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The Wild Men
The Remarkable Story of Britain's First Labour Government -- A Waterstones Book of the Year 2024
Brief Description
A WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024 A century ago, a Labour government took power for the first time. Meet the "Wild Men" who led the way... 'Superb' -- New Statesman 'Fascinating' -- The Sunday Times. In 1923, the passing of the Act which gave all...
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The Wild Men
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The incredible story of the first Labour administration and the 'wild men' who shook up the British establishment, with a fully updated new Preface.
The incredible story of the first Labour administration and the 'wild men' who shook up the British establishment, with a fully updated new Preface.
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Description
A WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024
A century ago, a Labour government took power for the first time. Meet the "Wild Men" who led the way...
'Superb' -- New Statesman
'Fascinating' -- The Sunday Times.
In 1923, the passing of the Act which gave all men the vote opened the door for a radically different sort of government: men from working-class backgrounds who had never before occupied the corridors of power at Westminster. Who were these ‘wild men’? Ramsay MacDonald, their leader and Labour’s first Prime Minister, was the illegitimate son of a Scottish farm labourer; Arthur Henderson was a Scottish iron moulder; J. H. Thomas, a Welsh railwayman; John Wheatley, an Irish-born miner and publican; and William Adamson, a Fife coal miner.
The Wild Men - this new edition with a fully updated preface - tells the story of that first Labour administration – its unexpected birth, fraught existence, and controversial downfall – through the eyes of those who found themselves in the House of Commons, running the country for the people. Blending biography and history into a compelling narrative, David Torrance reassesses the UK’s first Labour government a century after it shook up a British establishment still reeling from the War – and how the establishment eventually fought back.
This is an extraordinary period in British political history which echoes down the years to our current politics and laid the foundations for the Britain of today.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781399411479
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 16 January 2025
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Bloomsbury Continuum
Edition: Revised edition
Illustration: 8 pages of black and white images
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 24.0mm
Width: 130.0mm
Height: 196.0mm
Weight: 300g
Pages: 352
About the Author
David Torrance is a constitutional specialist at the House of Commons Library and a widely published historian of Scottish and UK politics. He has written unauthorised biographies of SNP politicians Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon, as well as the biography of David Steel.
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