Ramsay MacDonald
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs | |||||||||||||||||
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In office 22 January – 3 November 1924 | |||||||||||||||||
Preceded by | The Marquess Curzon | ||||||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Austen Chamberlain | ||||||||||||||||
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Personal details | |||||||||||||||||
Born | James McDonald Ramsay 12 October 1866 North Atlantic Ocean | ||||||||||||||||
Resting place | Holy Trinity Church, Spynie | ||||||||||||||||
Political party |
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Spouse |
Margaret Gladstone (m. 1896; died 1911) | ||||||||||||||||
Children | 6, including Malcolm and Ishbel | ||||||||||||||||
Alma mater | Birkbeck, University of London | ||||||||||||||||
Profession | Politician | ||||||||||||||||
Signature | |||||||||||||||||
James Ramsay MacDonald
MacDonald, along with Keir Hardie and Arthur Henderson, was one of the three principal founders of the Labour Party in 1900. He was chairman of the Labour MPs before 1914 and, after an eclipse in his career caused by his opposition to the First World War, he was Leader of the Labour Party from 1922. The second Labour Government (1929–1931) was dominated by the Great Depression. He formed the National Government to carry out spending cuts to defend the gold standard, but it had to be abandoned after the Invergordon Mutiny, and he called a general election in 1931 seeking a "doctor's mandate" to fix the economy.
The National coalition won an overwhelming landslide and the Labour Party was reduced to a rump of around 50 seats in the House of Commons. His health deteriorated and he stood down as Prime Minister in 1935, remaining as Lord President of the Council until retiring in 1937. He died later that year.
MacDonald's speeches, pamphlets and books made him an important theoretician. Historian John Shepherd states that "MacDonald's natural gifts of an imposing presence, handsome features and a persuasive oratory delivered with an arresting Highlands accent made him the iconic Labour leader". After 1931, MacDonald was repeatedly and bitterly denounced by the Labour movement as a traitor to its cause. Since the 1960s, some historians have defended his reputation, emphasising his earlier role in building up the Labour Party, dealing with the Great Depression, and as a forerunner of the political realignments of the 1990s and 2000s.[2]
Early life
Lossiemouth
MacDonald was born at Gregory Place,
Ramsay MacDonald received an elementary education at the
Discovering socialism in London
Following a short period of work addressing envelopes at the
MacDonald retained an interest in
Politics in the 1880s was still of less importance to MacDonald than furthering his education. In 1886–87, MacDonald studied
In 1888, MacDonald took employment as private secretary to
Active politics
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) had created the Labour Electoral Association (LEA) and entered into an unsatisfactory alliance with the Liberal Party in 1886.[21] In 1892, MacDonald was in Dover to give support to the candidate for the LEA in the general election, who was well beaten. MacDonald impressed the local press[22][pages needed] and the Association and was adopted as its candidate, announcing that his candidature would be under a Labour Party banner.[23][page needed] He denied the Labour Party was a wing of the Liberal Party but saw merit in a working political relationship. In May 1894, the local Southampton Liberal Association was trying to find a labour-minded candidate for the constituency. Two others joined MacDonald to address the Liberal Council: one was offered but turned down the invitation, while MacDonald failed to secure the nomination despite strong support among Liberals.[24]
In 1893,
As Party Secretary, MacDonald negotiated
It was during this period that MacDonald and his wife began a long friendship with the social investigator and reforming civil servant
In 1906, the LRC changed its name to the "
Party Leadership
In 1911 MacDonald became "Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party", the leader of the party. He was the chief intellectual leader of the party, paying little attention to class warfare and much more to the emergence of a powerful state as it exemplified the Darwinian evolution of an ever more complex society. He was an Orthodox Edwardian progressive, keen on intellectual discussion, and averse to agitation.[37]
Within a short period, his wife became ill with blood poisoning and died. This deeply and permanently affected MacDonald.[38]
MacDonald had always taken a keen interest in foreign affairs and knew from his visit to South Africa, just after the
The Party supported the government in its request for £100,000,000 of war credits and, as MacDonald could not, he resigned from the party Chairmanship. Arthur Henderson became the new leader, while MacDonald took the party Treasurer's post.[43] Despite his opposition to the war, MacDonald visited the Western Front in December 1914 with the approval of Lord Kitchener. MacDonald and General Seely set off for the front at Ypres and soon found themselves in the thick of an action in which both behaved with the utmost coolness. Later, MacDonald was received by the Commander-in-Chief at St Omer and made an extensive tour of the front. Returning home, he paid a public tribute to the courage of the French troops, but said nothing then or later of having been under fire himself.[44]
During the early part of the war, he was extremely unpopular and was accused of treason and cowardice. Former Liberal Party MP and publisher Horatio Bottomley attacked him through his magazine John Bull in September 1915, by publishing an article carrying details of MacDonald's birth and his so-called deceit in not disclosing his real name.[45][46] His illegitimacy was no secret and he had not seemed to have suffered by it, but, according to the journal he had, by using a false name, gained access to parliament falsely and should suffer heavy penalties and have his election declared void. MacDonald received much internal support, but how the disclosures were made public had affected him.[47] He wrote in his diary:
...I spent hours of terrible mental pain. Letters of sympathy began to pour in upon me. ... Never before did I know that I had been registered under the name of Ramsay, and cannot understand it now. From my earliest years, my name has been entered in lists, like the school register, etc. as MacDonald.
