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Age of Hope

Labour, 1945, and the Birth of Modern Britain

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Age of Hope

By: Richard Toye
Narrated by: Charles Armstrong
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Bloomsbury presents Age of Hope by Richard Toye, read by Charles Armstrong.

“The clue to our future lies in our past and Toye has winkled it out with elegant and devastating precision.” Chris Bryant, MP for Rhondda

WAS THE ATTLEE GOVERNMENT OF 1945 REALLY THE GOLDEN PERIOD OF LABOUR POWER?

2024 marks the centenary of the first Labour government under Ramsay MacDonald. What legacy of the past have they left behind? How far has each Labour administration influenced succeeding administrations? Above all, was the Attlee government of 1945 really the golden period of Labour power?

Professor Richard Toye explores Labour’s exercise of power as a continuum, setting Attlee’s administration in long-term historical context between the first Labour Government of 1924 and the current party under Keir Starmer. Within this context he shows why the Attlee administration matters so much and how successive Labour governments have fashioned it in their own image.

Into this story are woven the foundation of the Labour Party in 1900, the First World War, the General Strike of 1926, the Spanish Civil War and the coalition war-time government under Churchill. Also discussed are the great names of Labour history: Ramsay MacDonald, Clement Attlee himself, Ernest Bevin, Aneurin Bevan, Hugh Gaitskell, Harold Wilson and Ellen Wilkinson.

Covering Labour's history all the way up to the present – including Wilson and Blair's attempts to wrap themselves in Attlee’s mantle and Corbyn’s version of Attlee focused on the NHS and the welfare state – Age of Hope is an incisive, informative look at a political party that has been fundamental in shaping modern Britain and will be equally instrumental in its future. Elections & Political Process Europe Great Britain Politics & Government Winston Churchill War Socialism England Government Capitalism Imperialism Soviet Union Royalty Taxation Africa British Empire Latin American
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Critic reviews

The clue to our future lies in our past and Toye has winkled it out with elegant and devastating precision. Anyone who wants to find the nuggets of hope in today's Britain as we approach a watershed election needs to read this book and see what pragmatic idealism achieved between 1945 and 1951. (Chris Bryant, MP for Rhondda)
This is a stunningly original revision of the Attlee government and its impact on British society. It's the best book I've read this year. (Frank Field, former MP for Birkenhead)
A hundred years since the first Labour Government, Richard Toye’s readable and persuasive study argues that while arguments over the party’s past have often shaped its future, Labour does best when it forgets old battles and finds a way to combine hope with pragmatism. The history of the era is highly contested, but the book does a masterly job of picking through the bitterness to understand what has worked in the past and has a reasonable chance of working in the future. (Anne Perkins, author of 'A Very British Strike' and 'Red Queen: The Authorized Biography of Barbara Castle')
This book illustrates how the key players in the Attlee Government combined their radical idealism and pragmatism to seize their moment and create such a sense of purpose and hope that was truly transformative and set the standard for all subsequent Labour administrations to live up to. (John McDonnell, MP for Hayes and Harlington)
All stars
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Detailed but not pedantic, gives a great description of the theory, practice and individual personalities involved in world-changing times of foreign policy as well as country-changing moves like the NHS. After a methodical book generally, ends on a note of hope that had me almost in tears.

Excellent, excellent breakdown of the most significant Labour government to date

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There are surveys of the c20 and discussions of this important post-war reforming government en passant, but nothing I know of that takes on the whole subject with enough detail not to exhaust the listener who may simply wish to get a handle on what happened, who the main characters were, and how the way was prepared.

These were statesmen and some women who set out to change what they could in their world to some lasting effect and Toye has done a great service not only in dealing with the period more or less chronologically, but with a depth of research and quotations in a manner both entertaining and discerning, without noticeable bias: just what a student might find useful and an informed and interested reader/listener can enjoy and learn from.
The reading is impeccable and sympathetic.

Perhaps the book is a little light on foreign and commonwealth affairs: what went wrong went seriously wrong in India and Palestine and though without an actual acquittal,
the line seems to be that Bevan did what he could whereas the reality was that the government all but cut and ran. It was honest, however, to have the supposedly useful and effective Malaya campaign set to rights.

A book like this is an introduction: we get the author’s personal take at the epilogue but otherwise, it’s a short book and he quite informally reviews most of the relevant major biographies since the 50’s.

A good book that fills a gap.

A comprehensive introduction

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