The Tories: Conservatives and the Nation State, 1922-1997

by Alan Clark

Britain's most controversial historian and diarist on 75 years of the Conservative Party and its, in his view, failure to staunch the decline of Britain as a nation-state.

Genres: Politics, History, British Literature

416 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Alan Clark was an English Conservative MP, historian and diarist.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Paul Bennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was Clark’s “Big Book” and was published the year before his death. It is a highly readable if not comprehensive history of the 20th Century Conservative party.

Clark’s account of the downfall of Thatcher, as detailed in his diaries, is considered to be the most authoritative of all accounts and he covers it in more detail in those diaries than here.

Clark was an interesting man. He was born to wealth and had a famous father, Lord Clark “of Civilization “. He admired Hitler and Enoch Powell and in the 1970’s briefly considered throwing in his lot with the National Front. He was a snob and at the same time admired Dennis Skinner. He was a classic car aficionado and his writings on the subject are entertaining and informed. He was an appalling womanizer throughout his life and his long marriage. He never held a cabinet position although he was minister for trade and then defense procurement and did become a privy councillor. He was also a historian and writer.

Clark will be best remembered for his excellent diaries. The two volumes covering 1972-92 are particularly interesting.

I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone wanting to read a concise history of the dominant party in 20th Century British politics.

[Gareth Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well worth a read so long as you already know a bit of the background history/context. As the title suggests, this book focuses on the Tories in power and out, shedding light on internal machinations but sometimes, almost perversely ignoring other parties, especially when those other parties were in power.
In the end, or towards the end, it becomes a bit of a game, with the author drawing on his personal diaries and pontificating.
Nevertheless, this is an effective, if opinionated, and sometimes controversial overview of the Tory party from 1922 to 1997.
Overall, I would have preferred a less myopic view of the years covered but I certainly learned a lot about the internal structures of the party.
Unlikely to convince a floating voter to favour a blue rosette, and unlikely to be a popular choice of read in the aftermath of another Labour landslide but nevertheless, an entertaining and well written account that deserves attention.