Research Catalog

The Macmillan years, 1957-1963 : the emerging truth

Title: The Macmillan years, 1957-1963 : the emerging truth / Richard Lamb.
Author: Lamb, Richard.
Publication: London : John Murray, ©1995.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Text	Use in library	DA566.9.M33 L36 1995	Off-site

Details

Description

xi, 545 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations; 25 cm

Summary

"This is the first account of the Macmillan years to use Cabinet and other papers released under the thirty-year rule. They reveal unexpected turbulence in the corridors of power and show that despite his great intelligence, hard work and unparalleled political insight, Macmillan was not always, as Prime Minister, the skilful political manager and assured statesman portrayed in his memoirs and official biography." "In pursuit of electoral success, Macmillan demanded continuous expansion from his Chancellors Thorneycroft, Heatcoat Amory, Lloyd and Maudling, despite Treasury warnings of inflation and balance of payments crises. He achieved resounding victory in 1959 but it had to be followed by damaging and unpopular austerity." "Macmillan himself was an enthusiastic European, but fear of alienating his divided Cabinet prevented him from making the necessary concessions; he was baulked by Salisbury, Beaverbrook and the Tory Empire lobby. Here is the inside story of Heath's negotiation to join the EEC, torpedoed in January 1963 by de Gaulle's veto." "Despite his renowned 'wind of change' speech in Capetown, Macmillan was in fact horrified by the speed with which his Colonial Secretaries Macleod and Maudling tried to make the former African colonies independent. Newly released papers reveal resignation crises never mentioned by Macmillan, together with an unprecedented attempt to tamper with Lord Devlin's report on the Nyasaland killings."
"The special relationship with America was destroyed by Eden's Suez adventure, and Macmillan never succeeded in restoring it fully. His memoirs gloss over the bitter and humiliating disputes with Eisenhower and Kennedy, both of whom were adamantly opposed to any British independent nuclear deterrent. There were also continuing divisions over the Far East. And while nothing can detract from Macmillan's sterling work over the rapprochement between Khrushchev and Kennedy which produced the 1963 Test Ban Treaty, his claim that his meeting with Kennedy at Birchgrove in 1963 was a triumphant meeting of minds by two statesmen is fiction. At the time, Kennedy thought both Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary 'fuddyduddy' and was convinced that the Profumo scandal would bring Macmillan down." "The Government's strange behaviour in the face of that crisis and of Macmillan's illness brings the book to a memorable conclusion. Richard Lamb's remarkable research, and interviews with key figures of the time, remove many myths and present for the first time an unbiased view of Macmillan's years in office."--Jacket.

Subjects

Genre/Form

Biographies.

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (p. 516-518) and index.

Contents

1. Mending Bridges with Ike -- 2. Vote-winning Budgets -- 3. The 1959 General Election -- 4. Economic Policy 1960 -- 5. Selwyn Lloyd as Chancellor -- 6. Macmillan's Last Chancellor -- 7. EFTA of the Seventeen -- 8. EFTA of the Seven -- 9. EEC Negotiations -- 10. After the Veto -- 11. Kenya -- 12. Wind of Change -- 13. The End of Federation -- 14. Defence -- 15. Khrushchev and the West -- 16. The Far East -- 17. Home Affairs -- 18. A Bad Year -- Appendix: The Macmillan Cabinets.

ISBN

071955392X
9780719553929

LCCN

95209584

OCLC

ocm60225167
60225167
SCSB-14104652

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library