Between 1918 and 1939, 448 men who performed uniformed service in the First World War became Conservative MPs. This relatively high-profile cohort have been under-explored as a distinct body, yet a study of their experiences of the war and the ways in which they - and the Conservative Party - represented those experiences to the voting public reveals much about the political culture of Interwar Britain and the use of the Great War as political capital. Radicalised ex-servicemen have, thus far, been considered a rather continental phenomenon historiographically. And whilst attitudes to Hitler and Mussolini form part of this analysis, the study also explores why there were fewer such types in Britain. The Conservative Party, it will be shown, played a crucial part in such a process - with British politics serving as a contested space for survivors' interpretations of what the war should mean.

This volume synthesises the latest scholarship on First World War veterans in post-war Britain and Ireland, investigating the topic through its political, social and cultural dynamics. It examines the post-war experiences of those men and women who served and illuminates the nature of the post-war society for which service had been given. Complicating the homogenising tendency in existing scholarship it offers comparison of the experiences of veterans in different regions of Britain, including perspectives drawn from Ireland. Further nuance is offered by the assessment of the experiences of ex-servicewomen alongside those of ex-servicemen, such focus deeping understanding into the gendered specificities of post-war veteran activities and experiences. Moreover, case studies of specific cohorts of veterans are offered, including focus on disabled veterans and ex-prisoners of war. In these regards the collection offers vital updates to existing scholarship while bringing important new departures and challenges to the current interpretive frameworks of veteran experiences in post-war Britain and Ireland.

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.

Nobody doubts that politicians ought to fulfil their promises – what people cannot agree about is what this means in practice. The purpose of this book is to explore this issue through a series of case studies. It shows how the British model of politics has changed since the early twentieth century when electioneering was based on the articulation of principles which, it was expected, might well be adapted once the party or politician that promoted them took office. Thereafter manifestos became increasingly central to electoral politics and to the practice of governing, and this has been especially the case since 1945. Parties were now expected to outline in detail what they would do in office and explain how the policies would be paid for. Brexit has complicated this process, with the ‘will of the people’ as supposedly expressed in the 2016 referendum result clashing with the conventional role of the election manifesto as offering a mandate for action.

This book provides a concise set of thirteen essays looking at various aspects of the British left, movements of protest and the cumulative impact of the First World War. There are three broad areas this work intends to make a contribution to; the first is to help us further understand the role the Labour Party played in the conflict, and its evolving attitudes towards the war; the second strand concerns the notion of work, and particularly women’s work; the third strand deals with the impact of theory and practice of forces located largely outside the United Kingdom. Through these essays this book aims to provide a series of thirteen bite-size analyses of key issues affecting the British left throughout the war, and to further our understanding of it in this critical period of commemoration.

Investigates historic strands of conservative thought and responds to the radical changes which many think have transformed the Conservative party into a populist movement upholding English nationalism.

The 1920s is often recognised as a decade of fascism, flappers and film. Covering the political, economic and social developments of the 1920s throughout the world, The Global 1920s takes an international and cross-cultural perspective on the critical changes and conditions that prevailed from roughly 1919 to 1930. With twelve chapters on themes including international diplomacy and the imperial powers, film and music, art and literature, women and society, democracy, fascism, and science and technology, this book explores both the ‘big’ questions of capitalism, class and communism on the one hand and the everyday experience of citizens around the globe on the other. Utilising archival sources throughout, it concludes with an extensive discussion of the circumstances surrounding the 1929 stock market crash and the onset of the Great Depression, the effects of which were felt worldwide. Covering topics from the oil boom in South America to the start of civil war in China, employment advances and setbacks for women across the globe, and the advent of radio and air travel, the authors provide a concise yet comprehensive overview of this turbulent decade. Containing illustrations and a selection of discussion questions at the end of each chapter, this book is valuable reading for students of the 1920s in global history.