British Politics and the Great War

British Politics and the Great War PDF Author: John Turner
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780300050462
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 511

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Book Description
The First World War led to a fundamental realignment of British politics. A Liberal government of glittering talent and great achievement was swept away. The coalition that replaced it was in turn overthrown by a cross-party movement led by David Lloyd George, who came to power as the Liberal Prime Minister of a largely Conservative coalition in December 1916. In the post-war general election the historic Liberal Party was split in two and was replaced as the main party on the left by the reorganised and revitalised Labour Party. This penetrating study by John Turner explores this process of political change at a moment of crisis in British political history. Turner describes how the Lloyd George coalition first grappled with military disaster and the threat of economic collapse and then faced a further threat to political stability as the desire for a negotiated peace grew in the factories, in the corridors of Westminster, and even in the British army in France. He relates how Lloyd George and his Conservative allies, fearing political chaos as much as defeat in the field, tried to reconstruct the party system to suit themselves. The author examines the struggle for power among leading politicians, showing how that struggle was driven by the overwhelming problems of governing a society at war and anticipating the uncertainties of peace. He anatomises British political society to explore how the war accelerated pre-war political developments and diverted the course of change. He exposes paradoxes in political values, especially in attitudes toward the state, and reassesses the major personalities. His concluding study of the results of the 1918 election offers a unique picture of the emerging political geography of twentieth-century Britain. The book sheds new light on such familiar topics as the decline of Liberalism, the rise of Labour, the growth of the state, and the clash between civil and military authority, and it poses new questions about the British political system. It will be indispensable to an understanding of modern Britain.

British Politics and the Great War

British Politics and the Great War PDF Author: John Turner
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780300050462
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 511

Get Book

Book Description
The First World War led to a fundamental realignment of British politics. A Liberal government of glittering talent and great achievement was swept away. The coalition that replaced it was in turn overthrown by a cross-party movement led by David Lloyd George, who came to power as the Liberal Prime Minister of a largely Conservative coalition in December 1916. In the post-war general election the historic Liberal Party was split in two and was replaced as the main party on the left by the reorganised and revitalised Labour Party. This penetrating study by John Turner explores this process of political change at a moment of crisis in British political history. Turner describes how the Lloyd George coalition first grappled with military disaster and the threat of economic collapse and then faced a further threat to political stability as the desire for a negotiated peace grew in the factories, in the corridors of Westminster, and even in the British army in France. He relates how Lloyd George and his Conservative allies, fearing political chaos as much as defeat in the field, tried to reconstruct the party system to suit themselves. The author examines the struggle for power among leading politicians, showing how that struggle was driven by the overwhelming problems of governing a society at war and anticipating the uncertainties of peace. He anatomises British political society to explore how the war accelerated pre-war political developments and diverted the course of change. He exposes paradoxes in political values, especially in attitudes toward the state, and reassesses the major personalities. His concluding study of the results of the 1918 election offers a unique picture of the emerging political geography of twentieth-century Britain. The book sheds new light on such familiar topics as the decline of Liberalism, the rise of Labour, the growth of the state, and the clash between civil and military authority, and it poses new questions about the British political system. It will be indispensable to an understanding of modern Britain.

Great Britain's Great War

Great Britain's Great War PDF Author: Jeremy Paxman
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0670919640
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
Jeremy Paxman's magnificent history of the First World War tells the entire story of the war in one gripping narrative from the point of view of the British people. NOW A MAJOR BBC TELEVISION SERIES "He writes so well and sympathetically, and chooses his detail so deftly, that if there is one new history of the war that you might actually enjoy from the very large centennial selection this is very likely it" The Times We may think we know about it, but what was life really like for the British people during the First World War? The well-known images - the pointing finger of Lord Kitchener; a Tommy buried in the mud of the Western Front; the memorial poppies of remembrance day - all reinforce the idea that it was a pointless waste of life. So why did the British fight it so willingly and how did the country endure it for so long? Using a wealth of first-hand source material, Jeremy Paxman brings vividly to life the day-to-day experience of the British over the entire course of the war, from politicians, newspapermen, campaigners and Generals, to Tommies, factory workers, nurses, wives and children, capturing the whole mood and morale of the nation. It reveals that life and identity in Britain were often dramatically different from our own, and show how both were utterly transformed - not always for the worst - by the enormous upheaval of the war. Rich with personalities, surprises and ironies, this lively narrative history paints a picture of courage and confusion, doubts and dilemmas, and is written with Jeremy Paxman's characteristic flair for storytelling, wry humour and pithy observation. "A fine introduction to the part Britain played in the first of the worst two wars in history. The writing is lively and the detail often surprising and memorable" Guardian Jeremy Paxman is a renowned broadcaster, award-winning journalist and the bestselling author of seven works of non-fiction, including The English, The Political Animal and Empire.

