Clement Attlee: The Man Who Made Modern Britain

by John Bew

Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, Winston Churchill's wartime heroics and larger-than-life personality propelled him to the center of the world stage. To most, he remains Great Britain's greatest Prime Minister, his fame and charisma overshadowing those who followed in his footsteps. Yet while he presided over his country's finest hour, he was not its most consequential leader. In this definitive new biography, John Bew reveals how that designation belongs to Clement Attlee, Churchill's successor, who launched a new era of political, economic, and social reform that would forever change Great Britain.Bew's thorough and keen examination of Attlee, the former leader of the Labour Party, illuminates how his progressive beliefs shaped his influential domestic and international policy. Alternatively criticized for being "too socialist" or "not radical enough," Attlee's quiet tenacity was intrinsic to the success of his party and highly pertinent to British identity overall. In 1948, he established the National Health Service as part of his "British New Deal"-a comprehensive, universal system of insurance, welfare, and family allowances to be enjoyed by all British citizens. Attlee also initiated key advancements in international relations by supporting the development of both the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and by granting independence to India, Burma, and Ceylon. More controversially, he sanctioned the building of Britain's nuclear deterrent in response to the rise of the Soviet Union and the threat of atomic bombs. Clement The Man Who Made Modern Britain explores his tenure in the years after the war, as he presided over a radical new government in an age of austerity and imperial decline. Bew mines contemporary memoirs, diaries, and press excerpts to present readers with an illuminating and intimate look into Attlee's life and career. Attentive to both the man and the political landscape, this comprehensive biography provides new insight into the soul of a leader who transformed his country and by extension the vast empire over which it once ruled.

Genres: Biography, Politics, History, Nonfiction, British Literature, Audiobook, 20th Century

688 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2016

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

John Bew is Reader in History and Foreign Policy at the War Studies Department at King's College London and Director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence. In 2013 he became the Henry A. Kissinger Chair in Foreign Policy and International Relations at the Library of Congress. From 2007-10, Bew was Lecturer in Modern British History at Cambridge University, where he was also educated. He has published several books and papers, writes for the New Statesman, Irish Times, London Review of Books and Spectator, among others and appears regularly on television and radio including Newsnight, The Review Show, the Today Programme and Sky News. He is currently filming a documentary for the BBC on Lord Castlereagh. He lives in London, and lectures in political institutions around the world.

Reviews

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A relatively little-known figure today, Clement Attlee became leader of the Labour Party almost by accident but led it for 20 years. As Prime Minister from 1945-51, he led probably the most radical reformist government of any in the UK during the 20th century, one that created the UK’s welfare state and its government funded health service. There’s a quote on the front cover of this book from Robert Harris, about how people in Britain still live in the society shaped by Attlee. I’d largely agree, although Attlee saw himself as simply the captain of a team. For a politician, he scored remarkably low on pomposity and self-importance.

This is quite a long book, 564 pages (not counting the notes) and printed in a small font size. I found the beginning quite slow, although it does describe how the young Attlee, although born into privilege, developed a deep and lasting commitment to the eradication of the poverty that he saw everywhere in his youth. Attlee was a thoroughly decent man but was considered remote and uninspiring. In 1931 there was a massive split in the Labour Party when its leader, Ramsay MacDonald, responded to the Great Depression by agreeing a coalition with the Conservatives, in what became known as the “National Government”. The subsequent election was so one-sided it threatened the future of British democracy, with the National Government winning 554 out of 615 seats. Labour was left with just 46 seats, and almost all of the Party’s “big hitters” lost theirs. Attlee managed to cling on (just) to his seat in London’s working-class East End, and became leader as there was almost no-one else left.

One characteristic of Attlee was his patriotism. Traditionally those on the left of the Labour Party have tended to sneer at patriotism, something which has been a source of tension between the party and its historically working-class supporters. Attlee served in and was wounded during WW1, and in WW2 he acted as Deputy Prime Minister to Churchill in the wartime coalition. Although a patriot, he was not an imperialist, and another notable feature of his time as PM was his realisation that it was time for Britain to withdraw from the South Asian part of its empire. India, Pakistan, Burma and Ceylon (as was) all gained independence between August 1947 and February 1948.

Attlee’s landslide victory in the 1945 general election arose from a huge ideological shift in Britain during WW2. There was very much a feeling that the sacrifices of the war years had to mean something, and that the country could not return to the terrible years of the 1930s. It’s not mentioned in this book, but I think this mood is perfectly captured in George MacDonald Fraser’s book Quartered Safe Out Here, when he describes the feelings of the soldiers in Burma who were voting by post in the General Election.

The Labour government delivered on its promises, but the country had bankrupted itself during the war, and the new welfare state had to be funded from American loans, to be repaid at interest. The last of these was only repaid in 2006. Even with the loans the country’s economic situation was desperate, and Labour lost power in 1951. Throughout his time as leader Attlee suffered incessant criticism from the left of the party, especially from Aneurin Bevan and Stafford Cripps. Bevan is a cult figure amongst many members of the modern Labour Party, but the author is noticeably critical, portraying him as hysterical, consistently disloyal to Attlee, and generally guilty of behaviour damaging to the party.

My review is a totally inadequate summary of this in-depth biography, which on the whole I found excellent. The author is generally very sympathetic to his subject whilst not falling into hagiography. I would recommend this to those who have an interest in British political history, although given the length of the book, it would probably be for those with a fairly strong interest.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leader of the Labour Party for twenty years and defeated Churchill in the general election immediately after the war, then presiding over one of the most radical governments Britain has ever had. Yet who knows much about “Old Clem” and his press is not inspiring as can be seen from some of the below:
“A sheep in sheep’s clothing”
“A modest little man with much to be modest about” (Churchill).
“An empty taxi drew up to No. 10 Downing Street and Attlee got out.”
This is an excellent biography of an underrated and misunderstood politician. Attlee was born in 1883 to a middle class household who was brought up to believe in Conservatism and Imperialism. Bew charts his move to socialism and his work as a social worker in the East End of London before the First War. He served in the first war, being injured at Gallipoli and went into politics after the war through the Labour Party.
This is a comprehensive work that looks at the man as well as the politician. He was frequently an object of derision, not seen as an intellectual, remarkably unremarkable. And yet he brought the Labour Party into the National Government during the war, acting as Chuchill’s deputy throughout. He was a contrast to Churchill’s self-glamourisation and showmanship. Quietly working behind the scenes to get things done.
After winning the 1945 election he presided over the beginning of the end of Empire (India in particular), the construction of the welfare state (which the Tories have been trying to demolish over the last forty years or so) and an extensive programme of nationalisation. This included the setting up of the National Health Service. He was wise enough to give Nye Bevan his head and let him get on with the job without meddling. Attlee saw the Welfare State as something like Roosevelt’s New Deal.
Of course given the list of issues Attlee had to deal with there were areas where there were problems. Attlee ensured Britain was firmly part of NATO and was clear about the need to stay close to the US (and to develop the atomic bomb). Attlee was a gradualist when it came to ending Empire and there were obvious problems with Indian independence as the bloodshed linked to partition shows. There is also a limited amount of information about the issues surrounding the issue of Palestine and the creation of the state of Israel, which the British were involved in. Even in a biography over five hundred pages long there still wasn’t room to cover these in depth.
It does though give a picture of Attlee and his role in guiding the Labour Party through some very difficult waters.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Citizen Clem – The Sheep that Roared

Clement Attlee over the years, not only since his death in 1967, but also throughout his life time has been underappreciated, even by his own biographers, who either damned him with faint praise, or attacked his record, or the person ‘a sheep in sheep’s clothing’. The Labour Party itself has always had an ambiguous relationship with Attlee, despite the great electoral and legislative successes he presided over. Frank Field MP rightly stated in 2009 that the political class in Britain ‘have a too limited an appreciation of Attlee’s values’.

