The British Attempt to Construct a Socialist Commonwealth, 1945-1951

To the surprise of many, the 1945 general election led to the return of Britain’s first Labour majority government. Labour’s 1945 election manifesto declared that it was a socialist party and proud of it. The Attlee government created the modern welfare state and the National Health Service, and nationalized the public utilities. It sought to construct a New Jerusalem, a socialist commonwealth. Why did it not succeed in doing so? The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website.