War and Reform

War and Reform PDF Author: Kevin Jefferys
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 9780719039713
Category : Great Britain
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
World War II marked a crucial watershed in the political history of modern Britain. This book seeks to explain, through the eyes of contemporaries, how the transition occurred from the Conservative enterprise society of the 1930s to Labour's welfare state and mixed economy of the late 1940s. War and Reform also addresses the question of how the political changes of this period affected British society as a whole and how much public opinion itself shaped change.

Britain and the Great War, 1914-1918

Britain and the Great War, 1914-1918 PDF Author: J. M. Bourne
Publisher: Hodder Arnold
ISBN: 9780713165234
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description


The Historiography of World War I from 1918 to the Present

The Historiography of World War I from 1918 to the Present PDF Author: Christoph Cornelissen
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1800737270
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 516

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Book Description
From the Treaty of Versailles to the 2018 centenary and beyond, the history of the First World War has been continually written and rewritten, studied and contested, producing a rich historiography shaped by the social and cultural circumstances of its creation. Writing the Great War provides a groundbreaking survey of this vast body of work, assembling contributions on a variety of national and regional historiographies from some of the most prominent scholars in the field. By analyzing perceptions of the war in contexts ranging from Nazi Germany to India’s struggle for independence, this is an illuminating collective study of the complex interplay of memory and history.

Between Empire and Continent

Between Empire and Continent PDF Author: Andreas Rose
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1785335790
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 542

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Book Description
Prior to World War I, Britain was at the center of global relations, utilizing tactics of diplomacy as it broke through the old alliances of European states. Historians have regularly interpreted these efforts as a reaction to the aggressive foreign policy of the German Empire. However, as Between Empire and Continent demonstrates, British foreign policy was in fact driven by a nexus of intra-British, continental and imperial motivations. Recreating the often heated public sphere of London at the turn of the twentieth century, this groundbreaking study carefully tracks the alliances, conflicts, and political maneuvering from which British foreign and security policy were born.

The Road to 1945

The Road to 1945 PDF Author: Paul Addison
Publisher: Jonathan Cape
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
1940 has long been regarded as the time when political parties put aside their differences to unite under Churchill and focus on the task of war. But the war years witnessed a radical shift in political power - dramatically expressed in Labour's decisive electoral victory in 1945.

British Politics and the Great War

British Politics and the Great War PDF Author: John Turner
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780300239164
Category : Great Britain
Languages : en
Pages : 511

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Book Description


Britain and the First World War (RLE The First World War)

Britain and the First World War (RLE The First World War) PDF Author: John Turner
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317692136
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 178

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Book Description
This book gives students an informed insight into the British experience in the First World War. The contributors, all established First World War historians, have drawn on their own research and secondary sources to give a succinct account of politics, diplomacy, strategy and social developments during a period of dramatic change. Each chapter gives a concise account of its subject and the chapters are well supported by maps and tables. This is an important textbook for school students and undergraduates which bridges the gap between specialized research on the First World War and the needs of the student reader.

For King and Country

For King and Country PDF Author: Heather Jones
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108682960
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 591

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Book Description
This is a ground-breaking history of the British monarchy in the First World War and of the social and cultural functions of monarchism in the British war effort. Heather Jones examines how the conflict changed British cultural attitudes to the monarchy, arguing that the conflict ultimately helped to consolidate the crown's sacralised status. She looks at how the monarchy engaged with war recruitment, bereavement, gender norms, as well as at its political and military powers and its relationship with Ireland and the empire. She considers the role that monarchism played in military culture and examines royal visits to the front, as well as the monarchy's role in home front morale and in interwar war commemoration. Her findings suggest that the rise of republicanism in wartime Britain has been overestimated and that war commemoration was central to the monarchy's revered interwar status up to the abdication crisis.