Age of Hope

Labour, 1945, and the Birth of Modern Britain

Richard Toye (University of Exeter, UK)

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English

Bloomsbury Continuum
27 February 2024

“The clue to our future lies in our past and Toye has winkled it out with elegant and devastating precision.” Chris Bryant, MP for Rhondda

WAS THE ATTLEE GOVERNMENT OF 1945 REALLY THE GOLDEN PERIOD OF LABOUR POWER?

2024 marks the centenary of the first Labour government under Ramsay MacDonald. What legacy of the past have they left behind? How far has each Labour administration influenced succeeding administrations?

Above all, was the Attlee government of 1945 really the golden period of Labour power?

Professor Richard Toye explores Labour’s exercise of power as a continuum, setting Attlee’s administration in long-term historical context between the first Labour Government of 1924 and the current party under Keir Starmer. Within this context he shows why the Attlee administration matters so much and how successive Labour governments have fashioned it in their own image.

Into this story are woven the foundation of the Labour Party in 1900, the First World War, the General Strike of 1926, the Spanish Civil War and the coalition war-time government under Churchill. Also discussed are the great names of Labour history: Ramsay MacDonald, Clement Attlee himself, Ernest Bevin, Aneurin Bevan, Hugh Gaitskell, Harold Wilson and Ellen Wilkinson.

Covering Labour's history all the way up to the present - including Wilson and Blair's attempts to wrap themselves in Attlee’s mantle and Corbyn’s version of Attlee focused on the NHS and the welfare state - Age of Hope is an incisive, informative look at a political party that has been fundamental in shaping modern Britain and will be equally instrumental in its future.

By: Richard Toye (University of Exeter UK)
Imprint: Bloomsbury Continuum
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 236mm, Width: 162mm, Spine: 30mm
Weight: 543g
ISBN: 9781472992307
ISBN 10: 147299230X
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 27 February 2024
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Professor Richard Toye is Professor of Modern History at the University of Exeter. His books include Lloyd George and Churchill: Rivals for Greatness (Macmillan 2007), Rhetoric: A Very Short Introduction (OUP 2013), and (with David Thackeray) Age of Promises: Electoral Pledges in Twentieth Century Britain (OUP 2021). He has made numerous TV and radio appearances and has written for a wide range of publications, including the New York Times, the Guardian, and the Times Literary Supplement.

Reviews for Age of Hope: Labour, 1945, and the Birth of Modern Britain

A hundred years since the first Labour Government, Richard Toye’s readable and persuasive study argues that while arguments over the party’s past have often shaped its future, Labour does best when it forgets old battles and finds a way to combine hope with pragmatism. The history of the era is highly contested, but the book does a masterly job of picking through the bitterness to understand what has worked in the past and has a reasonable chance of working in the future. Anne Perkins, author of A Very British Strike and Red Queen: The Authorised Biography of Barbara Castle -- Anne Perkins, author of 'A Very British Strike' and 'Red Queen: The Authorized Biography of Barbara Castle'