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Introduction: Historians and the Decline of the Liberal Party

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The Progressive Alliance and the Rise of Labour, 1903-1922

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Abstract

The collapse of the British Liberal Party and expansion thereafter of the Labour Party has attracted considerable attention within the academic literature. In this chapter the author outlines and explores the development and character of the historiographical debate surrounding this complex subject. She identifies the major tenets and state of the debate and examines the principal methodological approaches. A proportion of the literature on the decline of the Liberal Party focuses upon specific case studies of political change. The author considers the usefulness of the local study and concludes by introducing the two significant industrial centres evaluated within this comparative analysis: Manchester and Stoke-on-Trent.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The Times, 30th December 1918.

  2. 2.

    G. Dangerfield , The Strange Death of Liberal England (London, 1936).

  3. 3.

    See for example, D. Tanner, Political Change and the Labour Party, 1900–1918 (Cambridge, 1990).

  4. 4.

    For a summary of the debate on class politics and the Liberal Party see G. Searle, The Liberal Party, Triumph and Disintegration 1886–1929 (London, 1992), pp. 55–9. Most recent studies have recognised the complexity of class and have rejected the supposed homogeneity of the British working class.

  5. 5.

    Some of the most prominent exponents of the inevitable rise of Labour school include K. Laybourn and J. Reynolds, Liberalism and the Rise of Labour, 1890–1918 (London, 1984); P. Thompson, Socialists, Liberals and Labour (London, 1967); A. Howkins, ‘Edwardian Liberalism and Industrial Unrest’, History Workshop Journal (1977).

  6. 6.

    See H. Perkin, The Origins of Modern English Society 1780–1880 (London, 1969).

  7. 7.

    R. McKibbin , The Evolution of the Labour Party 1910–1924 (Oxford, 1974).

  8. 8.

    R. McKibbin, Evolution, p. 240.

  9. 9.

    H. Matthew, R. McKibbin and J. A. Kay, ‘The Franchise Factor in the Rise of the Labour Party’, English Historical Review, 91 (1976).

  10. 10.

    See K. Laybourn, The Rise of Labour: The British Labour Party 1890–1979 (London, 1988), p. 27.

  11. 11.

    See B. Lancaster, Radicalism, Co-operation and Socialism: Leicester Working Class Politics 1860–1906 (Leicester, 1987), p. 22.

  12. 12.

    R. McKibbin, Parties and People: England 1914–1951 (Oxford, 2010).

  13. 13.

    Ibid, p. 2. For McKibbin’s full exploration of his position today, see ibid, pp. 1–32.

  14. 14.

    T. Wilson, Downfall of the Liberal Party, 1914–1935 (London, 1966) p. 23.

  15. 15.

    Ibid, p. 16.

  16. 16.

    Ibid, p. 18.

  17. 17.

    R. Douglas, History of the Liberal Party (London, 1971).

  18. 18.

    See also R. Douglas, ‘Labour in Decline, 1910–1914’, in K. D. Brown, (ed.) Essays in Anti-Labour History (London, 1974).

  19. 19.

    P. Clarke , Lancashire and the New Liberalism (Cambridge, 1971).

  20. 20.

    P. Thompson, Socialists, Liberals and Labour: The Struggle for London, 1885–1914 (London, 1967).

  21. 21.

    Ibid, pp. 10 and 167–189.

  22. 22.

    D. Tanner, Political Change and the Labour Party 1900–1918 (Cambridge, 1990) p. 431.

  23. 23.

    See M. Savage, ‘The Rise of Labour in Local Perspective’, Journal of Local and Regional Studies, 10 (1990), p. 12 and ‘Political Alignments in Modern Britain: Do Localities Matter?’ Political Geography Quarterly, 6, (1987), pp. 53–76.

  24. 24.

    Ibid, p. 7.

  25. 25.

    See M. Savage, The Dynamics of Working-Class Politics: The Labour Movement in Preston, 1880–1940 (Cambridge, 1987).

  26. 26.

    Exceptions include G. Bernstein, ‘Liberalism and the Progressive Alliance in the Constituencies 1900–1914: Three Case Studies’, Historical Journal, 26, (1983), pp. 617–640 and S. Davies and B. Morley, ‘The Politics of Place: A Comparative Analysis of Electoral Politics in Blackburn, Bolton, Burnley and Bury’, Manchester Region History Review, 14, 2000.

  27. 27.

