Pre-history: 1964-1979
The Gang of Three
Jenkins and the Jenkinsites
Anguish: 'Severe Mental Pain'
Born in Despair
Defectors and Loyalists
What Kind of Party? And Whose?
The Golden Age: March - December 1981
Jenkins as Leader: 1982-3
A 'Partnership of Principle'
Disappointment: June 1983
New Institutions for a New Party
Machinery, Members, and Money
A 'Media Party'?
The Party of a New Class
The SDP, The Alliance, and the Electorate
The Owen Ascendency I: 1983-5
The Owen Ascendency II: 1985-7
Humiliation: June 1987
The SDP Disintegrates: 1987-8
Of Merger and a Dead Parrot
Who Was to Blame?
SDP: A Study in Failure
Epilogue
Winner: W. J. M. Mackenzie Book Prize
Ivor Crewe and Anthony King are Professors of Government at the
University of Essex, and frequent contributors to the national
media. Ivor Crewe directed the British Election Study from 1973
until 1981 and is now Vice-Chancellor of the University of Essex.
His books include Decade of Dealignment (with Bo Särlvik) and The
British Electorate 1963-1992 (with Anthony Fox and Neil Day). He is
well known as a political commentator on television
and radio and writes for the Guardian and the Observer. Anthony
King has been Professor of Government at the University of Essex
since 1969. His books include Westminster and Beyond (with Anne
Sloman), British Members of
Parliament: A Self-Portrait and Britain Says Yes: The 1975
Referendum on the Common Market. He analyses the Gallup Poll for
the Daily Telegraph and appears frequently as an election
commentator on BBC Television. Since 1994 he has been a member of
the Committee on Standards in Public Life (the Nolan Committee).
`impressive, thorough and thoughtful ... full of fascinating
personal incident and political insight ... Their account is rich
and detailed combining careful analysis of intricate personal and
institutional politics with shrewd sociological observation ...
Crewe and King have performed a mighty task and their book is a
mine of data on the politics of the Eighties ... Given Crewe and
King's own role in the SDP's genesis, it was not doubt fitting that
the
SDP, on its deathbed, donated its archives to the University of
Essex, where Crewe and King have exploited them. They have done so
to such effect that all who study British politics are in their
debt.'
R. W. Johnson, London Review of Books
`Professors Crewe and King have produced a masterpiece of
contemporary history. They marshal complex arguments and masses of
detail with the art that conceals art. Their narrative sweeps
forward with captivating energy and style, and bristles with
mordant phrases ... Above all, Crewe and King analyse the complex
interplay between personality, belief and context - the key to any
political story - with a marvellous mixture of precision and
empathy ... For
once, the overworked adjective `definitive' is an understatement
... I cannot believe that any future historian will displace this
account, and I doubt if anyone will be fool enough to try.'
David Marquand, Observer
`This brilliant history - definitively researched, graced with wit,
insight and countless pungent anecdotes - tells of an attempt to
break away from bitterly personalised politics which foundered
because it was almost from the start bedevilled by bitterly
personlised politics.'
Gerald Kaufman, Sunday Telegraph
`A clear and witty appraisal of the Gang of Four ... admirable book
... Our two professors really go to town in this history of the
SDP. They write clearly, sometimes wittily, and without academic
jargon. They are masters of their material. They declare their
sympathy for the effort of the Gang of Four to reorganise British
politics, but this sympathy makes much of their comment
particularly damning. Along the way they unearth nuggets of new
fact ...
Despite the skill of the professors one cannot help wondering at
the sheer massiveness of their effort ... In this book the details,
the late-night sessions, the ashen faces, the passionate tears,
the
farcical press conference are described with a thoroughness worthy
of a summit between Reagan and Gorbachev.'
Douglas Hurd, The Daily Telegraph
`Ivor Crewe and Anthony King have written what will be for long the
definitive account of the rise and fall of the SDP. They do not
just analyse what went wrong but they also offer an absorbing
narrative of the party's tortured disintegration with vivid
character sketches of the Gang of Four.'
Peter Riddell, The Times
`The book brings alive the self-absorbed world of the SDP, in its
final days like "a small country's government in exile".'
Peter Riddell, The Times
`Admirable book ... They write clearly, sometimes wittily, and
without academic jargon. They are masters of their material. They
declare their sympathy for the effort of the Gang of Four to
reoganise British politics, but this sympathy makes much of their
comment particularly damning. Along the way they unearth nuggets of
new fact ... one cannot help wondering at the sheer massiveness of
their effort ... In this book the details, the documents, the
late-night sessions, the ashen faces, the passionate tears, the
farcical press conferences are described with a thoroughness worthy
of a summit between Reagan and Gorbachev.'
Daily Telegraph
`Any student of British politics must read this book. Here is the
history of the Social Democratic Party ... No scholar of British
politics need feel impelled to write such a book again ... it is a
cracking good story that Crewe and King have to tell.'
