Book description
* Appearing at a critical juncture in the history of the Labour
Party,
Speak for Britain! provides an original and challenging
interpretation of Labour's evolution from its sectional trade
union origins to its present status as a national governing party.
* Making use of a wide range of primary sources as well as
constituency party records that reveal the dynamics of membership
recruitment and the adoption of candidates, Martin Pugh challenges
many traditional accounts written from the perspective of the national leadership.
* Controversially, he argues that Labour never entirely
succeeded in becoming 'the party of the working class'. Rather than
converting the whole working class to Socialism, it skilfully adapted
itself to the variations in local and regional political cultures by
making use of Victorian Liberal-Radical traditions in some areas and
employing a populist Tory brand of politics in others. Moreover,
the character of the party was shaped by the recruitment of many of
its influential leaders from middle and upper-class Conservative backgrounds.
* Speak for Britain! charts Labour's rise to power by
re-examining the importance 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.
* Finally, in a fresh assessment of Labour in government since 1997
Martin Pugh shows how the party became marginalized and emasculated by
Tony Blair's presidential style of government. He also reveals one
of the party's enduring weaknesses: the tendency to choose the wrong
leaders - and then to hang on to them for too long.
Martin Pugh was Professor of British History at Newcastle University
and Research Professor in History at Liverpool John Moores University.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a member of the advisory
panel of the BBC
History Magazine
, and the author of over twelve books on nineteenth- and
twentieth-century history. He lives in Northumberland.