    M. Pugh, ‘Yorkshire and the New Liberalism’, Journal of Modern History, Supplement, 50 (1978) and A. W. Purdue, ‘The Liberal and Labour Parties in North-East Politics 1900–14: the Struggle for Supremacy’, International Review of Social History, 26 (1981).

  28. 28.

    See J. Hill , ‘Manchester and Salford Politics and the Early Development of the Independent Labour Party’, International Review of Social History, 24 (1981).

  29. 29.

    A. W. Purdue, ‘The Liberal and Labour Parties’.

  30. 30.

    M. Pugh, ‘Yorkshire and the New Liberalism?’ Modern History Journal, 50, supplement (1978).

  31. 31.

    K. Morgan, ‘New Liberalism and the Challenge of Labour; the Welsh Experience’ in K. D. Brown, The First Labour Party 1906–1914 (London, 1985), p. 172.

  32. 32.

    P. Stead, ‘Establishing a Labour Heartland’ in ibid, pp. 69–72.

  33. 33.

    W. Hamish Fraser, ‘The Labour Party in Scotland’ in ibid, pp. 52–59.

  34. 34.

    See J. Lawrence, Speaking for the People: Party, Language and Popular Politics in England, 1860–1914 (Cambridge, 1998), p. 266.

  35. 35.

    Ibid.

  36. 36.

    Ibid, p. 267.

  37. 37.

    See S. Davies , Liverpool Labour: Social and Political Influences on the Development of the Labour Party, 1900–1939 (Keele, 1996) and ‘The Liverpool Labour Party and the Liverpool Working Class, 1900–1939’, Bulletin of the North West Labour History Society, 6 (1980).

  38. 38.

    See M. Petter, ‘The Progressive Alliance’, History, 58 (1973).

  39. 39.

    M. Petter, ibid, p. 48.

  40. 40.

    G. Bernstein , ‘Liberalism and the Progressive Alliance in the Constituencies 1900–1914: Three Case Studies’, Historical Journal, 26 (1983) pp. 617–40.

  41. 41.

    Ibid, p. 637.

  42. 42.

    See D. Tanner, Political Change, pp. 317–348.

  43. 43.

    Ibid, p. 347.

  44. 44.

    Ibid.

  45. 45.

    See D. Tanner, Political Change, pp. 347–48.

  46. 46.

    For Tanner’s analysis of the impact of the First World War and the Progressive Alliance, see Political Change, pp. 395–408.

  47. 47.

    For McKibbin’s evaluation of the Progressive Alliance see R. McKibbin, Parties and People: England 1914–1951 (Oxford, 2010) pp. 2–20.

  48. 48.

    Ibid, p. 3.

  49. 49.

    Ibid.

  50. 50.

    McKibbin even suggests that had the Conservative Party not adopted the outright opposition it did on various issues (the 1909 budget, the constitution, Ireland and education to name but a few) the Progressive Alliance might have collapsed much sooner. Moreover, he suggests that, had the Balfour administration overturned (for example) the Taff Vale decision, the Progressive Alliance might never have happened in the first place; see R. McKibbin, Parties and People, pp. 4–5.

  51. 51.

    See T. Wilson, Downfall; T. Wilson, ‘The British General Election of 1918’, Journal of Modern History (1964); J. Turner, British Politics and the Great War: Coalition and Conflict 1915–1918 (New Haven 1992) and K. O. Morgan, Consensus and Disunity, the Lloyd George Coalition Government 1918–1922 (Oxford 1979).

  52. 52.

    See R. McKibbin, Evolution.

  53. 53.

    These include M. Savage, Dynamics; B. Doyle, ‘Urban Liberalism and the Lost Generation, Middle Class Culture in Norwich 1900–1935’, Historical Journal, 38 (1995); J. Smyth, ‘Resisting Labour: Unionists, Liberals and Moderates in Glasgow between the Wars’, Historical Journal 46, 2 (2003).

  54. 54.

    Lawrence, for example, ends his study of Wolverhampton in 1914, Tanner in 1918 and Cook’s examination does not begin until 1922.

  55. 55.

    For the best analysis of how the war affected the Liberal Party ideologically and in terms of organisation see T. Wilson, Downfall, pp. 23–48.

  56. 56.

