Prospect

"Bew delves into a richly complicated postwar British society and politics to show how this once-underestimated politician can lend valuable lessons to the new generation of Labour, crushed in the election defeat of 2015....The 'invisible man' gets his well-deserved due in this thorough new biography."—Kirkus Reviews

"Far and away the best biography of Attlee yet written."—Wall Street Journal

"A fascinating book."—Washington Free Beacon

"He writes with elegance and penetrating analytical force, skillfully rounding out Attlee both as a man and a quiet revolutionary."—The American Interest

From the Publisher

2016-12-08
Detailed, philosophical biography of the unprepossessing, longtime leader of the British Labour Party, who laid out a "new deal" for the postwar Britons and cut imperial ties. Winning control of the British government from 1945 to 1951, in what became known as the "post-war consensus," Clement Attlee (1883-1967) and his Labour Party engineered the much-lauded National Health Service, propelled the United Nations and NATO, and granted independence to India, Burma, and Ceylon, as well as letting loose Palestine and Persia. In this thoughtful new appraisal, Bew (History and Foreign Policy, War Studies Department, King's Coll., London; Castlereagh: The Biography of a Statesman, 2012, etc.) delves into a richly complicated postwar British society and politics to show how this once-underestimated politician can lend valuable lessons to the new generation of Labour, crushed in the election defeat of 2015. Rather incredibly, Attlee was able to beat the previous prime minister, his former ally Winston Churchill, in 1945, and preside over "a radical government in an age of austerity." A 30-something captain during the Mesopotamian Campaign of World War I who had taken part in the Gallipoli landings, Attlee was wounded in the buttocks. A slight Victorian gentleman of the upper classes, he had studied classics at Oxford and converted to socialism after discovering the work of William Morris, John Ruskin's disciple and author of the influential News from Nowhere. Attlee championed the rights of the working classes, abandoning his legal studies for full-time work for the socialist cause in ethnically diverse East London. Bew gradually pursues Attlee's embrace of national politics as he gained traction as a "reliable foot soldier" under Britain's first Labour Party PM Ramsay MacDonald, then bided his time as leader of Labour during the next decade's setbacks and acted as Churchill's deputy in government during World War II. Labour's "jaw-dropping" victory of 1945 ensured that Attlee was not just "a passenger of history," but a major protagonist. The "invisible man" gets his well-deserved due in this thorough new biography.

Kirkus Reviews