Jeremy Corbyn and the Strange Rebirth of Labour England - Hardcover

Mark Seddon; Francis Beckett

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1785904000 ISBN 13: 9781785904004

Publisher: Biteback Publishing, 2018

Synopsis

Post-war Labour England wasn't a bad place to live, but after Labour s 2015 election defeat, the prospect of a healthier, happier and fairer country seemed more remote than ever.

Who would have predicted that career backbencher and serial rebel Jeremy Corbyn would be the one to breathe new life into a near moribund Labour Party? Defying all odds, and most commentators and pollsters, Labour staged a remarkable comeback at the 2017 election.

Love him or loathe him and most people feel one way or the other Corbyn represents a new hope, which everyone believed had been extinguished by the bitter hostility of the Thatcher era and the grubby triangulations of the Blair years.

Almost uniquely amongst European social democratic parties, Corbyn's party has rallied. It has turned its back on New Labour, membership is thriving and, at long last, the party is appealing to the young. Labour England wasn't dead it had merely been sleeping.

In Jeremy Corbyn and the Strange Rebirth of Labour England, Francis Beckett and Mark Seddon offer an alternative and refreshing take on the sad fate of Labour England over the past four decades. They then turn their attention to the extraordinary reversal of fortunes of the Corbyn years, and to what a new Labour England might look like with or without Corbyn.

About this title

Review:

Could it? Should it? An elegant statement of belief from two masters. I lived through last time the triumphs and the tears. With this, my breath is well and truly bated. --Alastair Stewart

A book that brilliantly challenges the narrow-minded assumptions and misplaced fashionable orthodoxies of most political commentary. In placing Corbyn's rise in a wider historical context, the authors shine fresh light on its epic significance, while avoiding uncritical hero worship and lazy disdain. --Steve Richards

All Labour supporters should read this book because those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. It takes us from the 70s to now and is highly readable. One does not need to share all the judgements to learn from the story. --Clare Short

This brilliant, compelling book is a must-read insight into the peaceful political revolution happening in Britain and how Labour avoided the terrible fate of many of its European sister parties. --Owen Jones

About the Author:

Mark Seddon was editor of Tribune for thirteen years and a member of Labour's ruling National Executive Committee for eight years, before becoming the first UN & New York correspondent for al Jazeera English TV. He has also worked for UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon and for Gordon Brown in his capacity as UN Special Envoy for Global Education. He has written for amongst others: the New York Times, Boston Globe, The Guardian, The Times, The Independent, Daily Mail, The Spectator, New Statesman, Private Eye, The Oldie and Country Life. He is the author of Standing for Something: Life in the Awkward Squad.

Francis Beckett is an author, journalist, broadcaster and contemporary historian. His books include Gordon Brown, The Great City Academy Fraud and Clem Atlee. His latest book, What Did the Baby Boomers Ever Do For Us?, argues that the children of the sixties inherited the good society from earlier generations, but through ignorance and foolishness, trashed it. He is an expert on Prime Ministers, having written biographies of four of them Attlee, Macmillan, Blair and Brown, edited a series of shorts called The 20 Prime Ministers of the Twentieth Century for Haus Publishing, and edited a counterfactual book, The Prime Ministers Who Never Were, for Biteback.

About this edition

• Publisher: Biteback Publishing
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1785904000
• ISBN 13: 9781785904004
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352