Maxton: A Biography [Paperback]

 

 

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This biography of Maxton sets out in detail not only the political journey of the young Caledonian from naive schoolteacher to revolutionary Parliamentarian, but also seeks to relate a time of unparalelled global social upheavel with the strife of the working classes in Glasgow and subsequent growth of the Independent Labour Party in response.

Brown seeks to enoble Maxton as a man who's conscience is deeply impressed upon by his work in the squalid schools that served the overcrowded tenements of Strathclyde, and how he arrived by his own conclusion that the systematic improvement of the quality of life for his pupils would be brought about by the advent of Socialist principles in relation to housing, equitable employment and healthcare for the wider population.

A frequent theme in Brown's often dispassionate discourse is of courage in the face of adversity. He tells of Maxton and his colleagues imprisonment, victimisation by the authorities, convalescence and frequent intimidation from sources as diverse as Glasgow education authority to members of his own beloved Independent Labour Party, however Brown characterises Maxton was consistently good humoured with unshakable principles, often captured orating with passion and hubris despite the risks to his own welfare and employment as a result of his Socialist beliefs. A theme that the author has carried throughout his own political career.

The academic perspective of the book illuminates the domestic situation in Scotland at a time when Bolshevism after the Russian Revolution was viewed with contempt and suspicion by a destitute Europe, and how Maxton turned from teacher to advocate, finding a platform in championing parliamentary socialism and democratic change over the increasingly militant Syndicalists and Leninists who preferred a more radical and confrontational revolution tantamount to Communism. Brown is also sedulous to note the Independent Labour Party's role in socially collective legislation championed by Gladstone and later Lloyd-George's Liberal governments, often accompanying the passing of a bill in Westminster with a dry, sardonic commentary provided by Maxton; quoting how in one instance Maxton had greeted PM David Lloyd-George to an address in Glasgow with preamble "He has come specially to speak to you and I have no doubt you will give him a patient hearing..." before finishing the introduction with "We regard him with suspicion because every act associated with his name has the taint of slavery about it." Needless to say, the Welshman made a hasty exit.

If there is one fault with the book it would be Brown's authorship. Clearly an academic fresh from years of study, he lacks perhaps the gift of a storyteller which would illuminate Maxton's life to that of a protagonist. However perhaps that would be an ultimately romantic and stylistic assessment of historical fact. Brown's historical analysis and evaluation largely views Maxton and his colleagues, among those Ramsay McDonald who was to become the first Labour Prime Minister, as failures for not being able to secure the radical reform they had so patiently campaigned for in their native Scotland. However it is interesting to contrast this account with further study of legislation to the eventual introduction of the National Health Service under Bevan in 1948 which had it's legal seeds sown in Maxton's time.

Regardless of the wider context of history and politics the book itself is a cornerstone of understanding the trenchant political thought that saw the Labour movement come to prominence as an act of necessity and pragmatism of the working man rather than through economic theory and revolutionary discord of European socialists. A pleasure and a triumph in leftist literature.

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