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Paul Addison’s The Road to 1945 (1975) was a seminal account of British politics during World War II.
It is generally thought to have established the view that Churchill’s coalition government laid the ground for a ‘post-war consensus’ on economic and social policy between the Labour and Conservative parties.
This view is thought to have become the historical orthodoxy, with claims that the consensus was a myth supposedly arising only in the late 1980s. My new article calls this account of the historiography into question.
First, Addison never claimed to have fathered the concept of ‘consensus’, which he said derived from social science.
Though he should not be denied credit for introducing it into the historical literature, the laurels should be shared with Addison’s friend and collaborator Angus Calder, who used it in his book The People’s War (1969).
Second, although The Road won warm praise upon publication, the notion of consensus did not receive uncritical acceptance; several of the original reviews foreshadowed the later debate.
Third, Addison’s major interpretive achievement, recognised at the time, was actually different. He demolished the belief that 1945 represented Labour’s ‘D-Day’ and instead located the roots of the Attlee government in the formation of the coalition in 1940.
This third point is now so much taken for granted that scholars have forgotten that it ever had to be proven.
The article concludes that The Road to 1945 should be read both as a reflection of Addison’s moderate social patriotism and as a landmark in the writing of contemporary British history.
The article is published in the journal Cercles and is called Per ABCA ad Attlee? The origins and early reception of Paul Addison’s The Road to 1945. It is open access and can be found here:
http://www.cercles.com/n37/toye.pdf
http://www.cercles.com/n37/toye.pdf
It is part of a special issue in memory of Paul, edited by Antoine Capet. Contributors include Gordon Brown (whom Paul taught), John Campbell, Kenneth O. Morgan, and Richard Overy. You can access it here:
http://www.cercles.com/page-7/
http://www.cercles.com/page-7/
