In the momentous period -- barely 30 years -- covered by this systematic reference/guide, the Edwardian world was transformed unrecognisably, through war, technological progress and social change, into the Nuclear Age. It saw the coming of mass democracy, the apogee of empire, the Depression, the threat of fascism, the development of suburban society, and, as yet scarcely understood, the end of Britain's international hegemony. Andrew Thorpe's superb contribution to the Companions series illuminates all this and much else. It will be indispensable to anyone interested in the history and politics of modern Britain.

In the momentous period -- barely 30 years -- covered by this systematic reference/guide, the Edwardian world was transformed unrecognisably, through war, technological progress and social change, into the Nuclear Age. It saw the coming of mass democracy, the apogee of empire, the Depression, the threat of fascism, the development of suburban society, and, as yet scarcely understood, the end of Britain's international hegemony. Andrew Thorpe's superb contribution to the Companions series illuminates all this and much else. It will be indispensable to anyone interested in the history and politics of modern Britain.

Cecil Bisshop Harmsworth, 1st Baron Harmsworth (1869-1948), was the younger brother of the press proprietors Lord Northcliffe and Lord Rothermere. Although he played a role in the early development of the Harmsworth journalistic empire, Cecil chose a political career. He served as Liberal MP for Droitwich from 1906 to 1910, and for Luton from 1911 to 1922. After holding a number of minor government positions under Asquith, Harmsworth became a member of Lloyd George's War Cabinet Secretariat in 1917, and from 1919 to 1922 served as Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office. Harmsworth's diary forms a highly readable record of the politics of the period, detailing late-night Commons sittings and the rough and tumble of the campaign trail, as well as giving skilful pen-portraits of the major figures of the day. Northcliffe complained that Harmsworth lacked the ambition to make it to the front rank of politics, but his diary is a fascinating source.

Political parties formed the cornerstone of the liberal democracy for which Britain claimed it was fighting in the Second World War. However, that conflict represented the most sustained challenge to the British party system during the twentieth century. War forced the suspension of normal electoral politics, and exerted considerable extra demands on the time and loyalties of party activists and organizers. This all posed a serious challenge to the Conservative, Labor and Liberal parties.
Parties at War uses an unusually broad and deep range of records of the main political parties to explore how they responded to the challenge of war. Extensive use of the local as well as the national-level papers of the major parties offers a fuller picture than ever previously attempted.
Andrew Thorpe focuses on what parties actually did, at both local and national levels, to sustain their organization during the war. He assesses the varying impacts of war, not just on each of the parties, but also over time, and between the different regions and areas of Britain. Thorpe demonstrates how wartime struggles over organization had significance not just for the election of the first majority Labor government in 1945, but also for the longer-term development of "party" in modern British politics.