In August 1916 the Moray Golf Club passed a resolution declaring that MacDonald's anti-war activities "had endangered the character and interests of the club" and that he had forfeited his right to membership.[48] In January 1917 MacDonald published National Defence, in which he argued that open diplomacy and disarmament were necessary to prevent future wars.[49]
As the war dragged on, his reputation recovered but he still lost his seat in the 1918 "
MacDonald denounced the Treaty of Versailles: "We are beholding an act of madness unparalleled in history".[51]
In Opposition
1920–1923
MacDonald stood for Parliament in the 1921 Woolwich East by-election and lost. His opponent, Captain Robert Gee, had been awarded the Victoria Cross at Cambrai; MacDonald tried to counter this by having ex-soldiers appear on his platforms. MacDonald also promised to pressure the government into converting the Woolwich Arsenal to civilian use.[52] Horatio Bottomley intervened in the by-election, opposing MacDonald's election because of his anti-war record.[53] Bottomley's influence may have been decisive in MacDonald's failure to be elected as there were under 700 votes difference between Gee and MacDonald.[54]
In 1922, MacDonald was returned to the House as MP for Aberavon in Wales, with a vote of 14,318 against 11,111 and 5,328 for his main opponents. His rehabilitation was complete; the Labour New Leader magazine opined that his election was, "enough in itself to transform our position in the House. We have once more a voice which must be heard".[55] By now, the party was reunited and MacDonald was re-elected as Leader. Historian Kenneth O. Morgan examines his newfound stature:
- as dissolution set in with the Lloyd George coalition in 1921–22, and unemployment mounted, MacDonald stood out as the leader of a new kind of broad-based left. His opposition to the war had given him a new charisma. More than anyone else in public life, he symbolised peace and internationalism, decency and social change.... [He] had become The voice of conscience.[56]
At the
In 1922, MacDonald visited
MacDonald became noted for "woolly" rhetoric such as the occasion at the Labour Party Conference of 1930 at Llandudno when he appeared to imply unemployment could be solved by encouraging the jobless to return to the fields "where they till and they grow and they sow and they harvest". Equally, there were times when it was unclear what his policies were. There was already some unease in the party about what he would do if Labour was able to form a government.[58]
Election of 1923
At the
Prime Minister (1924)
First term: January–October 1924
MacDonald had never held office but demonstrated energy, executive ability, and political astuteness. He consulted widely within his party, making the Liberal
While there were no major labour strikes during his term, MacDonald acted swiftly to end those that did erupt. When the Labour Party executive criticised the government, he replied that "public doles,
Foreign affairs
MacDonald had long been a leading spokesman for internationalism in the Labour movement; at first, he verged on pacifism. He founded the Union of Democratic Control in early 1914 to promote international socialist aims, but it was overwhelmed by the war. His 1917 book, National Defence, revealed his own long-term vision for peace. Although disappointed at the harsh terms of the Versailles Treaty, he supported the League of Nations – but, by 1930, he felt that the internal cohesion of the British Empire and a strong, independent British defence programme might turn out to be the wisest British government policy.[66]
MacDonald moved in March 1924 to end construction work on the Singapore military base, despite strong opposition from the
In June 1924, MacDonald convened a conference in London of the wartime Allies and achieved an agreement on a new plan for settling the reparations issue and French-Belgian occupation of the Ruhr. German delegates joined the meeting, and the London Settlement was signed. It was followed by an Anglo-German commercial treaty. Another major triumph for MacDonald was the conference held in London in July and August 1924 to deal with the implementation of the Dawes Plan.[68] MacDonald, who accepted the popular view of the economist John Maynard Keynes of German reparations as impossible to pay, pressured French Premier Édouard Herriot until many concessions were made to Germany, including the evacuation of the Ruhr.[68][69]
