SDP The Birth, Life, and Death of the Social Democratic Party [Hardcover]

Launched on a wave of euphoria in 1981, the SDP aroused the hopes and enthusiasm of millions of people. Promising to break the mould of British politics, its leaders included three of the most respected figures in British public life--Roy Jenkins, David Owen, and Shirley Williams. But despite winning with the Liberals a quarter of the vote in two general elections, by the autumn of 1987 it had disintegrated amidst acrimony and bitter in-fighting. This book, based on unprecedented access to the SDP's archive and extensive interviews with all the leading players, chronicles the party's short but turbulent history and analyses in detail the reasons for its early success and its ultimate demise.

Pre-history: 1964-1979 _
_The Owen Ascendancy II: 1985-7 _

British political science at its best, combining intimate knowledge of the players with a firm grasp of the numbers, all gracefully and thoughtfully presented. --Choice

There is scarcely a serious student of contemporary British politics, on either side of the Atlantic, who will fail to enjoy and profit intellectually from reading this book. Exhaustively researched, intelligently and cogently written and effectively organized,SDPis unquestionably the definitive study to date of the political party that provocatively vowed, upon its launch only a short decade and a half ago, to break the mould of postwar British politics. --British Politics Group Newsletter

Ivor Crewe and Anthony King are Professors of Government at the University of Essex, and frequent contributors to the national media. Anthony King is a member of the Nolan Committee on Standards in Public Life.