Britain's First Labour Government

Eighty years ago Ramsay MacDonald took office as the first British Labour Prime Minister, the placards announcing LENIN DEAD, RAMSAY MACDONALD PREMIER. The judgement of historians on this short-lived minority administration in 1924, dependant on Liberal parliamentary votes, has often been 'in office, but not in power'. The First Labour Government is the first major account for nearly fifty years to re-assess critically Labour's first period in office in terms of domestic, foreign and imperial policy. It draws on a wide range of private papers and official sources and reconstructs the history of this forgotten government in the broader social and political context of the 1920s. This comprehensive study will appeal to everyone interested in twentieth- century British political history.

Keith Laybourn is Professor of History at the University of Huddersfield. He has published nearly thirty books and over fifty articles.