John Bew shows why he is not only a highly regarded professor of history and an award winning writer with Citizen Clem. Unlike previous biographies Clem, Bew does not just focus on Attlee the politician but also Attlee the man and has not be held prisoner to view him via the prism of 1945. Bew shows that Attlee was one of the Labour Party’s formative pilgrims, who from a position of privilege, used that to fight for the people of the East End, whom he lived and served amongst from 1906.

Bew also shows that the attack that usually came from the left that used to say Attlee had no hidden depths, had no intellectual substance or serious political thought and that he was nothing but an empty vessel, were vacuous. Through excellent scholarship he consciously gets to the depths of Attlee the person which were the foundation of Attlee the politician, and shows the depths of Attlee others either ignore or never bothered to investigate.

Before Attlee even entered Parliament he came to recognise that there needed to be two principles that guided the Labour Party, patience and tolerance, something the Party has always had problems with. Rather Attlee found that Kier Hardie’s approach to achieving socialism was far more appealing than that of utopianism or intellectualism. Having worked with the Webbs, he came to understand that the Fabian approach to politics showed the inherent limitations of intellectualism. Attlee also found that a mistake socialist intellectuals made (and still make e.g. Brexit) was assuming that something they found distasteful would be equally so to others.

Bew shows that not only being a soldier in the First World War, as well as being a social worker in Stepney and the east end, deeply affected everything that Attlee did in later years. Bew shows that from his work in the east end the recognition that improving conditions for workers, such as wages and work hours, insurance and healthcare was the first battle the labour movement and the Party not only needed to fight and win, ran deep within Attlee.

Bew also reminds us that Attlee began his career as Ramsey McDonalds PPS and supported him in 1924, even in the General Strike in 1926, it was MacDonald’s betrayal of the Party in 1931 which was one of the bitterest blows for Attlee. But Attlee remained a loyal Party man, whereas people forget that Herbert Morrison was offered a job in the National Government as was that great left-winger who joined the Labour Party in 1930, Stafford Cripps, both prevaricated for a week, before finally turning MacDonald down.

When Attlee became leader in 1935 Bew reminds us that at no time had he ever lobbied for the position, and even the Daily Mail struggled to paint the Labour Party as dangerous. What must be remembered that it was Attlee that led the attacks on appeasement and that it was Attlee who would later place Churchill in Downing Street. Even when war came not only did Attlee have to lead the Party he still had to fight his own MPs!

Citizen Clem reminds us that we still live in a world that is heavily influenced by the works of Attlee, and that the post-war consensus with both the United Nations and Nato came about through his work and determination after the war. But in Britain when we look what was created under Attlee’s guidance, the National Health Service, the Welfare State, National Insurance. We are reminded that no British Government since Attlee led, has been as active in terms of legislation passed, especially when it came to changing the relationship between the state on society.

One thing that is clear from this excellent biography is that Attlee was very adept in the arts of modern elections, probably more so than many of his critics, and that he was always held in high esteem by the public. One thing Attlee did fear, and this was in 1955, that the political leaders were less in touch with the man in the street than they were 50 years prior, despite the populism of mass media and broadcasting, somethings do not change clearly.

John Bew makes it clear that throughout his life Attlee never saw himself as a hero, never claimed credit, for what others did within his government. What comes through is that something that Attlee was proud of was the fulfilment of three main strands in politics; one to atone for the betrayal of those who sacrificed themselves in World War One. It was a mission fulfilled that the promises made to those in World War Two were kept in 1945; secondly, that his government had fulfilled its mission on social legislation; finally, mission fulfilled was to bring an end to Queen Victoria’s British Empire and turn it in to the Commonwealth.

The story of the Labour Party in the 20th Century, is not defined by what Tony Blair, Harold Wilson or Jim Callaghan did, but by pioneers such as Attlee. Much of what we British hold dear about our society a quiet, somewhat shy and unassuming man got on with the job and proved that a sheep can roar, and that roar has left its mark on British politics today.

The number of books on Churchill has created an imbalance in many people’s understanding of the twentieth century, its wars and its governments. It was in a debate with Attlee that Churchill declared that history would be kind to him, because he intended to write it. Attlee was an equal to Churchill, who has delivered a lasting change for the many, rather than the few.

John Bew has written one of the best political and historical biographies, that deals with all aspects of Clement Attlee’s life, good and bad. This is one of the most honest, and balanced accounts of Attlee’s life that I have read and uses a wide range of sources to give plenty of colour to a Prime Minister often over looked. As the Labour Party fights amongst itself once again, as Morrison referred to it as a suicide club, Attlee knew that the Labour Party needed to compromise and that the purism of Morris and Marx was incompatible with delivering a better Britain.

Simply a stunning and brilliant biography of Clement Attlee, a socialist who delivered for the people of Britain.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

We have had some great politicians and Prime Ministers over the years and, how should I put this, some less than great ones too. Especially recently… Go back a few years though and you will find most political leaders of our country were also great statesmen too, working for the greater good of the country regardless of their particular hue of party. Several politicians spring to mind, but one that doesn't often is Clement Richard Attlee. Born in 1883 in Putney to Henry Attlee and Ellen nee Watson, he was the seventh of eight children. He was educated at Northaw School, then Haileybury College; and before getting a degree in modern history from University College, Oxford. From there he trained as a barrister and worked at his father's company and was called to the bar in 1906. 

He served in The Great War, whilst his brother Tom was imprisoned for being a conscientious objector but was fortunate twice to escape heavy action that saw a lot of his regiment perish. The law was not where his passion lay though, having seen the poverty in the East End of London it inspired him to become politically active and he was first elected to the House of Commons in 1922 as the MP for Limehouse. Two years later he became a junior minister and a few years after that became a cabinet minister for the first time. Shortly after in 1931, the Labour Party were defeated in a general election, but Attlee held his seat. Four years later he was to become the leader of that party.

As tensions rose in Europe in the 1930s, he preferred pacifism and opposed rearmament, but was later to reverse his position. He became a strong critic of Chamberlain's attempts to appease Hitler and Mussolini and after war broke out joined the war coalition serving under Churchill as Deputy Prime Minister. In 1945 after the end of the war in Europe the, coalition fractured and a general election was called.  Churchill expected to win, but he didn't, and Attlee had a landslide victory.  His time as Prime Minister would prove to be the most progressive of all that held that position that century.

Bew has studied his subject in almost intimate detail and not just the written about the time that he spent as Prime Minister. The thorough research goes into the background that drove this fairly unassuming man to the political stance and outlook that he took consistently all his life. There are snippets and anecdotes that fill in the gaps from the official stories as well as lots of details from the life that he lived outside politics. It also goes some way to disproving the claim from those that opposed him that he had no intellectual or political footing, instead it shows a man of strong principles and rigour. For anyone with an interest in political history, this is a balanced and objective view of a man who should be considered the most radical PM of the 20th century.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Few thought he was even a starter.
There were many in life who were smarter.
But he finished PM,
A CH, an OM,
An earl and a Knight of the Garter."

