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Clement Attlee : the man who made modern Britain / John Bew.

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Oxford University Press, 2017.

941.085092 A885b

Attlee, C. R. (Clement Richard), 1883-1967.

Labour Party (Great Britain) -- Biography.

Prime ministers -- Great Britain -- Biography.

Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1945-1964.

9780190203405 (hc.)

xviii, 670 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 567-648) and index.

Part One. Patriot, citizen, soldier, 1889-1918 -- Introduction: the red flag -- 'With apologies to Rudyard Kipling' -- News from nowhere -- The soldier -- Part Two. The making of a politician, 1918-1931 -- Looking backward -- Building Jerusalem -- Fame is the spur -- Part Three. Albion's troubles, 1931-1940 -- The Bullion family -- The anti-Cromwell -- The Major Attlee company and the clenched-fist salute -- A word to Winston -- Part Four. Finest hour, 1940-1945 -- All behind you, Winston -- The hunting of the snark -- The invisible man -- Part Five. New Jerusalem, New Deal, 1945-1947 -- To hope till hope creates -- English traits, American problems -- The British New Deal -- Empire into commonwealth -- Part Six. After New Jerusalem, 1948-1955 -- In Barchester all is not well -- Taxis, teeth and hospital beds -- The pilgrim's progress -- Part Seven. Mission's end, 1955-1967 -- Few thought he was even a starter -- Epilogue: the promised land.

"Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, Winston Churchill's wartime heroics and larger-than-life personality propelled him to the center of the world stage. To most, he remains Great Britain's greatest Prime Minister, his fame and charisma overshadowing those who followed in his footsteps. Yet while he presided over his country's finest hour, he was not its most consequential leader. In this definitive new biography, John Bew reveals how that designation belongs to Clement Attlee, Churchill's successor, who launched a new era of political, economic, and social reform that would forever change Great Britain. Bew's thorough and keen examination of Attlee, the former leader of the Labour Party, illuminates how his progressive beliefs shaped his influential domestic and international policy. Alternatively criticized for being "too socialist" or "not radical enough," Attlee's quiet tenacity was intrinsic to the success of his party and highly pertinent to British identity overall. In 1948, he established the National Health Service as part of his "British New Deal"-a comprehensive, universal system of insurance, welfare, and family allowances to be enjoyed by all British citizens. Attlee also initiated key advancements in international relations by supporting the development of both the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and by granting independence to India, Burma, and Ceylon. More controversially, he sanctioned the building of Britain's nuclear deterrent in response to the rise of the Soviet Union and the threat of atomic bombs. Clement Attlee: The Man Who Made Modern Britain explores his tenure in the years after the war, as he presided over a radical new government in an age of austerity and imperial decline. Bew mines contemporary memoirs, diaries, and press excerpts to present readers with an illuminating and intimate look into Attlee's life and career. Attentive to both the man and the political landscape, this comprehensive biography provides new insight into the soul of a leader who transformed his country and by extension the vast empire over which it once ruled."--From publisher.

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