Financial Times
`Brilliant history - definitively researched, graced with wit,
insight and countless pungent anecdotes.'
Sunday Telegraph
`Thoroughly exhaustive chronicle.'
The Independent
`Professors Crewe and King have produced a masterpiece of
contemporary history. They marshal complex arguments and masses of
detail with the art that conceals art. Their narrative sweeps
forward with captivating energy and style, and bristles with
mordant phrases.'
The Observer
`The detailed and sympathetic reportage even of minor players'
motives and feelings makes it clear how close the authors are to
their subjects ... impressive, thorough and thoughtful ... full of
fascinating personal incident and political insight ... Crewe and
King have performed a mighty task and their book is a mine of data
on the politics of the Eighties ... all who study British politics
are in their debt.'
London Review of Books
`Even more compelling than it is poignant.'
The Times
`They have written what will surely be the definitive account. The
detail is formidable ... the 83 pages of footnotes are not for the
frivolous. But this reviewer found them riveting.'
New Statesman and Society
`A much more entertaining read than its purely academic origins
might suggest.'
Sunday Times
`In the first detailed account of the Liberal leadership's botched
attempt to ditch Roy Jenkins during the 1983 general election, they
illustrate the Alliance's inherent fragility.'
Tribune
`Often gripping.'
The Times
`In SDP ... Ivor Crewe and Anthony King combine a detailed and
enjoyable account of the party's development with a persuasive
analysis of its most important features. They carefully and
deliberately dissect the structure of the SDP ... Crewe and King
have a sharp eye for the farcical and the bizarre; the history of
the SDP provides them with plenty of material.'
Times Literary Supplement
`This study of the SDP is a classic of its kind, accurate,
detailed, perceptive, mercilessly honest ... theirs is a notable
accomplishment, valuable as history, stimulating as contemporary
commentary, detached as befits two fine political scientists
without being "academic", and throughout its many pages, a delight
to read.'
Times Higher Education Supplement
`Wonderful account of the brief life of the Social Democratic
Party.'
The Economist
`A comprehensive account of the why, having briefly and gloriously
flourished ... the infant quietly expired nine years later leaving
little of note for posterity.'
The Guardian
`Wonderful account of the brief life of the Social Democratic
Party.'
The Economist
`There is scarcely a serious student of contemporary British
politics, on either side of the Atlantic, who will fail to enjoy
and profit intellectually from reading this book. Exhaustively
researched, intelligently and cogently written and effectively
organized, SDP is unquestionably the definitive study to date of
the political party ... riveting narrative ... Crewe and King's
judgement is sound and their obituary not
unduly harsh.'
British Politics Group Newsletter
`A great story extremely well told by Messrs Crewe and King ... as
a thorough academic and historical exercise it is to be
admired.'
Liberal Democrat News
`They have written what is almost certainly the definitive study
both of this particular party and of centre-left politics in
Britain over the past fifteen years.'
Political Quarterly
`In the hands of Crewe and King, the story of the SDP is more than
a gripping narrative. Apart from providing a concise summary of the
party's organization ... they also subject the motives of the
original defectors to a convincing analysis ... Crewe and King
display considerable ingenuity in testing less obvious factors,
such as potential earnings outside parliament, membership of the
trade unions, local government experience, and the defector's place
of
residence.'
Government and Opposition
`Crewe and King present a very detailed history of this strange
enterprise to create a centre party, including five appendices and
numerous comprehensive notes ... There is unlikely to be a better
history of the SDP written in the future.'
Parliamentary Affairs
`a magisterial work - a definitive account of a remarkable episode
in British political history ... It is full of 'inside dope' and
tackles every question that one could think to ask about the SDP
... the book is splendidly written and is a thoroughly good read.
It is full of excellent character sketches.'
David Denver, EPOP Newsletter, January 1997
`This book charts the birth, brief life and death of the SDP and
will be instructive reading for the large number of MCD members who
want to see a Christian Democrat Party arise out of a supporting
and continuing Movement.'
The Christian Democrat
`as a near-definitive piece of contemporary political history it
would be hard to better'
John Stevenson, Worcester College, Oxford, Contemporary British
History, Vol. 10, No. 1, Spring '96
`an exhaustive account of what in the 1980s seemed a remarkable and
possibly decisive shift in British politics. Its 47 pages of
appendices offer a comprehensive compilation of statistical data
but it is the story that captures the attention. Crewe's and King's
is not the first detailed history of the rise and fall of the SDP
but it is by far the best.'
Journal of Legislative Studies, vol.3, no.2, Summer 1997
`In crisp, intelligent newsman's prose they unfold the sorry tale
of the party.'
The Daily Telegraph
`They set out to tell the story of the S.D.P., and to place it in
the context of late twentieth-century British politics. They do so
meticulously and with a feast of detail on electoral support, party
membership, and of course the dealings and wheelings of the
principal actors. S.D.P. is an impressive account, and its
judgements are in general astute and well balanced.'
Rodney Barker
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