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Harold Wilson: The Winner de Nick Thomas-Symonds

Harold Wilson: The Winner

Autor Nick Thomas-Symonds
en Limba Engleză Paperback – 7 sep 2023

Imaginați-vă coridoarele înguste din Downing Street în anii '60, unde un bărbat cu o pipă mereu aprinsă și un accent pronunțat de Yorkshire rescria din temelii codul moral al Marii Britanii. În Harold Wilson, Nick Thomas-Symonds ne oferă un portret cinematic al singurului lider postbelic care a reușit să câștige patru rânduri de alegeri, rămânând până astăzi neînvins în istoria Partidului Laburist. Ne-a atras atenția modul în care autorul echilibrează imaginea publică a „tehnocratului” cu viața interioară a unui om profund tradițional, a cărui viziune a fost modelată de valorile democratice ale copilăriei sale. Cartea nu este doar o cronică politică, ci o incursiune în psihologia unui supraviețuitor care a navigat prin crize economice și conspirații de culise pentru a legaliza avortul și a aboli pedeapsa capitală. În aceeași familie cu The Wilson Governments 1964-1970 Reconsidered de Glen O'Hara, acest volum adaugă o dimensiune umană și biografică esențială, trecând dincolo de analiza administrativă către înțelegerea omului din spatele deciziilor. Nick Thomas-Symonds continuă aici explorarea marilor figuri ale stângii britanice, proiect început cu Nye și Attlee. Dacă în lucrările anterioare se concentra pe arhitecții statului social, aici autorul analizează „modernizatorul” — omul care a înțeles puterea televiziunii și a culturii populare, reușind să unească un partid fracturat într-o perioadă de transformări sociale radicale. Stilul este alert, documentat cu rigoare academică, dar scris cu fluența unui observator care cunoaște intim mecanismele puterii parlamentare.

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Specificații

ISBN-13: 9781474611961
ISBN-10: 1474611966
Pagini: 544
Dimensiuni: 126 x 196 x 38 mm
Greutate: 0.4 kg
Editura: Orion Publishing Group
Colecția W&N
Locul publicării:London, United Kingdom

De ce să citești această carte

Recomandăm această biografie cititorilor pasionați de istorie politică și celor care doresc să înțeleagă cum s-a născut Marea Britanie modernă. Veți descoperi secretele celui mai eficient strateg electoral laburist și contextul în care au fost adoptate reformele sociale care definesc și astăzi societatea occidentală. Este o lecție fascinantă despre pragmatism, supraviețuire și viziune pe termen lung într-un peisaj politic aflat în plină schimbare.

Despre autor

Nick Thomas-Symonds este o figură rară care îmbină cariera politică de nivel înalt cu rigoarea istorică. Membru al Parlamentului britanic din 2015 și fost avocat, a fost ales Fellow al Royal Historical Society în 2012. Expertiza sa în istoria Partidului Laburist este recunoscută prin biografiile de succes dedicate lui Clement Attlee și Aneurin Bevan. În prezentarea lui Harold Wilson, Thomas-Symonds folosește atât accesul la surse de arhivă inedite, cât și propria experiență din prima linie a politicii britanice pentru a oferi o perspectivă nuanțată asupra puterii.

Descriere

Harold Wilson is the only post-war leader of any party to serve as Britain's Prime Minister on two separate occasions. In total he won four General Elections, spending nearly eight years in Downing Street. Half a century later, he is still unbeaten, Labour's greatest ever election winner. How did he do it - and at what cost?

Critics then and now have painted him as an opportunistic political calculator, even as a Soviet secret agent. In this powerful new portrait, drawing on previously unavailable sources and first-hand parliamentary insight, acclaimed biographer Nick Thomas-Symonds reveals a more complex figure. Wilson was a new kind of politician but, in his own way, this media-savvy harbinger of modernity was also a deeply traditional man, whose actions often suggest nothing less than a spiritual mission.

In an intriguing paradox, Wilson, influenced by the distinctively democratic faith of his Yorkshire boyhood, united a fractured Labour Party, ushering in the cultural and social changes of the 'swinging sixties'. His was the government to decriminalise homosexuality, legalise abortion and abolish capital punishment. With a brilliant mind, sure-footed political moves and a feel for public opinion, he was a survivor who over and over again emerged from desperate crises - even, perhaps, conspiracies - to lead his party to victory. It is time at last to learn his secrets.

Recenzii

This comprehensive, carefully researched and very readable biography aims to establish Wilson's place in history - not as the neurotic schemer often reported during his sad last years, which were blighted by dementia, nor even as the supreme political fixer portrayed by Pimlott, but as a decent, honourable man, as well as a very clever one, who was in politics to do something, not just to be someone. He was, Thomas-Symonds concludes, one of our greatest prime ministers, who, given the political circumstances, had a remarkable record of solid achievement.
Wilson was one of the most remarkable British political figures of the 20th century ... Nick Thomas-Symonds, in his entertaining and assured biography, paints a portrait of a man who embodied all the contradictions of the movement he led
Very well written ... Wilson, as Thomas-Symonds says, was an underestimated social reformer who expanded higher education and the social services, and made Britain a more pleasant place to live in through such measures as outlawing race and sex discrimination, equal pay for women, maternity leave, safety at work and, above all, the Open University, of which he was particularly proud
A well-researched, fair-minded and enjoyable read
Excellent
A timely new biography
In the past there would be weighty figures all over the place who wrote books...Roy Jenkins, Michael Foot...Tony Crosland... [Nick Thomas-Symonds] carries that mantle ..in a way Wilson is his most interesting subject so far
With political biographies it is easy to praise and criticise with the benefit of hindsight. Nick Thomas-Symonds avoid this by also understanding the political mood at the time - and, in having access to new material is able to take a broader view. I'd make it compulsory reading!
In this account, Wilson's concern for the poor, his disgust at racial intolerance and his belief that the prosperity of Britain would best be protected in a European Common Market are the enduring aims of his political life. The Harold Wilson of these pages is not just a dry winner. He is a man animated by passions...Along the way, the reader has a lot to enjoy. The author has a keen eye for the telling story that has not been wearied by repetition...Thomas-Symonds also has a crisp way with vital issues.
The Labour frontbencher Nick Thomas-Symonds - a rare parliamentarian who can write - offers an unashamedly revisionist and readable account of the man who led Labour to four election victories. So often derided as a shameless opportunist, Wilson here shines through as a quick-witted, silver-tongued master strategist
In this riveting and very readable biography, Thomas-Symonds con­firms that Wilson's governments created a kinder, fairer, and forward-thinking Britain. Above all, as any­one on Scilly would agree, Wilson was a man of the people
[Wilson] is the subject of a superb new biography by the distinguished historian and Labour frontbencher Nick Thomas-Symonds. It is a book that has all the more resonance because so many of the problems that confronted Wilson are the same ones that the present Government faces... This compelling...excellent biography shows that Wilson was a much bigger figure than the traditional negative caricature suggests... As Thomas-Symonds argues, Britain under him became a more free, equal, tolerant and open society
I would heartily recommend The Winner to anyone interested in postwar British politics. Mixing anecdote and fact, Thomas-Symonds paints a vivid picture of the era that is hard to find elsewhere
Nick Thomas-Symonds' excellent new biography puts Harold Wilson in his rightful place as a crucial figure in Labour Party history, winning four General Elections and introducing important reforms that have endured. It deserves to be widely read not only as a fine work of history but also for its lessons in how Labour wins
Entertaining and assured....makes a convincing case that Wilson had a solid record of achievement.