294 Peter Catterall As Nonconformity Gently Waned, the Labour Party
294 book reviews Peter Catterall Labour and the Free Churches, 1918–1939. Radicalism, Righteousness and Religion. Bloomsbury, London/New York 2016, xiv + 322 pp. isbn 9781441115898. £63; us$85.40. As nonconformity gently waned, the Labour Party waxed. This meticulously researched, perceptive, and subtle study charts the mingling of those two jour- neys between 1918 and 1939. The distinctiveness of the relationship between British religion and socialism has fascinated historians since Halévy’s con- troversial suggestion that evangelical religion (and particularly Methodism) staved off a French style revolution. Indeed, Catterall’s starting point is the oft-quoted comment of Morgan Phillips, the general secretary of the Labour Party 1944–1961, that socialism in Britain owed more to Methodism than Marx, and that therein lay its distinctiveness from its European anti-clerical cousins. Harold Wilson, a Congregationalist by upbringing, suggested that the allit- eration bred inaccuracy and ‘nonconformity’ would be better, but the point remains. As Catterall makes clear, during the interwar years, various brands of Methodism provided far more Labour mps and activists than the other Free Churches. Catterall uses “four prisms” to gain data about the relationship between the Free Churches and Labour—the attitude of Free Church leaderships to the party, local patterns of commitment and voting behaviour, the person- nel of the Labour movement, and ideas and ideals of both. Undergirding this is research into the denominational allegiance of mps, tuc General Council members, National Executive Committee members and the Labour councillors of Bolton, Liverpool, Bradford, and Norfolk.The mixed nature of the sources for all but mps means that the edges will always be fuzzy, but his instinct is to be inclusive—upbringing and ethos are as determinative as adult commitment.
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