Parties and People England, 1914-1951 [Hardcover]

The 'sequel' to his best-sellingClasses and Cultures, Ross McKibbin's latest book is a powerful reinterpretation of British politics in the first decades of universal suffrage. What did it mean to be a 'democratic society'? To what extent did voters make up their own minds on politics or allow elites to do it for them?

Exploring the political culture of these extraordinary years,Parties and Peopleshows that class became one of the principal determinants of political behaviour, although its influence was often surprisingly weak. McKibbin argues that the kind of democracy that emerged in Britain was far from inevitable-as much historical accident as design-and was in many ways highly flawed.

1. Edwardian Equipoise and the First World War
2. Unstable Equilibrium, 1918-1929
3. The Crisis of Labour and the Conservative Hegemony, 1929-39
4. The Party System Thrown Off Course
5. The English Road to Socialism.
6. England: Social Change, Historical Accident and Democracy

It is impossible to do justice in a brief review to the sophistication and complexity of
McKibbin s analysis of the period, particularly his careful attention to the importance of
political culture in determining electoral behavior...[A]nyone concerned with the history
of twentieth-century Britain will want to read this book. --Journal of British Studies