Clement Attlee's autobiographical limerick summarizes well the course of his remarkable political career. From his early years as a social worker in London's East End and his service in the First World War he entered the House of Commons, where he rose steadily until the fracturing of Labour Party with the formation of the National government in 1931 and the subsequent general election wiped out nearly all of the party's parliamentary leadership. Having weathered the crisis as one of the few remaining former cabinet ministers still in Parliament, Attlee became the party's leader in 1935, where he enjoyed a remarkable twenty-year tenure that saw him lead the party into coalition with the Conservatives during the Second World War, then to a massive electoral victory in 1945 that made possible the establishment of Britain's postwar welfare state.

John Bew is not the first historian to write about Attlee's life, but his biography is easily one of the best. It is in many ways an intellectual portrait of the man, charting the development of his socialist views and patriotic attitudes and showing how they shaped his career. The title itself hints at his overall argument, which is that Attlee's patriotism and sense of duty is key to understanding his popularity and political success. It shows just how remarkable of a figure he was, one who, for all his modest, unassuming nature, dominated so many of the political titans of his age.

[Elliot Hughes · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone whose childhood happened mainly during Blair and Brown's New Labour, this was a great read on Clement Attlee's life. The book tracks his journey from a young conservative transitioning from belief in imperialism to socialism. It follows the rise of the Labour movement and entrance into government, as well as how he managed the conflicting sides of the party to keep it together and implement radical legislation. Although, for some, Attlee's government didn't go far enough.

I began to mature politically (take an active interest in politics) around the early to mid-2010s when we had the Brexit and Scottish independence referendums. After this, the UK itself has felt increasingly chaotic politically. So, comparing the party's positions during Attlee's time and the past has been intriguing. Under Corbyn, Labour was accused of antisemitism; during Attlee's time, elements of the left favoured the Zionists. Corbyn was labelled unpatriotic (does anyone remember the BBC's Russian hat photoshop?). One of Attlee's attributes was his patriotism (something that I'd say Starmer is trying to cultivate for himself currently).

While I'm interested in history, this was also a good look into the government during WWII. It feels as though education in the UK does revolve around WWII and mainly focuses on Churchill as a personality, the US entrance into the war, the Blitz, and a few battles. With that in mind, it was fascinating to read about the coalition government, the forces within it, the Labour and Conservative backbenchers and their attacks on the government, and Attlee and Churchill's relationship and admiration of each other which continued after the war.

After finishing, it feels as though he is underappreciated in the history of the UK. Hopefully, this will change as time goes on.

[John Bohnert · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm so glad that I read this interesting biography of Clement Attlee.

[Domhnall · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I shall die with lots of poetry in my heart and perhaps on my lips." [p545]

“He was one of the last prominent Victorians in public life to pass away” [p543]

Attlee, born in 1883 to an affluent family, was educated at a minor public (meaning private, fee paying) school, then Cambridge University, before qualifying to practice law and with a financial legacy to sustain him. His family shared strong commitments to public service and raised no objections when Attlee soon switched from a legal career to social work in Limehouse, an impoverished district in East London, where direct personal contact exploded misconceptions about the nature of poverty and instilled a deep admiration for the hard work and social cohesion that made working class life (marginally) possible in the face of intolerable burdens and unfair odds. Attlee soon extended his interest to politics and the account of the formation of the Labour Party and the disparate groups it brought together over several decades is interesting, albeit sketchy. In this way he established the political values which remained central to the rest of his life, founded on practical experience rather than political theory; indeed, he never did master economics as such and his socialism was never based on Marxism, but on local politics and trade-unionism.

Attlee served with distinction as a volunteer soldier in the First World War. He only just survived the Gallipoli campaign and emerged with the odd conviction that Churchill was strategically correct in planning this assault, blaming the generals for poor implementation; Bew never points out that this places Attlee in a very small minority, or ever dwells on the evidence that the campaign was a disaster and its location inherently ill conceived, but this did have great significance later when Attlee supported Churchill in the Second World War. Attlee also served in front line positions in Iraq – being wounded in another ill conceived campaign - and in France – fortunately to see victory - and was very lucky to survive. It is impossible to neglect these extraordinary experiences when considering his personality.

Attlee formed the conviction that the people of Britain fought this war as citizens regardless of social class and were entitled to feel betrayed when they returned home to slum housing and endemic unemployment. He served the growing Labour Party in local and national politics, before unexpectedly being called on to lead the tiny group of Labour MPs surviving in Parliament after the great betrayal by which Ramsay Macdonald formed a so called National Government and secured an overwhelming parliamentary majority from which to try and fail to lead Britain out of the Great Depression. It was the Conservatives who were able to form the next government, but Attlee’s Labour had restored its fortunes sufficiently to secure a role as full partners in Churchill’s wartime coalition from 1940, with Atlee as effectively deputy PM.

Labour’s role in the wartime coalition – and not least their contribution to creating and administering an effective wartime economy – reflected the presence around Attlee of a number of very strong Labour politicians, notably Ernest Bevin, and this provided the necessary platform from which the 1945 Labour Government was given the mandate to restore a peacetime economy that was centrally planned and designed above all to secure full employment and the basis of a welfare state, largely as prescribed by Beveridge. Attlee had worked from the outset to ensure that Britain had clear and ambitious war aims and in the five years after 1945 he was able to deliver everything he had promised and all, indeed that he had aspired to from his early days as a social worker in East London. Any attempt to present Attlee as anything other than a socialist and a radical is just wrong.

Attlee also formed the view that international affairs must be transformed. He was instrumental in securing the founding of the United Nations, the introduction of concepts of international law prevailing over national interests, and replacing the British Empire with a Commonwealth of independent, democratic nation states sharing at least some core values. Securing independence for India and Pakistan was probably his major achievement, withdrawal from Palestine while handing over key decisions to the United Nations was possibly the least worst outcome available to him there in the face of US intransigence. He worked hard to ensure that the United States accepted international responsibilities and did not revert to isolationism, but he also worked without scruple to secure an independent atom bomb for Britain, having formed the view that without such a deterrent Britain could be easily and without ceremony wiped out. He accepted as inevitable that Britain must contribute to the Korean War when it broke out, though he was critical of American behaviour in that war and was annoyed by American intransigence over recognising China’s communist regime once it had clearly assumed full control. America’s hatred of communism was capable of leading to irrational and dangerous policies.

Britain ended the Second World War effectively bankrupt. Attlee’s Labour government was forced to rely on borrowing from the USA to survive economically, on terms which were extremely onerous and arguably harmful to Britain’s long term interests. External commitments, including those to Germany’s ruined economy, drained resources that could be ill afforded; India’s independence deprived Britain of soldiers who had previously played a crucial role around the globe; the Korean War was another unwelcome and unaffordable demand which could only be met through fresh austerity at home. In any case, a bankrupt Britain could only purchase the food and raw materials it required so long as it earned a sufficient income through exported manufactured goods, and that forced the Labour Government to continue to restrain wages and consumer spending. Despite these constraints, it was still possible to nationalise key infrastructure, to deliver full employment, to institute a range of welfare supports, to invest in education, to build new homes of good quality and in huge numbers, and to announce in 1948 the successful launch of a National Health Service.

“Attlee had now led the party into five general elections over twenty years. The first, in 1935, had seen it recover from near annihilation four years earlier; the results in 1945 and 1950 were the best in its history and, even in 1951, despite losing power, Labour had won the largest share of the vote.”[p530] This is an electoral record that any modern politician, certainly any Labour leader, would want to understand and emulate. Even at its best, however, about a third of working class voters were voting Conservative, while middle class voters and others could always be attracted to the Conservatives by the prospect of enjoying their advantages. The impression is that Labour lost power when enough voters grew tired of austerity and saw an opportunity for greater personal reward, regardless of any abstract greater good. It is less complicated to say the Tories won by appealing to greed.

