David Lloyd George and the British Labour Movement

Before the First World War, Lloyd George moved from being the leading Nonconformist Welsh Radical in to being a highly effective Radical minister, providing imaginative solutions to social welfare and free trade finance. Highly sympathetic to poor people and unorganised labour, he was not trade union minded.

"Wrigley can rightly point to the surprising historiographical neglect of Lloyd George's relationship with the Labour movement. His book does much to repair this omission...{The pre-war chapters} offer an interpretation of Lloyd George's career as a pragmatic radical which confirms that he was supremely an executive politician; he was the man who got things done." - Peter Clarke, History. / "For Lloyd George's relations with Labour, David Lloyd George and the British Labour Movement by Chris Wrigley is the authoritative work." - John Grigg. / 'Wrigley's research is good and his style readable, if a little rough and ready. He has added a useful item to the growing Lloyd George bibliography.' - Bentley B. Gilbert, Journal of Modern History, 50, 1, March 1978, 142-6 (at 146). /
'Admirably researched' - F.M. Leventhal, American Historical Review, 82,1, February 1977, 106-7.

The author is Emeritus Professor of History, University of Nottingham and former President of the Historical Association, UK.

Professor Wrigley's monograph looks at 20th century British history. Its major subject is the development of the state's role in industrial relations during the first world war. It focuses on the key role of David Lloyd George, and also provides an examination of his earlier relationship with the labour movement and his efforts at conciliation while a cabinet minister in the pre-war liberal governments.

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