After 13 years in power, Labour suddenly returned to being the party of opposition in 2010. This new edition of A History of the British Labour Party brings us up-to-date, examining Gordon Brown's period in office and the Labour Party under the leadership of Ed Miliband. Andrew Thorpe's study has been the leading single-volume text on the Labour Party since its first edition in 1997 and has now been thoroughly revised throughout to include new approaches.
This new edition:
- Covers the entirety of the party's history, from 1900 to 2014.
- Examines the reasons for the party's formation, and its aims.
- Analyses the party's successes and failures, including its rise to second party status and remarkable recovery from its problems in the 1980s.
- Discusses the main events and personalities of the Labour Party, such as MacDonald, Attlee, Wilson, Blair and Brown.
With his approachable style and authoritative manner, Thorpe has created essential reading for students of political history, and anyone wishing to familiarise themselves with the history and development of one of Britain's major political parties.
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
1. Introduction
2. Creation and Early Years, 1900-1914
3. The Surge to Second-Party Status, 1914-1922
4. Progress and Collapse, 1922-1931
5. Remaking the Party? 1931-1939
6. The Impact of the Second World War, 1939-1945
7. The Attlee Governments, 1945-1951
8. Searching for a New Direction, 1951-1964
9. Wilson in Power, 1964-1970
10. Labour in Crisis? 1970-1979
11. Down and Out? 1979-1987
12. Modernization and New Labour, 1987-1997
13. New Labour in Power, 1997-2007
14. Moving Beyond Blair 2007-2015
15. Conclusion
Appendices
Notes
Bibliography
Index.
