Table of Contents
List of Tables viii
List of Illustrations x
Preface xi
Part One 1867–1900 1
1 Party and Participation 1867–1900 3
Voting and Non-voting 4
Electoral Practice and Malpractice 10
The Rise of the Party Activist 14
Party, Parliament and the ‘Independent Member’ 17
2 The Evolution of the Gladstonian Liberal Party 1867–1895 22
Liberalism, Reform and Religion 23
The Building Blocks of Liberalism 25
The Programme versus the Single Issue 30
1886: The Radicalization of the Party 35
3 The Conservative Revival 1874–1900 42
The Impact of Middle-class Conservatism 44
Organizing the Democracy 48
Tradition and Change 51
Salisbury and Liberal Unionism 54
The State and Social Reform 59
4 The Social Roots of Political Change in Late Victorian Britain 65
Trends and Issues 66
Rural Radicalism 70
Working-class Politics and Socialists 73
Women, Politics and Labour 78
Working-class Conservatism, Empire and Patriotism 80
The Lower Middle Class 86
Part Two 1895–1914 89
5 The Edwardian Crises 1895–1914 91
The Waning of Radicalism 91
Liberal Imperialism 96
‘National Efficiency’ and Tariff Reform 99
The Crisis of Conservatism 103
6 Edwardian Progressivism 107
Origins of the New Liberalism 107
The Politics of the Pact 1903–1914 115
Edwardian Labourism 123
The Workers and State Welfare 129
7 The Electoral Struggle 1906–1914 130
The Containment of Labour 131
The Franchise Factor 135
Regional Political Culture 138
The Unions, MacDonald and the Pact 1911–1914 141
Part Three 1914–1920s 147
8 The Impact of the Great War on British Politics 149
The Disintegration of the Progressive Alliance 1914–1916 151
Lloyd George and the Conservatives 1916–1918 153
Labour’s Change of Course 158
The Coupon Election of 1918 161
9 Patriotism, Ideology and the State in the Great War 165
Laissez-faire and Interventionism 166
Labour’s Socialist Commitment and the Liberal Inheritance 168
The Working Class, the State and Patriotism 171
Conservatism, Capitalism and the State 1914–1922 173
Part Four 1918–1945 179
10 The Elevation of Labour and the Restoration of Party Politics 1918–1931 181
The Fragmentation of the Coalition 181
The New Strategy 1922 183
Baldwin and Normality 1923 186
MacDonaldism and Socialism 188
The Rise and Fall of the Second Labour Government 194
11 Origins of the Conservative Electoral Hegemony 1918–1931 199
The Impact of the Electoral System 199
The Conservatives and the Constituencies 203
Labour’s Grass Roots 1918–1929 207
Women in Inter-war Politics 211
The General Strike and the Realignment of the Working Class 213
The Election of 1931 220
12 From the National Government to the Popular Front 1931–1939 222
The National Government and Liberal Toryism 222
The Threat from the British Union of Fascists 229
Labour, Socialism and Keynesianism 233
The Left, Rearmament and Public Opinion 235
The General Election of 1935 238
Labour and the Popular Front 1936–1939 240
13 The Politics of the ‘People’s War’ 1939–1945 243
The Churchill Coalition 243
Public Opinion and the Swing to the Left 247
Consensus Politics 249
The Labour Landslide of 1945 251
Conclusions 255
Notes 258
Guide to Further Reading 267
Index 283