Throughout this book there is a theme to the effect that what Attlee did for Labour was to appeal to a middle class vote that was not attracted to socialist policies. This is where the book becomes less about Attlee and more about contemporary political debate, circa 2016. Not enough people appreciate Attlee’s historical achievements and this book does a great job to remedy that failing and set out a clear account of his career. But if it is not clear enough while reading the main text, with its recurring jibes about the failings of the Left in the Labour movement, then the epilogue makes it more clear and the new preface, added in 2017 to comment on the campaign to elect Jeremy Corbyn as Labour Leader, places it beyond doubt. This book about the past is written to influence today’s debates about the future of Labour in Britain.

In a telling phrase, Bew writes; “As the ‘old left’ faded in the late 1950s,... there was a complete rejection of the tradition of moderate, reformist, democratic socialism which Attlee had come to embody.” [p599] He refers on the same page to “the type of left-wing intellectuals who sneered at the simplistic patriotism of men like Attlee.” Bew seems to be erecting a sort of golden age in the past when Labour had better leadership than the modern crew of pretenders, as if we could bring back Clem Attlee in all his unique complexity and invite him to resume control of affairs. This is neither rational nor helpful.

The past has a rock-solid facticity that is immutable. It is not just that we cannot change the past, but that the past is constituted from a vast series of singular events each of which might have been otherwise. The fact that Attlee acted one way and achieved a given outcome does not demonstrate the merit of trying to repeat the same trick in different – or even in similar circumstances. It also does not demonstrate that a different course of action might not have been better. The fact that Attlee’s leadership was beneficial in the way it was is interesting – it is a statement about what did happen – but it does not demonstrate the implications of an alternative. I am prepared to accept that I do not know if a different course of action might have been better but I am not prepared to simply grant that Attlee (or Bew writing about Attlee) was invariably correct, or that his critics were certainly wrong.

There were lots of occasions when Attlee was simply lucky and might not be so lucky again. If we must argue that he made his own luck, which is not a logical proposition as it happens (for many things it is nonsense), then we are at least entitled to suggest that he made his own bad luck too. Take for example his apparent failure to develop a new generation of leaders to succeed himself and his trusted associates, or the extent to which at the end of his administration he seemed to have run out of steam. Was he really surrounded by lesser mortals or was he actually limiting their room to grow?

If Bew tries to make Attlee into a fetish, he also tries to make too many others into clowns. To take a single instance, he acknowledges at one point that Aneurin Bevan had successfully brought the NHS into being, a monumental administrative achievement, while Attlee had no administrative achievement to his credit, comparable or otherwise. With this example in mind, and only for the sake of an example, it is one thing to emphasise that Bevan was an utterly different type of political animal to Attlee, quite another thing to insist that Attlee was wise while Bevan was foolish to the point of being a political child. It is all very well to complain that Bevan lacked the gravitas and seriousness that Attlee brought to the task of leading, but he also lacked the appalling social failings and the deplorable communication skills that made Attlee such a surprising choice. The only thing that we can learn from this is that every person specification for a political leader is nonsensical; if Attlee could lead successfully despite lacking the requirements of a leader, why not Bevan?

Bew refers to the Left in Labour as “sectarian” as though their opponents were something other than sectarian. He deplores fragmentation in the Labour Party as though somehow politics was a great career choice for people with mild manners and moderate emotions, or Conservatives were a model of team play. He makes great play of Attlee’s lack of Marxist inclinations while conceding that his failure to investigate economics was a significant weakness in a prime minister leading a programme of national economic planning.

This reasoning just does not work to my mind. I learned a lot about Attlee and for this I am grateful to Bew, but I decline to draw the implications that Bew does from what I have learned. Look it’s just annoying to see history manipulated to serve sectarian interests. The discussion of Left and Right in Labour history is certainly interesting but should be played out in the open with a proper account of the issues and the competing strands. This excellent history of Attlee’s career is certainly useful background for such a discussion but I cannot evaluate Attlee without a fair and balanced examination of the people around him.

[Matthew Le Croissette · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best biographies (I’m told) are those that leave you feeling like you have the measure of the man, not just his place in history. I’ve come away from this book with a better understanding of the events that shaped post-war Britain, but also with a deep appreciation for the man himself - Clem Attlee - who changed the face of Britain not with flashing oratory or charismatic leadership, but as a steady yet bold man with great integrity and wisdom. This is a long book, but well paced and well worth reading.

[Rachel Louise Atkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a really informative and relevant biography to read. I started it after the December 2019 election because I needed some socialist discourse in my life and read it fairly slowly since then and through the first months of this year.

I didn't really find this got interesting until Attlee became Prime Minister. His background and life growing up was good to know and I did like to see how he was first introduced to socialist politics. But all of the stuff in-between was pretty average. I would've loved to read a lot more in depth about his time as PM because I felt as though this was only a short section of the book as it had to deal with so many years before and after. There was also way too much Churchill in this for me - I know he was a large part of Attlee's life but a lot of this book seemed to discuss them as a duo and I can't be arsed reading about that Tory boy.

It did make me feel kind of sad as Bew makes the argument that we've never ever seen a politician like Attlee since. I agree in that Attlee had a strange way of appealing to the working class without seeming too radical, yet the ideas he introduced came from the very heart of his socialist values and leanings. The NHS and Welfare State were absolutely life-changing for some people and if it wasn't for Thatcher I think the legacy of his socialist policies would be a lot stronger today and there would perhaps be less hatred towards the left from the working class.

A good biography for people interested in this sort of thing although like I said there were some parts a lot more less interesting than others.

[Lewis Smart · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Good old Clem"

John Bew's portrait of Clement Attlee is a fine work on bringing Great Britain's most transformational politician and statesman into the 21st Century.

A man who saw the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, fought in WW1 and who involved himself in the social work amongst the poverty of the East End of London is the embodiment of Britain's change throughout the first 50 years of the 20th century.

Bew documents Attlee's work amongst the early Labour greats such as the Webbs and while Attlees' patriotism is a theme and distinguishing mark throughout, the underlying message, never said explicitly so much, is that Attlee was a revolutionary in terms of his economic and social outlook.

While this man was seen as a great mediocrity by people such a Aneuran Bevan, the book is a testament to how extraordinary ordinariness can be when that quality is underlined by courage, thoughtfulness and modesty in effecting change. While Attlee is not remembered as one of the "big three" at Potsdam, arguably it doesnt matter because Attlee's testament is that we, as British people, subconsciously pay homage to him everytime we walk into a hospital for free, receive help whenever we fall on hard times and when we send our kids to school in order to do better than their parents.

This is where the book succeeds most. It shows how a bald little man led britain through it's most transformational time after an exhausting war and set the tone of british politics until today in 2020 when both parties fought the recent election over who could be trusted with the NHS.

Bew also shows how interesting Clem's political character was and how Attlee managed firebrand characters like Bevan, Morrison and Cripps and outlasted them all, which incidentally serves as a potent lesson for politicians today.

If politicians really want to serve their country and effect change, then quiet and solid determination and a touch of modesty can actually go a long way and is potentially a useful personality trait in prolonging ones longevity in politics. Even churchill's gigantic and capable character was only really fully served by the external events of WW2. In this vein, Bew documents well how Churchill's character in peacetime politics led him to appear smaller than when he was at his best during the war.

Bew does seem to miss the bottom up pressures of society during Attlee's tenure as Prime Minister. The public and civil society are almost invisible while great change takes place above them but as a biography of one man that can probably be severe by reading books such as "The Five Giants" by Nicholas Timmins.