    Tanner has also suggested that it is wise not to understate the Liberal Party’s potential from 1918; despite the party’s poor national standing, the Liberals could still outpoll Labour in a number of working-class seats, particularly in areas where the candidates articulated a radical programme. The Liberals’ performance in 1918 and up to 1922 was influenced by other factors, most notably the impact of the Coalition. This ‘blurred their public image and damaged their performance’. See D. Tanner, ‘Class Voting and Radical Politics: the Liberal and Labour Parties, 1910–1931’ in J. Lawrence and M. Taylor (eds) Electoral behaviour in Britain since 1820 (Aldershot, 2002), p. 117.

  57. 57.

    See D. Tanner, Political Change, pp. 419–422.

  58. 58.

    See P. Clarke , Lancashire, pp. 395–397.

  59. 59.

    Ibid.

  60. 60.

    See M. Hart , ‘Liberals, War and the Franchise’, English Historical Review, 97, (1982), pp. 820–32.

  61. 61.

    See J. Turner, ‘The Labour Vote and the Franchise after 1918: An Investigation of the English Evidence’, History and Computing (1987), pp. 136–142.

  62. 62.

    See R. Gregory , The Miners and British Politics (Oxford, 1978), p. 191.

  63. 63.

    R. McKibbin, Parties and People, pp. 29–32.

  64. 64.

    See H. Pelling, Origins of the Labour Party; R. McKibbin, Evolution; K. Laybourn and J. Reynolds, Liberalism and the Rise of Labour.

  65. 65.

    For a good evaluation of the debate on the emergence of class politics see G. Searle, The Liberal Party, Triumph and Disintegration 1886–1929 (London, 1992), pp. 55–59.

  66. 66.

    See H. Pelling, ‘Labour and the Downfall of Liberalism’ in Popular Politics and Society (London, 1979), p. 120. Pelling did, however, recognise that such change would inevitably be slow because sectional interests such as religion remained powerful forces and so were likely to inhibit Labour’s expansion; see H. Pelling, Modern Britain, 1885–1955 (Edinburgh, 1960), p. 6.

  67. 67.

    See A. Marwick, The Deluge (London, 1991), pp. 344–348.

  68. 68.

    See B. Waites, ‘The Effects of the First World War on Class and Status 1910–1920’, Journal of Contemporary History, 11 (1976); B. Waites, A Class Society at War 1914–1918 (Leamington Spa, 1987); J. Winter, The Great War and the British People (Basingstoke, 2003); J. Cronin , Labour and Society in Modern Britain (London, 1984) and J. Cronin , ‘The Crisis of State and Society in Britain 1917–1922 in L. Haimson and C. Tilly (eds) Strikes, Wars and Revolution in an International Perspective (Cambridge, 1989), pp. 462–468.

  69. 69.

    See, for example, K. Laybourn and J. Reynolds, Liberalism and the Rise of Labour (London, 1984).

  70. 70.

    See, for example, D. Tanner, ‘Class Voting and Radical Politics: the Electoral Expansion of the Labour Party 1910–1931’ in J. Lawrence and M. Taylor (eds.) Party, State and Society: Electoral Behaviour in Modern Britain (Aldershot, 2002). For the opposing approach to Marwick et al. see also T. Wilson, The Myriad Faces of war: Britain and the Great War 1914–1918 (Cambridge, 1986); R. Rubin, War Law and Labour: the Munitions’ Acts, State Regulation and the Unions 1915–1921 (Oxford, 1987) and H. Perkin, The Rise of Professional Society: England Since 1880 (London, 1989). It ought to be noted that a small number of historians have supported Marwick’s approach, see N. Whiteside, ‘The British Population at War’ in J. Turner (ed.), Britain and the First World War (London, 1988) and J. M. Bourne, Britain and the Great War 1914–1918 (London, 1989).

  71. 71.

    For a good analysis of this body of work see D. Tanner, Political Change, pp. 353–355.

  72. 72.

    Ibid, p. 357.

  73. 73.

    Ibid. The emphasis is mine.

  74. 74.

    See P. E. Dewey, ‘Military Recruiting and the British Labour Force during the First World War’, Historical Journal (1994) and R. Whipp, Patterns of Labour: Work and Social Change in the Pottery Industry (London, 1990), pp. 110–116.

  75. 75.

    For analysis of the state controlled industries see B. E. Supple, The History of the Coalmining Industry (London, 1987); P. S. Bagwell, The Railwaymen (London, 1963) and E. Taplin, The Dockers Union (Leicester, 1985).

  76. 76.

