Must labour lose? The 1959 election and the politics of the people
Must labour lose? The 1959 election and the politics of the people
This article explores Mark Abrams, Richard Rose, and Rita Hinden's 1960 publication Must Labour Lose? in order to demonstrate that contemporary debates around British identity and political culture are nothing new. The concerns about political, party, and national identity in this book clearly prefigure 2016 debates about Britain, not least because a specific question—how to vote—became a conversation about a broader set of ideals. This article explores how Must Labour Lose? constructed an image of British politics in 1959. It interrogates its silences around racial identity and argues that we must read race into this book and others like it. And it concludes that research like this enables a much wider understanding of the British electorate than simply how they voted.
Brexit, Britain, Labour Party, Mark Abrams, Race, Richard Rose, Rita Hinden
65-77
Riley, Charlotte Lydia
47a3bd51-8e69-45f5-919e-3c64e60b8a91
June 2021
Riley, Charlotte Lydia
47a3bd51-8e69-45f5-919e-3c64e60b8a91
Riley, Charlotte Lydia
(2021)
Must labour lose? The 1959 election and the politics of the people.
Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques, 47 (2), .
(doi:10.3167/hrrh.2021.470206).
Abstract
This article explores Mark Abrams, Richard Rose, and Rita Hinden's 1960 publication Must Labour Lose? in order to demonstrate that contemporary debates around British identity and political culture are nothing new. The concerns about political, party, and national identity in this book clearly prefigure 2016 debates about Britain, not least because a specific question—how to vote—became a conversation about a broader set of ideals. This article explores how Must Labour Lose? constructed an image of British politics in 1959. It interrogates its silences around racial identity and argues that we must read race into this book and others like it. And it concludes that research like this enables a much wider understanding of the British electorate than simply how they voted.
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Accepted/In Press date: 2021
Published date: June 2021
Keywords:
Brexit, Britain, Labour Party, Mark Abrams, Race, Richard Rose, Rita Hinden
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Local EPrints ID: 449964
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/449964
ISSN: 0315-7997
PURE UUID: 68091f53-cb34-435c-ac6c-ce8e2bf215f9
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Date deposited: 30 Jun 2021 16:31
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:39
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