Building a New Jerusalem?: Labour in Power 1945-51, Part II
But how important was the Attlee Government? While Morgan, Vincent and Barnett focus their attentions on this "landmark" Government, Jose Harris argues that it was not as important in terms of its effects on British society as were other Governments in other periods of the twentieth century. While she refrains from considering any particular period of the century as the period of social change, Harris notes that certain periods, namely the First World War and the Interwar period were more important than 1945-1951. Whereas World War I fundamentally altered class and other relationships and the 1930s saw the greatest expansion of government expenditure in any peacetime economy, the Labour Government merely implemented reforms that were anticipated mainly by the war or the 1930s. [9] Furthermore, while the Welfare State and other Labour Government policies created a larger than ever peacetime bureaucracy, this change did not substantively alter the permanent structure of British government and society. [10] In the end, despite its record of achievement, Jose Harris feels the Labour Government was not all that important in the evolution of British society during the twentieth century.
In closing, I must say that I found Morgan and Harris to be the most convincing, and Vincent and Barnett less so. Morgan's greatest strength is his ability to critique the Labour Government for its failures while at the same time realizing its fundamental role in shaping modern British social history. By proceeding cautiously in both its establishment of the modern Welfare State as well as its nationalization program, the Attlee Government helped to establish the "post-war consensus" that held up until Thatcher. It remade society, and this effort "acted as a platform for successive governments" to effect much change. [11] Harris also focuses on long-term trends but from a different direction. While she discounts the importance of the Labour Government, her focus on continuity and evolution rather than sharp division is probably, in my opinion, the best way to describe British social history when considering the numerous counterchanges and continuities imbedded throughout.
I found Vincent to be less convincing and unnecessarily negative and polemical. To suggest that the Attlee Government did not effect any meaningful change whatsoever is somewhat disingenuous. Surely a government that implements a vast Welfare State and nationalizes nearly one-fifth of the economy can not be seen as a status quo government. While the changes that the Labour Government effected might not be nearly as
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