NYE: The Political Life of Aneurin Bevan

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Aneurin - Nye - Bevan was one of the pivotal Labour Party figures of the post-war era in Britain. As Minister for Health in Attlee's government, his role in the foundation of the National Health Service, the world's largest publically-funded health service, changed the face of British society forever. The son of a coal miner from South Wales, Bevan was a life-long champion of social justice and the rights of working people, as such becoming one of the leading proponents of Socialist thought in Britain. In this book, acclaimed author Nicklaus Thomas-Symonds provides the first full biography of Bevan in over two decades. Drawing on first-hand interviews as well as recently released sources, he provides a unique portrait of one of the great British statesmen of the twentieth century.

Reviews

'Nicklaus Thomas- Symonds does a warts and all job and is interesting on Bevan's English-speaking Welshness.' -Denis MacShane; 'Thomas-Symonds distances himself both from the Nyolatry of early biographer Michael Foot and the castigation of right-wing successors whose chief objection to Bevan is that he was a socialist. He offers a genuine understanding of Bevan's political philosophy, of how his democratic socialism differed from the state-imposed model of the communists who were his sparring partners in his home town of Tredegar...[Bevan] is well served by this closely argued political biography.' - Jad Adams; 'Nicklaus Thomas-Symonds has written a well received biography of Attlee, and has now turned his skills to Nye. He steers a middle course between two previous biographies, the intimate and personal hagiography of Michael Foot, and the more critical one by John Campbell.' - Keith Simpson; '...deftly examining the structural circumstances in which Bevan operated...offers a convincing account of how Bevan threw the leadership away...his scholarship offers an unrivalled perspective on Bevan's life and political career adding much to the historiography on post war Labour politics.' - Patrick Diamond, TLS; '[a] fine new portrait.' - Belfast Telegraph; 'Thomas-Symonds gives a convincing revisionist account' - Owen Hatherley, London Review of Books; 'Nicklaus Thomas-Symonds' contribution to the scholarship is certainly both well-timed and necessary... Thomas-Symonds' examination of Bevan provides a new insight into a figure who has come to be regarded as one of the heroes of Labour-past to many on the political left...well written and accessible throughout... Unquestionably the best biography yet.' - Calum White, LSE Review of Books; 'magisterial' - David Marquand, New Statesman; '[a] lucid, well-researched biography... This is a warts and all biography, written by an Oxford academic, but mercifully free of academic jargon. It offers a balanced assessment of a complicated man.' - Chris Mullin, Observer; 'magisterial' David Marquand, New Statesman; '[a] lucid, well-researched biography...offers a balanced assessment of a complicated man.' Chris Mullin, Observer;'[Bevan] is well served by this closely argued political biography.' Jad Adams, Independent;'an unrivalled perspective on Bevan's life and political career.' Patrick Diamond, Times Literary Supplement; 'lucid...informative and balanced' Roger Morgan, Times Higher Education

Author Bio

Nicklaus Thomas-Symonds is Lecturer in politics at St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a practising barrister. He is the author of Attlee: A Life in Politics (I.B.Tauris).