Overall, this book is a great testament to a man who should be in every British textbook and while he is fundamentally of a different time, the Labour Party in 2020 can take vital lessons from him about service, humility and dedication rather than the curre t resentment, jealousies and zealotry which seems to be rife within it today.

[Sarthak Bhatt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing biography, I was able to understand everything even though I knew a little about British politics the author also explains Attlee economic policy and crisis in clear terms so that a man like me who only know a bit about the economy can understand what's going on. The best thing about it was seeing the independence of India from Attlee's perspective, being an Indian I know a lot about the personality of Gandhi, Nehru, Bose and others but I always remember in my 10th standard history book a line "praise must be given to prime minister Attlee for his timely decision" I just read it and I don't know why but it stayed with me, then last year I saw the crown and was introduced to his character(he was only in 1 episode alas!!) So I finally decided to read about him and I am glad I did.

Attlee was a complex man who was born into a well to do family but converted to socialism he wasn't a radical socialist but nor was he an imperialist his views on India and other colonies are very different from that racist, bigoted, fat and good for nothing bloater Churchill and at the end of the book I had a high opinion of Mr Attlee.

In his foreign policy, he relied mainly on his friend and colleague Ernie Bevin whom he appointed as foreign secretary, At one point Attlee even took Truman for a ride and Acheson was left flummoxed. His cabinet handed Korea well and on economic conditions, he had very able men like Hugh Gaitskell and Stafford Cripps(whom I came to like immensely he came to India in 1942 on something called the Cripps mission which is a part of every standard Indian history book and I am trying to find a good biography of him too). His government faced 3 economic crises and always prevailed somehow although most of his ministers were overworked and died soon after(Cripps and Bevin died within a year after labour defeat). Overall it's a nice book and a good read.

Ps--I know this review is cluttered but I am sorry this is how I usually write. If you've reached the end I thank you and please forgive me for the migraine you got after reading this!!

[Jonny Thomson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, that was a beast! Alongside the Hitler biography I read earlier this year, I suspect this might be one of the longest single books I've read, and yet I never felt it was turgid, slow or filling space.
The life of Clement Attlee, of course, bridges some of the most volitile, transitory and fascinating moments in British, and world, history. The end of empire, two world wars, tectonic global changes, the rise of America and the USSR and characters like Churchill, FDR, Hitler, Stalin... What a background!

The sections on his earlier life I found remarkable in the outline of the man who I was surprised to note how gentrified and middle-class his upbringing and life was; a lawyer father, Haileybury private school, Oxford, and then the Bar - he would have seemed to have "Tory" written all over him. It's amazing, really, how his entire political philosophy, and that which would go on to motivate his premiership between 45-51, was essentially a Damascene moment of helping out in Stepney at his Old Boys charity. From there, he was essentially an educated socialist of the parliamentary/democratic Morris and Ruskin mould rather than Marx or Lenin's more militant revolutionary ideology.

His rise to political power was down to, predominantly, a combination of being a respected work horse, an educated but pragmatic socialist but, most crucially, a rather beige consensus figure that could be equally agreeable to all the polarised aspects of the highly multifarious Labour party (as an aside, it is interesting to note throughout all the parrallels between then and today - the more things change, the more things stay the same).

The WW2 years were well written - artfully weaving the wartime events and their effect on Attlee. It was interesting how big a role Attlee himself played but also it was principally the Labour ministers who were left to choreograph much of the 'home front' economy e.g. labour, factories and food production. Attlee comes over well in this period as one who is happy to let Winston Churchill take the limelight, but never one to shirk from responsibility if it's due e.g. his arresting of Indian nationalists.

As to his triumphant post-war win, I knew the names Bevan, Bevin and Attlee before, but I was largely ignorant of the other huge players in the huge 190+ majority government of 1945: Morrison (who comes over as rather a snake at times, but ultimately hard working and assiduous), Cripps (the more academic socialist in a Revolutionary Marxist mould), Dalton, Addison, and Lawson. All had massive briefs, and all were given freedom and responsibility, and all mostly rose to the task (in fact, it only seems as if Shinwell of all the cabinet - in charge of fuel and power - had a nightmare leading to the fuel shortages in 48).
Their challenges and their successes were legion: nuclear weapons, rebuilding houses, the NHS, reforming the welfare system to national insurance, Palestine, India, Loans from America/dollar convertibility, food shortages, nascent bolshie USSR, disarmament/demobilisation, free state education and ultimately Suez/Korea/Iran. I mean it really puts modern governments tribulations into perspective.

It was dark and tragically telling how much the war and all this took their toll by 49/50. There is one passage which lists how Bevin had a heart condition (dying in 51), Attlee had stomach ulcers and prostate issues, Cripps' stomach cancer, and Dalton was addicted to prescription drugs. The government wasn't so much ousted by the Tories in 51, it simply keeled over.

There are two reasons that the book loses a star for me:
1) It never really goes into the minutae of the greatest successes of the Labour government - i.e. the state school system, the NHS and National Insurance. This may have been a blessing if it proved to be byzantine and dull but I can't help but come away feeling as if there was a gaping hole.
2) This really ought to be subtitled "a political biography" as probably only 5% of the book is given to Attlee's private life, his interests and his character. This may be because he was so closed and possibly dull that there isn't anything there, but I never felt I got a real flavour for who he is. I didn't even know his siblings had died until a throw away line or two near the end!

So...A really nice book that taught me a lot, revised a lot, and opened a few debates. I'm not sure I agree with John Bew's assessment that Attlee alone was the reason for Labour's success - I do feel the scale of the victory and the shifts in British society would have made any Labour leader win, but I do feel as if Attlee is an overlooked, underappreciated and misunderstood character. It is probably fair to say that he was not a Strong Leader in the mould of today, but given Britain had just seen off the 'fuhrer ideology' and given that Labour's last 'strong leader' proved to be a disaster in Ramsey MacDonald, I suspect he was just the right man for the job and the right time.

[Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another 500+ page political biography - staying on brand.

A great read, telling the story of one of the most consequential political leaders in British history.

I've spoken about this book to people while & since reading it, or they've seen me reading it and looked at the blurb, and they're shocked by the range of accomplishments to his name (founding the NHS, helping start NATO, starting the end of Empire, Deputy PM during WW2, etc.). Lots of them have never heard of him, or only vaguely recollect the name. Contrast this with his great political friend and adversary, Churchill, and it's even more of a ludicrous oversight by popular culture.

I can see how it happens, too. In 'The Crown', Attlee barely gets a mention even when he's PM, and the casual references to him are mostly belittling. It fits the general mould of Attlee coverage - mostly a) ignored, or b) seen as unimpressive and his achievements mostly the product of others' (e.g. Bevan, Churchill).

So I really enjoyed fully immersing myself in the life of Clem.

It's a very personal biography, focusing on Attlee as a character and his attitudes and perspective throughout his long political life (he was Labour leader for 20 years, 1935-55, while Churchill was his counterpart from 1940-55). The book brilliantly brings him to life. You see him clearly as a cricket fan, a highly unorthodox political leader, a genuinely shy and humble character, and a really dedicated public servant. It's pretty impossible not to like him after reading this, which is probably why, although most people don't overly praise him, you'll be hard pressed to find anyone who actually criticises him nowadays.

His time in power is pretty extraordinary. He rises through the ranks after Labour's worst ever defeat (1931), a crushing loss after their PM, Macdonald, left the party to set up a coalition with the Tories. He pretty much found himself in charge by chance in 1935, as there was almost no one else left. And there he stayed, for 20 years! He made gains of around 100 in 1935, then a frankly incredible swing of 220+ seats in 1945 against Churchill in the flush of victory. In the meantime, he had toppled Neville Chamberlain and helped install Churchill as PM in 1940, in what proved to be a pretty spot-on call.

