Clement Attlee: The Man Who Made Modern Britain

705 Pages·2017·10.311 MB·English

by  John Bew

Clement Attlee
by John Bew
Castlereagh: A Life
Realpolitik: A History
Clement Attlee
The Man Who Made Modern Britain
John Bew
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Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
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© John Bew 2017
First published in Great Britain by Quercus Books.
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Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Bew, John, author.
Title: Clement Attlee : the man who made modern Britain / John Bew.
Description: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2017. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016033778 | ISBN 9780190203405
Subjects: LCSH: Attlee, C. R. (Clement Richard), 1883–1967. | Prime
ministers—Great Britain—Biography. | Great Britain—Politics and
government—1945–1964. | Labour Party (Great Britain)—Biography.
Classification: LCC DA585.A8 B49 2017 | DDC 941.085092
[B]—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016033778
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America
For Jo

In our modern life the sense of unity is not realised, and all the
pervading duties of citizenship are lost sight of in the wilderness
of interests of both individuals and groups. Our extraordinarily
complex life, our far too numerous activities, our strong assertion of
individual liberty which we very imperfectly understand, and the
assumed importance of our occupation as self-seekers and self-
developers – all these things tend to drive the citizen idea into the
background. Yet in theory and also in fact it is still the necessary and
single basis of social duty and social morality.
E. J. Urwick, A Philosophy of Social Progress, 1912,
quoted by Clement Attlee in The Social Worker, 1920.
It has been said that one of the greatest dangers of civilisation today
is that man’s conquests in the realms of science have outstripped his
moral progress. It is the greatest task which lies ahead of us all in the
Labour and Socialist movement to see to it that the citizen’s sense of
obligation to the community keeps pace with the changes effected in
the structure of society. We need to stress duties as well as rights.
Clement Attlee,
Speech to the 47th Annual Labour Party Conference
in Scarborough, 19 May 1948.

Contents
Prologue xi
Part One – Patriot, Citizen, Soldier, 1889–1918 1
1 – Introduction: The Red Flag 3
2 – ‘With apologies to Rudyard Kipling’ 26
3 – News from Nowhere 47
4 – The Soldier 74
Part Two – The Making of a Politician, 1918–1931 95
5 – Looking Backward 97
6 – Building Jerusalem 118
7 – Fame is the Spur 139
Part Three – Albion’s Troubles, 1931–1940 159
8 – The Bullion Family 161
9 – The Anti-Cromwell 179
10 – The Major Attlee Company and the Clenched-Fist Salute 201
11 – A Word to Winston 219
Part Four – Finest Hour, 1940–1945 245
12 – All Behind You, Winston 247
13 – The Hunting of the Snark 276
14 – The Invisible Man 309