    See P. Joyce, Visions of the People, Industrial England and the Question of Class, 1848–1914 (Cambridge, 1991) and Democratic Subjects: The Self and the Social in Nineteenth Century England (Cambridge, 1994).

  77. 77.

    See the introduction in J. Lawrence and M. Taylor, Party, State and Society, pp. 1–26 and the chapter in the same book by J. Lawrence, ‘The Dynamics of Urban Politics 1867–1914’, pp. 79–105.

  78. 78.

    See ibid, p. 15.

  79. 79.

    See in particular D. Tanner, ‘Class voting and Radical Politics: the Liberal and Labour Parties, 1910–1931 in J. Lawrence and M. Taylor, Party, State and Society, pp. 106–130.

  80. 80.

    Ibid, p. 106.

  81. 81.

    Ibid.

  82. 82.

    Ibid.

  83. 83.

    Ibid, p. 124.

  84. 84.

    See R. McKibbin, Evolution; K. Laybourn and J. Reynolds, Liberalism and the Rise of Labour; M. G. Sheppard and J. L. Halstead, ‘Labour’s Municipal Election Performance in Provincial England and Wales 1901–1913’, Bulletin of the Society for the Study of Labour History (1979); B. Lancaster, Radicalism, Co-operation and Socialism, Politics in Leicester1860–1906 (Leicester, 1987).

  85. 85.

    McKibbin points out how Labour’s net gains across the country were 23, 78 and 85 in 1909, 1911 and 1913 respectively, see R. McKibbin, Evolution, p. 85.

  86. 86.

    See M. G. Sheppard, ‘The Effects of the Franchise Provisions on the Social and Sex Composition of the Municipal Electorate 1882–1914’, Bulletin of the Society for the Study of Labour History, 45 (1982).

  87. 87.

    See C. Cook , ‘Labour and the Downfall of the Liberal Party 1906–1914’ in A. Sked and C. Cook (eds) Crisis and Controversy: Essays in Honour of A. J. P. Taylor (London, 1976) and M. Pugh, ‘Yorkshire and the New Liberalism’, Journal of Modern History, Supplement, 50 (1978).

  88. 88.

    The franchise for local elections was different from that of parliamentary elections; women were enfranchised earlier. See P. Hollis, Ladies Elect: Women in English Local Government 1865–1914 (Oxford, 1989).

  89. 89.

    See D. Tanner, ‘The Parliamentary Electoral System, the Fourth Reform Act and the Rise of Labour in England and Wales’, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, 56 (1983), pp. 205–219.

  90. 90.

    See J. Davis, ‘Slums and the Vote, 1867–1890’, Historical Research, 64 (1991), pp. 375–388 and more recently; ‘The Enfranchisement of the Urban Poor in Late-Victorian Britain’ in P. Ghosh and L. Goldman (eds) Politics and Culture in Victorian Britain (Oxford, 2006).

  91. 91.

    C. Cook, ‘Labour and the Downfall of the Liberal Party, 1906–1914’ in A. Sked and C. Cook (eds), Crisis and Controversy: Essays in Honour of A. J. P. Taylor (London, 1976), pp. 55–58 and 62.

  92. 92.

    For a full consideration of Labour councillors’ ability to have proposals adopted, see M. Cahill, ‘Labour in the Municipalities’ in K. D. Brown (ed.) The First Labour Party, 1906–1914 (London, 1985).

  93. 93.

    See Doyle’s work on the Liberal Party in Norwich, which concludes that the Liberals managed to sustain considerable middle-class Nonconformist allegiance well into the 1930s, B. Doyle, ‘Urban Liberalism and the Lost Generation: Politics and Middle Class Culture in Norwich 1900–1935’, Historical Journal, 38 (1995), pp. 617–34.

  94. 94.

    For a consideration of the methodological difficulties of examining municipal election performance see D. Tanner, ‘Election Statistics and the Rise of Labour 1906–1931’, Historical Journal, 34 (1991).

  95. 95.

    For an assessment of the impact of the ‘new political history’ see S. Fielding, ‘Looking for the ‘New Political History’, Journal of Contemporary History, 42 (2007), pp. 515–524.

  96. 96.

    P. Readman, ‘The State of Twentieth- Century British Political History’, Journal of Policy History, 21, 3 (2009), p. 219.

  97. 97.

