American Politics in the Gilded Age
American Politics in the Gilded Age

Author: Robert W. Cherny

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Published: 1997-01-30

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13:

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Often Gilded-Age politics has been described as devoid of content or accomplishment, a mere spectacle to divert voters from thinking about the real issues of the day. But by focusing too closely on dramatic scandals and on the foibles of prominent politicians, many historians have tended to obscure other aspects of late nineteenth-century politics that proved to be of great and long-term significance. With the latest scholarship in mind, Professor Cherny provides a deft and highly readable analysis that is certain to help readers better understand the characteristics and important products of Gilded-Age politics. Topics covered include: voting behavior; the relation between the popular will and the formation of public policy; the cause and effect of the deadlock in national politics that lasted from the mid-1870s to the 1890s; the sources of political innovation at state and local levels; and the notable changes wrought during the 1890s that ushered in important new forms of American politics.

Labour in Crisis
Labour in Crisis

Author: J. Swift

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2001-05-04

Total Pages: 219

ISBN-13: 023059980X

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This is a study of the development of Clement Attlee and the Labour Party from the collapse of the second Labour Government in August 1931, to their entry into Churchill's coalition in May 1940. It is an examination of how Labour, from being driven from office as unfit to govern, recovered to be seen as essential to the effective prosecution of the war, and how Attlee emerged from relative obscurity to become a central figure in the War Cabinet.

The Men of 1924
The Men of 1924

Author: Peter Clark

Publisher: Haus Publishing

Published: 2023-10-02

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 1913368823

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An in-depth look at the diverse group of men who comprised Britain’s first Labour Party in 1924. In January of 1924, the cabinet of the first Labour government consisted of twenty white, middle-aged men, as it had for generations. But the election also represented a radical departure from government by the ruling class. Most members of the administration had left school by the age of fifteen. Five of them had started work by the time they were twelve years old. Three were working down the mines before they entered their teens. Two were illegitimate, one was abandoned at birth, and three were of Irish immigrant descent. For the first time in Britain’s history, the cabinet could truly be said to represent all of Britain’s social classes. This unheralded revolution in representation is the subject of Peter Clark’s fascinating new book, The Men of 1924. Who were these men? Clark’s vivid portrayal is full of evocative portraits of a new breed of politician, the forerunners of all those who, later in the last century and this one, overcame a system from which they had been excluded for too long.

Labour and the Countryside
Labour and the Countryside

Author: Clare V. J. Griffiths

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2007-05-10

Total Pages: 421

ISBN-13: 0199287430

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The common reputation of the British Labour Party has always been as 'a thing of the town', an essentially urban phenomenon which has failed to engage with the rural electorate or identify itself with rural issues. Yet during the inter-war years, Labour viewed the countryside as a crucial electoral battleground - even claiming that the party could never form a majority administration without winning a significant number of seats across rural Britain. Committing itself to a series ofcampaigns in rural areas during the 1920s and 30s, Labour developed a rural and often specifically agricultural programme on which to attract new support and members. Labour and the Countryside takes this forgotten chapter in the party's history as a starting point for a fascinating andwide-ranging re-examination of the relationship between the British Left and rural Britain.The first account of this aspect of Labour's history, this book draws on extensive research across a wide variety of original source material, from local party minutes and trade union archives to the records of Labour's first two periods in government. Historical, literary, and visual representations of the countryside are also examined, along with newspapers, magazines, and propaganda materials. In reconstructing the contexts within which Labour attempted to redefine itself as a voice for thecountryside, the resulting study presents a fresh perspective on the political history of the inter-war years.

“Spain Mad”: British Engagement with the Spanish Civil War
“Spain Mad”: British Engagement with the Spanish Civil War

Author: Tom Buchanan

Publisher: Liverpool University Press

Published: 2024-06-15

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 1802075496

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Taking inspiration from a police informer’s comment that his workmates had gone “Spain mad” in response to the Spanish Civil War, this book uses biographical studies to explore the nature of British engagement with the conflict. The opening chapter presents a general analysis of the subject and assesses the available evidence. Some 2400 Britons volunteered to fight in the conflict and some 500 died there. Accordingly, the International Brigades are well represented in the book, with chapters on two of the commanders of the British Battalion (Wilfred Macartney and Fred Copeman) and the Anglo-Canadian volunteer Frank Whitfield. Two of the other subjects (George Orwell and Felicia Browne) fought in other units. However, the book shows that engagement in the Civil War could take many forms: hence, the chapters on the journalist Philip Jordan, clergyman E. O. Iredell, and the humanitarian activist and politician G.T. Garratt. The remaining chapters look at three historians and writers who have shaped the understanding of the Civil War in Britain: Orwell, Hugh Thomas and Jim Fyrth. The book is based on extensive new research, and many of these subjects have never previously been studied in any depth.

Socialism and Foreign Policy
Socialism and Foreign Policy

Author: Kenneth E. Miller

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13: 9401508569

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This book is intended as a contribution to the study of the relation of political ideas and governmental policies. It seeks to examine and evaluate the British Labour Party's early efforts to apply socialist theories to foreign policy actions. Since I have focused on these ideas and events, I have not attempted to take into account happenings on the British domestic front that, though important to the Labour Party and the trade unions, did not directly affect foreign policy. Nor are matters of imperial or Commonwealth policy considered, except as they relate to the development of socialist theories and interpretations or as they influenced Great Britain's relations with other independent states. I must express my appreciation for their assistance to Drs. Malcolm Moos, Thomas 1. Cook, and Carl B. "Swisher, under whose direction this project first began at the Johns Hopkins University; to Mrs. E. Rickman of the Labour Party's Library and to Mrs. Gladys D. Cremer of the Fabian Society, for access to various Labour and socialist ma terials; to the Rutgers University Research Council for grants in support of some of the research; and to Mrs. Edward Teifeld and Mrs. Boris Pritsky for the wearisome efforts of typing various versions of the manuscript. The responsibility for errors is, of course, mine. The book is dedicated to my wife Marilyn, who aided so greatly in its preparation, not least by a tactful and appropriate balance of patience and impatience.