John Wheatley (Lives of the Left) Book

This political biography focuses on the career and ideas of a man at the centre of British Labour politics during the 1920s. The author charts John Wheatley's progress from his teenage years in a Lanarkshire coal mine to a key position in the first Labour government of Ramsay MacDonald in 1922. The text then goes on to examine Wheatley's growing estrangement from Labour's leadership, his strong support for the General Strike of 1926, his relationship with figures such as Oswald Mosley and James Maxton, and his eventual position as the leading critic of MacDonald's second goverment. The book shows how Wheatley was more than just a "Clydeside rebel". A successful businessman, yet an advocate of a British version of "socialism in one country", he epitomised many of the conflicts in the British Labour movement during a crucial period in its development.Read More