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jimbowen0306 's review for:
Citizen Clem: A Biography of Attlee
by John Bew
It's weird, every so often you read a book and wonder what people ever saw in it. Part of me wonders if this was one of those books, which follows the life of the first truely successful British Labour Party leader, Clement Attlee, as the party moves from a fringe party repesenting a certain type of work-class community to being the party of government after World War II.
There are a number of things that strike me about this book. One is how similar the sort of backgrounds Attlee, and the other really successful Labour leader had (inasmuch as the didn't fit any typical socialist mould). People might try and imply they were different, but no, no they weren't. They both had really middle classed ubringingd.
The second is that I think Bew really wanted to like Attlee, and as a result was uncritical of a number of his failings (for example not challenging his lack of knowledge of economics for example, when Attlee was quite drastically changing Britain).
My third criticism is that I didn't really get a sense of the issues of the time, especially when he was finally Prime Minister. Maybe it was because he had such a huge majority, but there was no discussion of why it was necessary to nationalise coal, or steel, or the NHS, or thr railways. Sure he did it, but why did he do it? What did people think? Were there discussions in the party? In the country? We got non of that. It was simply stated that the government felt these things were done, and did them, which irked some.
Maybe I've just been spoiled in the previous biographies that I've read lately, but I instictively doubt it, I don't feel that lucky.
There are a number of things that strike me about this book. One is how similar the sort of backgrounds Attlee, and the other really successful Labour leader had (inasmuch as the didn't fit any typical socialist mould). People might try and imply they were different, but no, no they weren't. They both had really middle classed ubringingd.
The second is that I think Bew really wanted to like Attlee, and as a result was uncritical of a number of his failings (for example not challenging his lack of knowledge of economics for example, when Attlee was quite drastically changing Britain).
My third criticism is that I didn't really get a sense of the issues of the time, especially when he was finally Prime Minister. Maybe it was because he had such a huge majority, but there was no discussion of why it was necessary to nationalise coal, or steel, or the NHS, or thr railways. Sure he did it, but why did he do it? What did people think? Were there discussions in the party? In the country? We got non of that. It was simply stated that the government felt these things were done, and did them, which irked some.
Maybe I've just been spoiled in the previous biographies that I've read lately, but I instictively doubt it, I don't feel that lucky.