That's the theme that runs through Attlee's life - his judgement calls were unbelievably good. Backing Churchill both initially and throughout the war (despite much criticism from the left), bringing Bevan into government (despite Bevan's very public hostility to Attlee for the preceding 10 years), backing NATO, and so on. His ability to work with people from genuinely across the entire spectrum, and with those who'd been publicly very rude to him, towards a common good is pretty remarkable. His lack of ego is astonishing.

To show just how unegotistic he was, his favourite cartoon was a 1940 Evening Standard picture 'All Behind You, Winston', which shows him rolling up his sleeves behind Churchill at the dawn of the new government, showing an attitude of getting to work to win the war. I simply cannot imagine any modern British party leader going into coalition with their opponents, never mind seeing it as the pinnacle of their achievements (which he did - unbelievably, given what came next), or revelling being second-in-command.

Many commentators on the blurb lament that none of our modern leaders are 'like Attlee'; 'we need a new Attlee' etc. To be blunt, we're never going to get another one. The British system and modern politics don't lend themselves towards shy, humble and personally unambitious men like Clem, and it's frankly a bizarre fluke of history that we got one as PM in the first place.

My main criticism of the book is that it's overly personality-focused. The elections he fights are often reduced to a couple of pages, with no real analysis of the votes won and lost. It goes into none of the strategy of e.g. Blair's or Mandela's autobiographies. The purpose of the book isn't an electoral analysis, but there was surely room for it given the size.

Similarly, the book is pretty light on legislative detail, focusing more on the personalities and outside forces involved than the final bills. I didn't learn much at all about e.g. Labour's post-war housing policies, which was disappointing.

But overall it was deeply fascinating, and I could bang on and on about it for ages (as you can see by the length of this review).

4.5 / 5

[Andrew Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting biography of Clement Attlee, a British Prime Minister from 1945 to 1951. A life-long labour activist, he was a son of a wealthy London solicitor. After attending University of Oxford, he practised as a barrister. His voluntary work with poor of London's East End made him join the Independent Labour Party and give up his legal career. He began lecturing at the London School of Economics, took part in the First World War and in 1919 became mayor of Stepney. In 1922 was elected as the Member for Limehouse. The biography covers all his career and private life with a great deal of details. Despite his unappealing looks and an average voice, and because of his cool deportment, personal honesty and modesty and wise judgement be led the Labour Party for 20 years and was its first post-war Prime Minister between 1945 and 1951. During his leadership Labour introduced National Health Service, a new Social Security system and changes to the public education model.

The other interesting points:

Churchill's famous epigram about Attlle was that he was: "a modest little man, with plenty to be modest about".

In 1935 Attlee became the leader of the Labour Party.

In 1940 Attlee was approached to join the government. He agreed on condition that Chamberlain would have to resign. When Churchill took power, Attlee joined his government.

During the war, in Churchill's absence Attlee was chairing the War Cabinet. One of collegues put it: "When Winston presides at Cabinet we feel we are in the presence of history, the monologue goes on for hours and we come away as from a feast. When Attlee takes the chair it is a business meeting and we get home for dinner."

In post war election on 26 July 1945 Labour got 390 seats (up from 165 before the war), the Conservatives got 195 seats (down from 361 before). The Liberals got only 12 seats.

Ernest Bevin was a foreign secretary in Attlle's government. The former trade union leader, he remained a determined anti-Communist and anti-Soviet. In 1946 during the meetings of the Council of Foreign Ministers, he told Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov, the son of a respectable shop clerk, that he knew nothing about the proletariat. He also accused Molotov of behaving like Hitler, when he repeatedly attacked British proposals

In front of a huge Conservative rally, Churchill defined socialism as the belief that "nothing matters so long as miseries are equally shared."

[Josh Cowley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beast of a book covering arguably the twentieth centuries greatest PM. Really interesting account of the man who was involved in labour for 50+ years, basically from its formation to being its greatest PM to date. Despite a solid 30 hours reading time the topic was interesting enough and covered a fair bit of the broader context of the period it was set which I'm not as familiar with making it engaging enough, certainly not a page turner of a history book but probably more rewarding for it.

Looking forward to a short fantasy book as a cleanser now it has to be said, probably hold off the history binge for a few months!

[David Highton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A comprehensive biography of Attlee, a key figure in British politics in the twentieth century, about whom I found I knew very little. The sections about his role as Deputy Prime Minister in the War Cabinet in 1939-45, and as the leader of the post-war Labour government which created the welfare state and the NHS, are particularly good.

[Tom S · Rating 4 out of 5]

That concludes this spring's intake of prime ministerial biographies. It was richly enjoyed. What a man. The four stars include minus points for some shoddy editing in the edition I read (typos galore towards the end).

[David Lowther · Rating 5 out of 5]

A recent poll of academics identified Clement Attlee as Britain's best Prime Minister since 1900. Reading John Bew's autobiography, it's easy to understand why. This book, however, looks at Clem's career, warts and all. Like the rest of us his faults were numerous and a plethora of charisma was certainly not something you'd level at him.

Attlee came from a privileged background; public school and Cambridge educated but, as a young man, relocated to one of East London's poorest districts and soon became their Member of Parliament and remained so for the rest of his political career.

What this biography tells us is that Attlee was the most tolerant of politicians and saw the importance of listening to all points of view before making judgement. Bew emphatically demonstrates that lack of dogma was one of Attlee's greatest assets and the helped him to rescue the Labour Party from oblivion during the 1930s. He became Leader in the mid-thirties after Labour had been virtually wiped out at the 1931 General Election. An improved performance in 1935 eventually led to the Labour landslide of 1945.

When commentators talk of the Second World War in GB political terms, their usual approach is to laud Winston Churchill who kept Britain afloat when all seemed lost which, of course, he did. In Citizen Clem we learn of the important role that Attlee played as Deputy Prime Minister in running the country during the PM's frequent absences and bringing the Labour members of parliament into the coalition government which meant that Churchill could govern with a group of men and women from across the class spectrum.

Attlee was a great listener and a shrewd judge of character. He recognised talent when he saw it and rewarded it even if his own political views didn't match those of some of his opponents within the party. Attlee's 1945-1951 government achieved more than any before or since. It will be chiefly remembered for establishing the welfare state in the UK but Attlee himself sat alongside Stalin and Truman at Potsdam and conducted, through his Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin, a positive and aggressive foreign policy. He also oversaw the independence of India and its partition with Pakistan. He has a list of achievements as long as your arm yet never trumpeted these and remained a modest man throughout his life. He was leader of the Labour Party for twenty years.

My overriding memory of Attlee after reading this superb book are of a man who brought the best out of those who worked with him. The Labour Party then, as now, had many factions within it but instead of ignoring them he embraced all and preserved party unity. One of the greatest achievements of his government was the founding of the National Health Service. The minister responsible was Aneurin Bevan, a fiery Welshman on the left of the party. Instead of ignoring him, Attlee brought him into the cabinet with spectacular results. Jeremy Corbin would do well to read this book. His opponents in the party are pussycats compared with Attlee's yet he managed them and used their talents for twenty years.

David Lowther. Author of The Blue Pencil, Liberating Belsen and Two Families at War, all published by Sacristy Press.

[Samuel James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic, well-research autobiography on Clement Attlee.

I bought this book in September 2017, a few months after Labour's third consecutive election loss.
Corbyn's Labour gained over 40% of the popular vote, they gained seats across the country, yet were still the main opposition in government. Far from being wiped out, the party was re-energised by populist socialist ideals.
Ideals that have echoes of a time when Clement Attlee was in power.

