Attlee's Great Contemporaries: The Politics of Character

Attlee's Great Contemporaries: The Politics of Character

Attlee's Great Contemporaries: The Politics of Character

Attlee's Great Contemporaries: The Politics of Character

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Overview

In 1946, Clement Attlee came to power as Labour Prime Minister with a huge landslide majority. Under his leadership, some of the greatest reforms were initiated, not least the founding of The National Health Service. Attlee had a firm vision of a more just and equitable society, which the nation wanted. This firm vision is something that attracts Frank Field. To 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. They are of extraordinary historical interest and will command an audience in their own right. In them we see how Attlee emphasised the importance of character for successful politics. To Field they epitomise the intellect and humanity of a hero of 20th Century politics, a man with profound qualities that are so poorly represented in today's politics. In a brilliant and most controversial introduction, Frank Field argues just how radical Attlee was, wishing, for example, to realign British foreign and defence policy. In his epilogue, Professor Peter Hennessy, shows the importance of Attlee in full historical perspective.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780826432247
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date: 05/28/2009
Pages: 240
Product dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.69(d)

About the Author

The Rt Hon Frank Field MP was formerly Minister for Welfare Reform in Tony Blair's first government. He is the author of a number of books and other publications, including Neighbours from Hell (Politicos) and Politics, Poverty and Belief (Bloomsbury Continuum). Field died in April 2024.

Table of Contents

Introduction by Frank Field
1. Montgomery: My Assessment
2. Blaming Eisenhower
3. Ernest Bevin: A Name for Loyalty
4. George Lansbury
5. Winston Spencer Churchill as I knew him
6. Nye Bevan
7. The Changing Role of the Member of Parliament
8. Blaming Eisenhower
9. On the art of being Prime Minister
10. Party Discipline
Afterword by Professor Peter Hennessy

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