Citizen clem
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Citizen Clem
Winner of the Orwell Prize for Political Writing.
Winner of the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography.
Book of the year: The Times, The Sunday Times, New Statesman, The Spectator, Evening Standard.
Clement Attlee was the Labour prime minister who presided over Britain's radical postwar government, delivering the end of the empire in India, the foundation of the NHS and Britain's place in NATO. Called 'a sheep in sheep's clothing', his reputation has long been that of an unassuming character in the shadow of Churchill. But as John Bew's revelatory biography shows, Attlee was not only a hero of his age but an märke of it, and his life tells the story of how Britain changed over the 20th century. Here, Bew pierces Attlee's reticence to examine the intellect and beliefs of Britain's greatest - and least appreciated - peacetime prime minister.
© John Bew (P) Quercus Editions Limited•
Citizen Clem: A Biography of Attlee
“He was one of the last prominent Victorians in public life to pass away” [p]
Attlee, born in 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 grou
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Book prize winner
Book prize winner
Citizen Clem
John Bew
Published by: Quercus
The story of Attlee is also much more dramatic than he himself ever made out &#; and not without an element of heroism. Here was a man born in the governing class who devoted his life to the service of the poor; who was carried off the battlefield three times in the First World War; who stood shoulder to shoulder with Churchill at Britain&#;s darkest moment, and then triumphed over him at the general election of His government of included Ernest Bevin, Herbert Morrison and Nye Bevan and was the most radical in history, giving us the NHS, National Insurance, NATO and the atomic bomb. In many ways we still live in a world of Attlee&#;s creation. This book will pierce the reticence of Attlee and explore the intellectual foundations and core beliefs of one of the most important figures in twentieth-century British history, arguing that he remains underappreciated, rather th