Popular Conservatism and the Culture of National Government in Inter-War Britain

Description

This radical new reading of British Conservatives' fortunes between the wars explores how the party adapted to the challenges of mass democracy after 1918. Geraint Thomas offers a fresh perspective on the relationship between local and national Conservatives' political strategies for electoral survival, which ensured that Conservative activists, despite their suspicion of coalitions, emerged as champions of the cross-party National Government from 1931 to 1940. By analysing the role of local campaigning in the age of mass broadcasting, Thomas re-casts inter-war Conservatism. Popular Conservatism thus emerges less as the didactic product of Stanley Baldwin's consensual public image, and more concerned with the everyday material interests of the electorate. Exploring the contributions of key Conservative figures in the National Government, including Neville Chamberlain, Walter Elliot, Oliver Stanley, and Kingsley Wood, this study reveals how their pursuit of the 'politics of recovery' enabled the Conservatives to foster a culture of programmatic, activist government that would become prevalent in Britain after the Second World War.

Geraint Thomas is Fellow and Director of Studies in History at Peterhouse, University of Cambridge. He has previously held positions at the Universities of Oxford and York. His research publications have focused on the politics of inter-war Britain and include, as co-editor, Brave New World: Imperial and Democratic Nation-building in Britain between the Wars (2012).

'This deeply-researched study provides important new perspectives on the Conservative Party and the National Governments during the critical decade of the 1930s. It will be essential reading for anyone interested in British history between the two world wars.' Stuart Ball, University of Leicester 'Geraint Thomas's book is a very significant addition to the political history of interwar Britain. Its discussion of the National Government, and particularly the relationship to it of the Conservative Party's membership, as well as its leaders, convincingly undermines, or substantially modifies, much of the existing historiography of the period.' Ross McKibbin, University of Oxford '... well written, fully referenced and extensively researched ... it is a scholarly and valuable contribution to the study of inter-war electoral politics.' Roland Quinault, Cercles