Attlee was Deputy PM during the war, and led Labour to a landslide election victory in the months that followed WWII.

He overcame Winston Churchill.

His government nationalised many flailing industries, as well as introduced the NHS in 1948.

They oversaw the dismantling of the British #Empire, and the beginnings of the commonwealth.

They came to power when #Britain was effectively broke.

Attlee was a proponent of the UK, and an old fashioned skeptic of the #EU (or what was to become of it). Attlee's government lasted roughly six years, but many of his ideas are still in place today.

Attlee was constantly belittled by his own cabinet and the opposition. He was seen as weak because he wasn't a showman. In cabinet he saw himself as a chairman. He once said of this 'Why bark, when you have a good dog'. He faced constant jostles for his position, but managed to keep his party together.
He didn't threaten to delist candidates who didn't agree with him, he managed them, and found their strengths.

Citizen Clem made me re-think, and reanalyse my feelings toward Labour's current socialist leader.

My stance toward Corbyn has softened. Some of the best things about Britain were implemented under Attlee, why can't we see the same under Corbyn in the future.

At the end of the day Labour and socialism appeals to dreamers. I'd always fight for those ideals, than that of the 'Nasty Party'.

[Peter Dunn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Detailed but not dull, and highly effective but not effusive. I think that both those phrases together best describe both this biography, and the man that it is about. It gives some great insight into the man despite having relatively little insightful non-governmental documentation from the man himself to work with.

For instance Attlee’s own autobiography was fairly self-effacing. As this biography’s author John Bew notes in a joint blog on Attlee where he gives this Bevan quote:
‘So his greatest sin was passivity. ‘‘It’s a good title,’ said Bevan when Attlee’s autobiography, As it Happened, appeared in 1954. ‘Things happened to him. He never did anything.’.

But this claimed “passivity” does not do Attlee justice. He had a short but distinguished war record in the Great War, and he could bear his teeth when he needed to. Two examples of this given in this new biography note how Attlee eventually became scathing in his assessment of Ramsay MacDonald, and also records how he very effectively defeated Oswald Mosely in direct debate.

Bew also skilfully documents how a combination of events, conviction, and let’s not forget the electorate’s clear choice, moved Attlee past failed Labour leaders such as McDonald, past big name potential Labour leaders such Morrison, Ernest Bevin, Stafford Cripps and Hugh Dalton, and then overtaking even war leader Winston to power, and how he then used that time in power to effect more domestic change for the better than any other Prime Minister in the 20th or 21st centuries so far.

[Sorrento · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Bew has written a very entertaining book about the life and contribution of Clement Atlee to the service of the British people. I already knew about Atlee’s leadership of the 1945 Labour government which achieved so much that we have to be grateful for such as the NHS and the modern welfare state, improved housing and education. However, by reading John Bew’s book I also learned about Atlee the social worker in London’s East End, Major Atlee the war hero of the first world war, three times carried off the battle field and Atlee the deputy prime minister who together with Churchill in the national government led the country to victory over Nazi Germany and Japan during WW2.Bew also describes Atlee’s contribution to overseeing the end of empire and the bringing into the commonwealth countries such as India and Pakistan.
In Citizen Clem we learn that Atlee was a committed democratic socialist and patriot who believed in the idea of service to one’s country and that ordinary working people deserved much better support and opportunity to flourish and be protected from adversity. For over twenty years he led an often-fractious Labour Party keeping it united in order to achieve great things.
Bew also tells us much about the Atlee’s personality and demeanour. Time and again we hear how Atlee in contrast to the big brash loud characters such as Churchill & Nye Bevan he was a quiet unassuming private man. We also learn that Atlee was a brilliant chairman in Cabinet and was able to debate effectively on the big stage with Churchill and Oswald Mosley, by force of argument alone. The book describes many stories form Atlee’s private life and he comes across as a loving husband, father and brother. There are many anecdotes based on his correspondence with his brother Tom and amusing stories about his wife Violet’s driving escapades.
Overall, I found John Bew’s book to be a truly inspirational portrait of one of the giants of British public life.

[Jonny · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very well-argued biography, which convincingly portrays Attlee as an underappreciated expert in carrying Labour with him through this leadership, and in successfully governing through WWII and the immediate postwar period. I learned a lot about how Attlee accomplished his goals, although the whole-life nature of the book means you skip over topics including what role Attlee played in the creation of the NHS, and anything reflective on how he saw his Premiership. As Bew notes, Attlee has undergone a Renaissance since 2010 as other past Labour leaders have been seen as politically unacceptable but - even allowing for that - you’re left with an appreciation of the skill and vision shown by Attlee, and how far-reaching the consequences of his Premiership were.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty fascinating stuff about the guy who's probably best known as Churchill's (Labour) Deputy PM during WWII... and later the PM who founded the NHS and the welfare state, made the UK a nuclear power, and freed India. So a much bigger deal than Churchill in many ways - if the 20th century UK was a football team, Churchill is the flashy striker, Attlee is the indispensable goalkeeper.

Attlee had an extremely unlikely ascent to power given that he was constantly misjudged (including within Labour) as a mediocrity, when he was actually stunningly capable at getting difficult personalities to collaborate and make big things happen. We could probably use more quiet, modest and conscientious characters like Attlee in today's politics (but don't hold your breath).

[Andrew Pratley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a superb book about a wonderful man. John Bew is seeking, with this book, to get us to appreciate much more the achievements of Clement Attlee. In recent years historians are now describing Attlee as one of the three most influential & important Prime Ministers since 1940. The other two are Mrs Thatcher & Mr Churchill. This book has allowed me to understand the nature of Clement Attlee's achievements & also what made him tick. For many he was an enigmatic figure but I don't think he was all that difficult to read as a man. What you saw with him is what you got. It appears, for many, he was a man hidden in plain sight because of their lack of insight & imagination. I am glad I have had the chance to read it.

[Jane Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent biography of someone even those of us on the left in politics know far too little about. This is very detailed but always readable. Bew is not uncritical but strives to be fair, and Attlee comes out of it as one of the most decent politicians of his age. One can't help but consider him in the light of contemporary events.

[Henry · Rating 4 out of 5]

really enjoyed this, in particular the structure, where the author spent the first segment of every section quoting from and analysis what Attlee was reading at the time. any single-volume biography will elide some stuff however and this definitely does - I wanted more about his relationship with his wife, his kids, and the post-war govt.

[David Verkmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful read, incredibly thorough. In my mind it could have used more details on the years after 1945, but overall a br8lliant book.

Also great reading about cuts in welfare during the attlee government (when it is so broadly associated with only increases nowadays) and reflect back to the current labour government.

[John Bithell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Effectively rebuts Churchill's typically empty bon mot "Mr. Attlee is a very modest man. Indeed he has a lot to be modest about."
whilst exploring the quiet virtues of an effective party leader.

[Jakub Dovcik · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a truly remarkable book. Not just in the author's narrative of Attlee's life, but also in the way it is structured and how it manages to bring together events and ideas like very few biographies, especially by academic historians.

Bew's perspective on Attlee focuses on Attlee's patriotism and citizenship, and his sense of duty to his community - firstly in East London, Stepney and Limehouse, and later the British society. Bew argues, albeit with reservations, that Attlee is now as underappreciated (although he pops up in Labour mythology once in a while) as he was underestimated during his lifetime.