A British onlooker commented, "The London Conference was for the French 'man in the street' one long Calvary ... as he saw M. Herriot abandoning one by one the cherished possessions of French preponderance on the Reparations Commission, the right of sanctions in the event of German default, the economic occupation of the Ruhr, the French-Belgian railroad Régie, and finally, the military occupation of the Ruhr within a year."[70] MacDonald was proud of what had been achieved, which was the pinnacle of his short-lived administration's achievements.[71] In September, he made a speech to the League of Nations Assembly in Geneva, the main thrust of which was for general European disarmament, which was received with great acclaim.[72]
MacDonald recognised the Soviet Union and MacDonald informed Parliament in February 1924 that negotiations would begin to negotiate a treaty with the Soviet Union.[73] The treaty was to cover Anglo-Soviet trade and the repayment of the British bondholders, who had lent billions to the pre-revolutionary Russian government and been rejected by the Bolsheviks. There were, in fact, two proposed treaties: one would cover commercial matters, and the other would cover a fairly vague future discussion on the problem of the bondholders. If the treaties were signed, the British government would conclude a further treaty and guarantee a loan to the Bolsheviks. The treaties were popular neither with the Conservatives nor with the Liberals, who, in September, criticised the loan so vehemently that negotiation with them seemed impossible.[74]
However, the government's fate was determined by the "
Zinoviev letter
On 25 October 1924, just four days before the election, the Daily Mail reported that a letter had come into its possession which purported to be a letter sent from Grigory Zinoviev, the President of the Communist International, to the British representative on the Comintern Executive. The letter was dated 15 September and so before the dissolution of parliament: it stated that it was imperative for the agreed treaties between Britain and the Bolsheviks to be ratified urgently. The letter said that those Labour members who could apply pressure on the government should do so. It went on to say that a resolution of the relationship between the two countries would "assist in the revolutionising of the international and British proletariat ... make it possible for us to extend and develop the ideas of Leninism in England and the Colonies".
The government had received the letter before its publication in the newspapers. It had protested to the Bolsheviks' London chargé d'affaires and had already decided to make public the contents of the letter with details of the official protest but it had not been swift-footed enough.[76] Historians mostly agree the Zinoviev letter was a forgery, but it closely reflected attitudes current in the Comintern.
In Opposition (1924–1929)
On 29 October 1924, the 1924 United Kingdom general election was held and the Conservative Party under Stanley Baldwin was returned decisively, gaining 155 seats for a total of 413 members of parliament. This was a landslide victory against the Liberals, who lost 118 seats (leaving them with only 40); their vote fell by over a million.
For Labour the result was a defeat not a disaster, holding on to 151 seats and losing 40. The real significance of the election was that the Liberal Party, which Labour had displaced as the second-largest political party in 1922, was now clearly the third party. Labour had put up more candidates than in 1923, and its total vote increased, suggesting that the Zinoviev letter had little effect. But for years many Labourites blamed their defeat on the Letter, through misunderstanding the political forces at work.[77][78]
Prime Minister (1929–1935)
Second term (1929–1931)
The strong majority held by the Conservatives gave Baldwin a full term during which the government had to deal with the
Baldwin resigned and MacDonald again formed a minority government, with intermittent Liberal support. This time, MacDonald knew he had to concentrate on domestic matters.
