Rethinking Labour's Past

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Description

The Labour Party after Jeremy Corbyn is charting a new direction. Here, Nathan Yeowell has brought together a remarkable array of contributors to provide expert insight into twentieth-century British history and Labour politics and how they might shape thinking about Labours future. Reframing the span of Labour history and its effects on contemporary British politics, the book provides fresh thinking and analysis of various traditions, themes and individuals. These include the shifting significance of 1945, the need for more grounded interpretations of Tony Blairs legacy, and the enduring importance of place, identity and aspiration to the evolution of the party. Contributions from leading historians such as Patrick Diamond, Steven Fielding, Ben Jackson, Glen O Hara and Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite are supplemented by those with experience of Labour electoral politics, such as Rachel Reeves and Nick Thomas-Symonds. The result is an intellectually rich and politically relevant roadmap for Labour's future.

Reviews

The book all wings of the Labour Party have needed for years. Lively, rigorous, and robust, Nathan Yeowell has assembled a timely corrective to the factional mythmaking that is too often an impediment to the candour required to make sense of a contested history. Those serious about interrogating the partys traditions and remaking them for the 2020s should start here. A breath of fresh air. * Patrick Maguire, Political Reporter for The Times, author of Left Out: The Inside Story of Labour Under Corbyn *
A captivating, kaleidoscopic collection, packed with fresh thinking and new insights. Few volumes range as widely across Labour history, or bring together such an impressive range of authors. Rethinking Labours Past is essential reading for anyone interested in the past, present or future of the Labour Party. * Robert Saunders, Reader in British History, Queen Mary University of London, author of Yes to Europe! The 1975 Referendum and Seventies Britain *
Charting how leaders, intellectuals and activists navigated previous hinge points in Labour history, this excellent collection reconnects the partys present period of transition with those of generations past. Its cast of contributors showing renewed signs of life on the centre-left, Rethinking Labours Past reveals how, for successive modernizers, the starting point has been to first interpret a shifting world as a springboard to change it. * Frederick Harry Pitts, Lecturer in Work, University of Bristol, author of Corbynism: A Critical Approach *
If Labour is again to win political power it faces hard choices, as it has in the past. The essays in this well-written volume show how Labour has succeeded when it has faced up to those challenges, and not ducked them and why it has to do that again now. * Charles Clarke, former Labour Home Secretary, editor of British Labour Leaders *
As a historian, a Fabian and, latterly, a bit-player in some of this, I found every section a learning experience, and only regret this street map was not available earlier. * Dianne Hayter, former General Secretary of the Fabian Society, author of Fightback! Labours traditional right in the 1970s and 1980s *

Author Bio

Nathan Yeowell is Executive Director of Progressive Britain - the platform for policymaking, political education and imaginative thinking to rebuild Labour and the Nation. Prior to this, he was Head of Policy and External Affairs at the social sector think-tank New Philanthropy Capital and Head of the Labour Group Office at the Local Government Association.