You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
The Welsh background, educational experience and personal life of Wales’s leading historian The wide range of his historical writing on Welsh history, British history, Labour history, Contemporary history and biography (including books on Lloyd George, Keir Hardie, James Callaghan and Michael Foot) Insight into life in an Oxford college, and work as a university Vice-Chancellor in Wales at a critical time. His career as a working Labour member of the House of Lords and a major member of the Labour Party, and his hopes for the future
The authorised (but not uncritical) life of one of the great parliamentarians and orators of our times, the former Labour Party leader, now in his nineties, who is also an eminent man of letters. Michael Foot has been a controversial and charismatic figure in British public life, political and literary, for over sixty years. Emerging from a famous west-country Liberal dynasty, he rose as a crusading left-wing journalist in the late 1930s: 'The Guilty Men' (his book on the pre-war appeasers of Nazi Germany) is one of the great radical tracts of British history. He has been the voice of libertarian socialism in parliament, an international socialist and government minister, and was Labour leader for two-and-a-half -years between 1980 and 1983. His political friendships with people like Beaverbrook, Cripps, Aneurin Bevan and Barbara Castle were passionate and profound, but he also had a remarkable and quite different career as a man of letters ...
The author illustrates the nature and the limitations of political nationalism that arose in Wales in the last century, and investigates its impact upon Welsh politics and society. He outlines and explains the growing awareness of opinion outside Wales of the distinctive needs of the Principality, as the indifference, if not contempt, of mid-Victorian Britain gradually gave way to a more intelligent, if sometimes still patronizing, understanding. An Epilogue takes the account down to 1970, and this revised edition incorporates a number of minor amendments and additions.
This is an introduction to the entire history of British involvement with slavery and the slave trade, which especially focuses on the two centuries from 1650, and covers the Atlantic world, especially North America and the West Indies, as well as the Cape Colony, Mauritius, and India. -;Slavery and the British Empire provides a clear overview of the entire history of British involvement with slavery and the slave trade, from the Cape Colony to the Caribbean. The book combines economic, social, political, cultural, and demographic history, with a particular focus on the Atlantic world and the plantations of North America and the West Indies from the mid-seventeenth century onwards. Kenneth M...
`Callaghan is a symbol of our present age as well as our past, New Labour as well as Old. He links the age of Clem Attlee and that of Tony Blair.' Kenneth Morgan 'This is a classic political life, critical, well-balanced, compellingly written' Brian Brivati, The Times 'It is hard to see how the book could have been better done' Alan Watkins, The Spectator 'A superb portrait and a fascinating work of historical scholarship that will become a classic text' Ben Pimlott, The Guardian 'Callaghan was regarded as the epitome of the Labour Party's right-wing establishment. Yet Kenneth Morgan's biography reveals him to be far more interesting and far more complex than that.' Gerald Kaufman, Daily Telegraph This fascinating biography, written by leading historian Kenneth Morgan, tells the story of a man who had a unique political career. Starting in humble circumstances, James Callaghan went on to hold all the major offices of state: Chancellor of the Exchequer, Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary, and,for three tumultuous years, from 1976 to 1979, Prime Minister. This meticulously researched study takes the reader from the age of Attlee to the days of New Labour under Blair.
This book considers the impact of slavery and Atlantic trade on British economic development in the generations between the restoration of the Stuart monarchy and the era of the Younger Pitt. During this period Britain's trade became 'Americanised' and industrialisation began to occur in the domestic economy. The slave trade and the broader patterns of Atlantic commerce contributed important dimensions of British economic growth although they were more significant for their indirect, qualitative contribution than for direct quantitative gains. Kenneth Morgan investigates five key areas within the topic that have been subject to historical debate: the profits of the slave trade; slavery, capital accumulation and British economic development; exports and transatlantic markets; the role of business institutions; and the contribution of Atlantic trade to the growth of British ports. This stimulating and accessible book provides essential reading for students of slavery and the slave trade, and British economic history.
The People's Peace: Britain since 1945 is the first comprehensive study by a professional historian of British history from 1945 to the present day. It examines the transformation of post-war Britain from the planning enthusiasm of 1945 to the rise of New Labour. Its themes include the troubles of the British economy; public criticism of the legitimacy of the state and its instruments of authority; the co-existence of growing personal prosperity with widespread social inequality; and the debates aroused by decolonization, and Britain's relationship to the Commonwealth, the US and Europe. Changes in cultural life, from the puritanical 'austerity' of the 1940's, through the 'permissiveness' of the 1960s, to the tensions and achievements of recent years are also charted. Using a wide variety of sources, including the records of political parties and the most recently released documents from the Public Records Office, Kenneth Morgan brings the story right up to date and draws comparisons with the post-war history of other nations. This penetrating analysis by a leading twentieth-century historian will prove invaluable to anyone interested in the development of the Britain of today.
Jim Callaghan's career in British public life is unique. Starting in humble circumstances and then moving into trade union office and parliament at a young age, he went on to hold all the major offices of state: Chancellor of the Exchequer, Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary and, for threetumultuous years, from 1976 to 1979, Prime Minister. This book covers every aspect of his career and sets it against the background of challenge and decline in British history in the second half of the twentieth century. From decolonization in Africa, the devaluation of the pound, the crisis in industrial relations, challenges in Northern Ireland, to entry into the European Community and the winter of discon...
First published as part of the best-selling The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain, Kenneth Morgan's Very Short Introduction to Twentieth-Century Britain examines the forces of consensus and of conflict in twentieth-century Britain. The account covers the trauma of the First World War and the social divisions of the twenties; fierce domestic and foreign policy debates in the thirties; the impact of the Second World War for domestic transformation, popular culture and the loss of empire; the transition from the turmoil of the seventies to the aftermath of Thatcherism and the advent of New Labour. Throughout, cultural and artistic themes are woven into the analysis, along with the distinct ...
Based on a vast range of previously unpublished material, this book is the only detailed and comprehensive account of the policies, programs, and personalities of the powerful and influential Attlee government. Morgan provides in-depth portraits of key figures of the period and compares Britain during these years with other postwar European nations.