MacDonald's second government was in a stronger parliamentary position than his first, and in 1930 he was able to raise
In international affairs, he also convened the Round Table conferences in London with the political leaders of India, at which he offered them responsible government, but not independence or even Dominion status. In April 1930 he negotiated the London Naval Treaty, limiting naval armaments, with France, Italy, Japan, and the United States.[65]
Great Depression
MacDonald's government had no effective response to the economic crisis which followed the
By the end of 1930, unemployment had doubled to over two and a half million.[84] The government struggled to cope with the crisis and found itself attempting to reconcile two contradictory aims: achieving a balanced budget to maintain sterling on the gold standard, and maintaining assistance to the poor and unemployed, at a time when tax revenues were falling. During 1931, the economic situation deteriorated, and pressure from orthodox economists for sharp cuts in government spending increased. Under pressure from its Liberal allies, as well as the Conservative opposition who feared that the budget was unbalanced, Snowden appointed a committee headed by Sir George May to review the state of public finances. The May Report of July 1931, urged large public-sector wage cuts and large cuts in public spending, notably in payments to the unemployed, to avoid a budget deficit.[85]
National government (1931–1935)
Formation of the National Government
Although there was a narrow majority in the Cabinet for drastic reductions in spending, the minority included senior ministers such as Arthur Henderson who made it clear they would resign rather than acquiesce in the cuts. With this unworkable split, on 24 August 1931, MacDonald submitted his resignation and then agreed, on the urging of King George V, to form a National Government with the Conservatives and Liberals. With Henderson taking the lead, MacDonald, Snowden, and Thomas were quickly expelled from the Labour Party.[86] They responded by forming a new National Labour Organisation, which provided a nominal party base for the expelled MPs, but received little support in the country or the unions. Great anger in the labour movement greeted MacDonald's move. Riots took place in protest in Glasgow and Manchester. Many in the Labour Party viewed this as a cynical move by MacDonald to rescue his career, and accused him of 'betrayal'. MacDonald, however, argued that the sacrifice was for the common good.[87][88]
1931 general election
In the 1931 general election, the National Government won 554 seats, comprising 473 Conservatives, 13 National Labour, 68 Liberals (Liberal National and Liberal) and various others, while Labour, now led by Arthur Henderson won only 52 and the Lloyd George Liberals four. Henderson and his deputy J. R. Clynes both lost their seats in Labour's worst-ever rout. Labour's disastrous performance at the 1931 election greatly increased the bitterness felt by MacDonald's former colleagues towards him. MacDonald was genuinely upset to see the Labour Party so badly defeated at the election. He had regarded the National Government as a temporary measure, and had hoped to return to the Labour Party.[84]
Premiership of the National Government (1931–1935)
The National Government's huge majority left MacDonald with the largest mandate ever won by a British Prime Minister at a democratic election, but MacDonald had only a small following of National Labour men in Parliament. He was ageing rapidly, and was increasingly a figurehead. In control of domestic policy were Conservatives Stanley Baldwin as Lord President and Neville Chamberlain the chancellor of the exchequer, together with National Liberal Walter Runciman at the Board of Trade.[89] MacDonald, Chamberlain and Runciman devised a compromise tariff policy, which stopped short of protectionism while ending free trade and, at the 1932 Ottawa Conference, cementing commercial relations within the Commonwealth.[90]
Besides his preference for a cohesive British Empire and a
MacDonald was deeply affected by the anger and bitterness caused by the fall of the Labour government. He continued to regard himself as a true Labour man, but the rupturing of virtually all his old friendships left him an isolated figure. One of the only other leading Labour figures to join the government, Philip Snowden, was a firm believer in
Retirement
By 1933 MacDonald's health was so poor that his doctor had to personally supervise his trip to Geneva. By 1934 MacDonald's mental and physical health declined further, and he became an increasingly ineffective leader as the international situation grew more threatening. His speeches in the House of Commons and at international meetings became incoherent. One observer noted how "Things ... got to the stage where nobody knew what the Prime Minister was going to say in the House of Commons, and, when he did say it, nobody understood it". Newspapers did not report MacDonald denying to reporters that he was seriously ill because he only had "loss of memory".[65][27] His pacifism, which had been widely admired in the 1920s, led Winston Churchill and others to accuse him of failure to stand up to the threat of Adolf Hitler. His government began the negotiations for the Anglo-German Naval Agreement.
