Churchill and the Germans

Ramsden, John

doi:10.1080/13619462.2011.546132

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 6 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Unwilling for most of the war to discuss postwar reconstruction from a party point of view, unable to devote energy to question party management, and distrustful of Conservative Central Office, Churchill's actions only increased the size of the political vacuum which those in the Conservative movement were happy to fill. 87 Indeed, with his tendency to promote precisely the kind of Conservatives who had been critical of Baldwin and Chamberlain, Churchill's leadership offered those within the Conservative movement both the opportunity to re-enter government and shape the future of conservativism from within Whitehall (as was the case with Amery), or to capture the party's own policy making process (the route Butler took). Moreover, if changes at the elite level of British politics offered hope to those in the Conservative movement that their views could finally become manifesto material, so perceived changes to popular political attitudes convinced Conservatives that the electorate would embrace them.…”

Section: Despite This Emphasis On a New Pan-imperial Civil Service Gmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Conservative Movement and Dreams of Britain's Post-War Future

Kowol

2018

Hist. J.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The British general election of 1945 and the return of the nation's first ever majority Labour government was a profound turning point in Britain's political history. The scale of Labour's victory, and the belief in its inevitability, has, however, obscured important developments in British Conservatism. Historians have subsequently characterized the Conservative party as either unwilling to develop their own distinct plans for the post-war future, or divided between those who were willing to embrace the policies of social democracy and those with a neo-liberal approach to political economy. This article challenges this depiction by examining the thoughts and actions of those within what it terms the wartime ‘Conservative movement’: the constellation of fringe and pressure groups that orbited around the Conservative party during the period. In examining this movement, it identifies three major traditions of Conservative political thinking, and three sets of activists and parliamentarians all committed to developing radical Conservative plans for post-war Britain. The article demonstrates how these different traditions built upon but also radicalized pre-existing currents of Conservative thought, how the language of social democracy was co-opted and reinterpreted by those within the Conservative movement, and how the war changed Conservative perception of the British people.

show abstract

Section: Despite This Emphasis On a New Pan-imperial Civil Service Gmentioning

confidence: 99%