Age of Hope
Labour, 1945, and the Birth of Modern Britain
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Age of Hope
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Narrated by:
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Charles Armstrong
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By:
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Richard Toye
About this listen
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.
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What listeners say about Age of Hope
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Dennis Sommers
- 22-10-23
A comprehensive introduction
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.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Ashleigh E. Jackson
- 15-05-24
Excellent, excellent breakdown of the most significant Labour government to date
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.
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