    See A. K. Russell, Liberal Landslide: The General Election of 1906 (Newton Abbot, 1973); N. Blewett , The Peers, the Parties, and the People: The General Elections of 1910 (London, 1972); C. Cook , The Age of Alignment: Electoral Politics in Britain, 1922–1929 (London, 1975) and A. Thorpe, The British General Election of 1931 (Oxford, 1991).

  98. 98.

    See R. McKibbin, Parties and People, p. 32.

  99. 99.

    Disraeli quote cited in A. Kidd, Manchester: A History (Keele, 1993), p. 38.

  100. 100.

    A notable observer of nineteenth-century Manchester was Friedrich Engels in his The Condition of the Working Class in England (Leipzig, 1845).

  101. 101.

    J. Walton, Lancashire: A Social History 1558–1939 (Manchester, 1994), p. 129.

  102. 102.

    See, for example, H. Pelling, The Origins of the Labour Party and A Short History of the Labour Party.

  103. 103.

    Studies which examine aspects of Manchester’s political history include J. Hill, ‘Manchester and Salford Politics and the Early Development of the Independent Labour Party’, International Review of Social History, 24 (1981); D. McHugh, ‘The Labour Party in Manchester and Salford before the First World War: A Case of Unequal Development’, Manchester Regional History Review, 14 (2000) and N. Reid, ‘Manchester and Salford ILP: A More Controversial Aspect of the Pre-1914 Era’, Bulletin of the North West Labour History Society, 5 (1978).

  104. 104.

    See J. Moore, The Transformation of Urban Liberalism (Aldershot, 2006) and D. McHugh, Labour in the City: The Development of the Labour Party in Manchester 1918–1931 (Manchester, 2006).

  105. 105.

    For consistency, I have used the title Stoke-on-Trent throughout although it did not actually come into being until 1910 with the federation of the borough. Any reference to ‘Stoke’ refers specifically to that town (Stoke-upon-Trent) which is one of the constituent components of the federated borough (after 1925, city) of Stoke-on-Trent.

  106. 106.

    Frank Swinnerton in his introduction to the 1953 edition of Bennett’s Anna of the Five Towns reprinted in A. Bennett , Anna of the Five Towns (London, 2001).

  107. 107.

    J. B. Priestley, English Journey (Ilkley, 2009), pp. 207 and 193.

  108. 108.

    Ibid, pp. 201 and 207.

  109. 109.

    C. Shaw, When I Was a Child: Growing up in the Potteries in the 1840s (Derby, 2013), p. 36.

  110. 110.

    See ibid, pp. 173–176.

  111. 111.

    Ibid, p. 176.

  112. 112.

    R. Gregory , The Miners and British Politics, 1906–1914 (Oxford, 1968).

  113. 113.

    R. Whipp, Patterns of Labour: Work and Social Change in the Pottery Industry (London, 1990).

  114. 114.

    Thistlewaite quoted in R. Whipp, Patterns of Labour, p. 2.

  115. 115.

    Pelling suggests that by the turn of the century the influence of Nonconformity could only be maintained in smaller, somewhat isolated, towns; see H. Pelling, Social Geography, pp. 430–33.

  116. 116.

    See R. McKibbin, Evolution, R. Gregory, Miners, British Politics, and D. Tanner, Political Change.

  117. 117.

    See table in S. Davies, Liverpool Labour (Keele, 1996), pp. 84–85 showing Labour representation in county boroughs in descending order of Labour strength. By 1929, Stoke-on-Trent was ranked in eighth place (from forty) and the party’s position (although dipping slightly in 1929) remained solid.

  118. 118.

    McHugh’s study of Manchester Labour politics after 1918, for example, provides little examination of the party’s electoral strategy, policy or appeal during the 1918 or 1922 general elections or the two by-elections in 1919 and 1922; see D. McHugh, Labour in the City (Manchester, 2006).

  119. 119.

    See R. McKibbin, Evolution, pp. 82–7.

  120. 120.

    T. G. Otte and P. Readman (eds) By-Elections in British Politics, 1832–1914 (Woodbridge, 2013).

  121. 121.

    P. Readman and L. Blaxill in ibid, p. 228.

  122. 122.

    Ibid, p. 247.

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  1. Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK

    Samantha Wolstencroft

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  1. Samantha Wolstencroft
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Wolstencroft, S. (2018). Introduction: Historians and the Decline of the Liberal Party. In: The Progressive Alliance and the Rise of Labour, 1903-1922. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75744-5_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75744-5_1

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-75743-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-75744-5

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