Attlee
- ISBN-10
- 0857730746
- ISBN-13
- 9780857730749
- Series
- Attlee
- Category
- Biography & Autobiography
- Pages
- 352
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2012-03-01
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Publishing
- Author
- Nicklaus Thomas-Symonds
Description
Clement Attlee - the man who created the welfare state and decolonised vast swathes of the British Empire, including India - has been acclaimed by many as Britains' greatest twentieth-century Prime Minister. Yet somehow Attlee the man remains elusive and little known. How did such a moderate, modest man bring about so many enduring changes? What are the secrets of his leadership style? And how do his personal attributes account for both his spectacular successes and his apparent failures? When Attlee became Prime Minister in July 1945 he was the leader of a Labour party that had won a landslide victory. With almost 50 per cent of the popular vote, Attlee seemed to have achieved the platform for Labour to dominate post-war British politics. Yet just 6 years and 3 months after the 1945 victory, and despite all Attlee's governments had appeared to achieve, Labour was out of office, condemned to opposition for a further 13 years. This presents one of the great paradoxes of twentieth-century British history: how Attlee's government achieved so much, but lost power so quickly. But perhaps the greatest paradox was Attlee himself. Attlee's obituary in "The Times" in 1967 stated that 'much of what he did was memorable; very little that he said'. This new biography, based on extensive research into Attlee's papers and first-hand interviews, examines the myths that have arisen around this key figure of British political life and provides a vivid portrait of the man and his politics.
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
Attlee
By David HowellFormer British Prime Minister best known for the creation of the National Health Service.
-
Clem Attlee: Labour's Great Reformer
By Francis BeckettBuilding on his earlier work on Attlee and including new research and stories, many of which are published here for the first time, Francis Beckett highlights Attlee’s relevance for a new generation.
-
Clement Attlee: The Man Who Made Modern Britain
By John BewBrooke, Labour's War, p. 263. Tribune, 14 July 1944. Entry for 25 October 1944, Diary of James Chuter Ede, p. 182. 40 Clem to Tom, 15 August 1944, Ms. Eng. c. 4793. George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English ...
-
Clement Attlee
By Jerry Hardman BrookshireShows how Attlee, middle-class and Oxford-educated, became a committed socialist while a young social worker in London's East End and his rise as Deputy Minister during Churchill's wartime coalition and Prime Minister during Labour's ...
-
Clement Attlee: The Inevitable Prime Minister
By Michael JagoIn Clement Attlee: The Inevitable Prime Minister, Michael Jago argues that nothing could be further from the truth.
-
Attlee's Great Contemporaries: The Politics of Character
By Frank FieldTo Field, Attlee is a hero. After retirement, Clement Attlee wrote a masterly series of profiles of his great contemporaries, many published at the time in The Observer. These are now collected together in a book for the first time.
-
Clement Attlee
By Vincent BromeAutographed photograph England Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee (3 January 1883 to 8 October 1967) was a British Labour politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United...
-
The Social Worker
By Clement AttleeThis classic work is a must read for those interested in socialism, the Labour Party and how societies and individuals can make a difference. Clement Attlee was born in 1883 and served as British Prime Minister 1945 - 1951.
-
Clement Attlee, a Political Biography
By Trevor D. BurridgeLeven en werk van de Engelse politicus en staatsman Clement Richard Attlee (1883-1967).
-
Attlee's War: World War II and the Making of a Labour Leader
By Robert CrowcroftShedding new light on an often misunderstood figure, this book will appeal to all those interested in modern British history and the leadership of major political figures.