Attlee is portrayed as a child of the Victorian era and the British Empire, fondly remembering the Diamond Jubilee of 1897 and reminiscing later in life, that as a young man he "was an imperialist". Much of his life was shaped by Haileybury College, a public school first founded to produce young men ready to serve the East India Company and the British Empire. Attending Haileybury, together with his brothers, shaped Attlee's values of service and eventually, after attending Oxford, brought him to volunteer at Haileybury House in the East End of London, in Stepney.

There he began his career as a social worker as well as his gradual journey into the heart of the Labour movement, which was not based on some spiritual awakening or intellectual amity towards Marxist writings. Attlee's 'leftism' was, in Bew's view, grounded in his belief in the greatness of the British Empire and the sense of social unfairness towards the boys in East London he worked with. He practised social work - a very different kind of approach to the unprivileged than the more paternalistic charities.

This is also connected with Attlee's service in the First World War, in Gallipoli and Mesopotamia, where he managed to survive campaigns with high casualty rates by essentially being injured at fortunate moments. Especially Gallipoli was important later on, during his wartime cooperation with Churchill, as he believed in the strategic soundness of the Gallipoli campaign that allowed him not just a better working relationship with Churchill, but also a greater belief in Churchill's strategic judgement.

While he is not portrayed as an intellectual, ideas played a role in Attlee's life and development as a public servant and politician. Bew contrasts the two books of socialist utopias, popular at the turn of the century: "Looking Backwards" by Edward Bellamy, an American writer from Massachusetts, and "News from Nowhere", by British writer and textile designer, William Morris, which was written as a response to Bellamy. Bew argues that while a number of Labour party intellectuals, including Attlee's brother Tom, were enamoured by Morris' conception of agrarian and naturalistic socialist utopia, Attlee politically believed more in Bellamy's socialism, which was in essence a well-run social democracy, where manual labour is still present, yet the hardships and everyday problems are limited. This was generally the mission of Labour under Attlee's leadership - not a radical revolution, but a patient, yet determined work towards a better and fairer society that average citizens can believe and trust in.

Attlee's gradual rise through the ranks of the Labour party was very anti-climactic - he was consistently seen as a "safe pair of hands" and an unthreatening figure for some that believe themselves sot be on track to leadership. He definitely benefited from the fact that Herbert Morrison lost his seat in Parliament in 1931 collapse of the Parliamentary Labour party and National Government landslide, but later managed to outflank any challenges, in large part to his unassuming nature and solid relationships with the trade unions and in particular Ernest Bevin, his long-time friend and ally and the General Secretary of the powerful Transport and General Workers' Union. It is interesting that despite his middle-class and Oxford background, his base of support in the party was never mainly in its intellectual circles (how funny to see Michael Foot on the unpractical side even in the 1940s), but rather among the more pragmatic Trade Unions.

Labour's participation in Churchill's Wartime government is one of the highlights of the book, as it nicely shows how Attlee managed to keep the party together through both the times of crisis, as well as pull from the left after the Beveridge report. Attlee is presented as an outwardly loyal ally of Churchill in times of Blitz, but also as an honest partner, providing feedback in private. Labour's ministers are presented as an integral part of the government machine, who effectively ran the domestic policy.

The Labour landslide of 1945 is explained partially through Churchill's overshoot in rhetoric during the campaign as well as the general change in national mood during the war towards a more planned economy, safeguarding the social service. The Conservatives scaremongering about the potential for the Labour government moving into a totalitarian direction limited the credibility of their appeal, which is summed up in a quote from the Economist from 1945: ‘there are few groups of men less capable of moving in that direction [totalitarianism] than the leaders of the Labour Party, who have never been able to impose their wishes even on their own followers.’ (I guess some things never change.)

Bew's portrayal of the legendary Labour government of 1945-1951 is largely through its crises and foreign policy. The 1945 loan from the Americans, the Sterling convertibility and later devaluation crisis, and the problems with food and fuel rationing all contributed to the view that what we now see as immense achievements in the development of the welfare state were not quite glaring at the time of their introduction. While Nye Bevan is given due credit for the development of the NHS despite the various struggles, the other part of his brief, housing policy, was much more limited. Generally, Bew argues that Labour in 1951 was just too tired and its "Big Beasts" too old and dying one after another, to win the second General Election in 1951. Attlee furthermore did not see a viable successor, as he disagreed with Nye Bevan and felt that Hugh Gaitskell did not have sufficient support. While his speeches full of "public school moralities" in the late 1940s and early 1950s at Labour conferences were tiring for the delegates, they made Attlee more trustworthy than other more radical speakers from his Labour generation.

An important part of the book is Attlee's views and actions in foreign policy. He played an important role during the 1930s when he managed to walk the tightrope of advocating the official Labour policy of multilateralism as well as demonstrating his patriotism, which was never questioned. He took particular interest in India early on when he was part of the Simon Commission (1928-1930, although when he was first put on it it was seen as a demotion) and later took much more interest in its handling (which was nevertheless bloody and caused hundreds of thousands of deaths) than at the end of the British Mandate in Palestine (which was mishandled and a disaster).

Bew writes, that as a child of the Empire, "Attlee’s approach to imperial questions after 1945 can be seen as an attempt to end the empire on the right note and to salvage something of its better side. More specifically, his aim was to make good on the promises of self-government that had been held out to those under British rule." When he reflected on his life in his retirement, he considered the transition of the Empire to the Commonwealth as one of his proudest achievements.

Attlee also saw the Americans as the natural allies even during their isolationist interwar period and later invested a lot of political capital into the building and development of both the United Nations as well as the own British nuclear bomb. He was always looking westwards and his socialist ideas were more grounded in the British own Labour movement developed gradually from the likes of early 19th century Welshman Robert Owen, than in Marxism. While he had a brief period of flirtation with radicalism (together with Stafford Cripps) in the mid-1930s, especially during and after the war he was reliably presenting his position of the Labour party as the third-way, social-democratic force in the post-war world order, very much rejecting the Stalinist Communism.

The legacy of Attlee's leadership for the present-day Labour party that a reader gains from the book are the importance of trust and believability. Time and time again, Attlee is able to get through a crisis, internal or external, to win the trust of both voters as well as other parties in the Parliament, through his credibility and trustworthiness, as the archetypical, albeit sometimes a bit boring, middle-class Englishman. He slowly became Labour's biggest electoral asset, as he was able to demonstrate his values and beliefs in a more fair society, while not being seen as radical or dangerous for regular voters. This was at the cost of a more dramatic reshaping of the British social order, such as the abolishing of public schools, that his government never attempted.

This was particularly in contrast with figures like Stafford Crips, Herbert Morrison or Nye Bevan, who were sectional candidates that could never command such a wide following as Attlee did. His relationships with them, as well as his friends from the Parliamentary Labour party like A. V. Alexander or Jack Lawson, are an enjoyable part of the book, giving it a very human touch.

What makes the book especially good, is its structure - each chapter is divided into five parts - first one considers the literary or ideological backdrop of the period the chapter develops (like Bellamy vs Morris, or biographies and ideas of Oliver Cromwell), second, third and fourth presenting the events of the period and the fifth providing a great summation, analysis and evaluation. It does not feel repetitive, but rather well-structured and is a very enjoyable read.

John Bew is a rising star of British historiography, but he is not an ideologically leftist historian. This was underlined by his joining Boris Johnson's No 10 Policy Unit where he worked on a comprehensive review of security, defence and foreign policy. While some could argue that this undermines the objectivity of his portrayal of Attlee, as a relatively centrist and pragmatic figure, and his rather unflattering portrayal of Labour hero Nye Bevan, I believe the opposite - that it allows for a more thorough and even-handed examination of a complex life of a very British political legend.