In these years he was irritated by the attacks of
MacDonald was aware of his fading powers, and in 1935 he agreed to a timetable with Baldwin to stand down as Prime Minister after King George V's
Last years and death (1935–1937)
At
However, his health was failing. King George V died a week before voting began in the Scottish by-election, and MacDonald deeply mourned his death,[99][100] paying tribute to him in his diary as "a gracious and kingly friend whom I have served with all my heart".[99][100] There had been genuine affection between the two and the King is said to have regarded MacDonald as his favourite prime minister.[101][102] Following the King's death MacDonald's physical and mental health collapsed.
A sea voyage (with his youngest daughter Sheila) was recommended to restore MacDonald's health, but he died on board the liner
MacDonald's body was transferred to the Royal Navy at Bermuda for return to
Personal life
Ramsay MacDonald married
MacDonald was devastated by Margaret's death from blood poisoning in 1911, and had few significant personal relationships after that time, apart from with Ishbel, who acted as his consort while he was Prime Minister and cared for him for the rest of his life. Following his wife's death, MacDonald commenced a relationship with Lady Margaret Sackville.[107]
In the 1920s and 1930s he was frequently entertained by the society hostess
MacDonald was born into a religious family, and was originally quite devout in his own beliefs. However as an adult, put off by "creeds or ritual"
MacDonald's unpopularity in the country following his stance against Britain's involvement in the
Reputation
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For half a century, MacDonald was demonised by the Labour Party as a turncoat who consorted with the enemy and drove the Labour Party to its nadir. Later, however, scholarly opinion raised his status as an important founder and leader of the Labour Party, and a man who held Britain together during its darkest economic times.[117][118]
MacDonald's expulsion from Labour along with his National Labour Party's coalition with the Conservatives, combined with the decline in his physical and mental powers after 1931, left him a discredited figure. The downfall of the Labour government in 1931, his National coalition with the Conservatives and the electoral defeat were blamed on him, and few spoke on his behalf.[119] MacNeill Weir, MacDonald's former parliamentary private secretary, published the first major biography The Tragedy of Ramsay MacDonald in 1938. Weir demonised MacDonald for obnoxious careerism, class betrayal and treachery.[120] Clement Attlee in his autobiography As it Happened (1954) called MacDonald's decision to abandon the Labour government in 1931 "the greatest betrayal in the political history of the country".[121] The coming of war in 1939 led to a search for the politicians who had appeased Hitler and failed to prepare Britain; MacDonald was grouped among the "Guilty Men".[122]
By the 1960s, while union activists maintained their hostile attitude, scholars wrote with more appreciation of his challenges and successes.[123] Finally in 1977 he received a long scholarly biography that historians have judged to be "definitive".[124] Labour MP David Marquand, a trained historian, wrote Ramsay MacDonald with the stated intention of giving MacDonald his due for his work in founding and building the Labour Party, and in trying to preserve peace in the years between the two world wars. He argued also to place MacDonald's fateful decision in 1931 in the context of the crisis of the times and the limited choices open to him. Marquand praised the prime minister's decision to place national interests before that of party in 1931. He also emphasised MacDonald's lasting intellectual contribution to socialism and his pivotal role in transforming Labour from an outside protest group to an inside party of government.[125]
Similarly, scholarly analysis of the economic decisions taken in the inter-war period, such as the return to the Gold Standard in 1925 and MacDonald's desperate efforts to defend it in 1931, has changed. Thus Robert Skidelsky, in his classic 1967 account of the 1929–31 government, Politicians and the Slump, compared the orthodox policies advocated by leading politicians of both parties unfavourably with the more radical, proto-Keynesian measures proposed by David Lloyd George and Oswald Mosley; subsequently, in the preface to the 1994 edition Skidelsky argued that recent experience of currency crises and capital flight made it hard to be critical of politicians who wanted to achieve stability by cutting so-called "labour costs" and defending the value of the currency.[126] In 2004 Marquand advanced a similar argument:
In the harsher world of the 1980s and 1990s it was no longer obvious that Keynes was right in 1931 and the bankers wrong. Pre-Keynesian orthodoxy had come in from the cold. Politicians and the public had learned anew that confidence crises feed on themselves; that currencies can collapse; that the public credit can be exhausted; that a plummeting currency can be even more painful than deflationary expenditure cuts; and that governments which try to defy the foreign exchange markets are apt to get their—and their countries'—fingers burnt. Against that background, MacDonald's response to the 1931 crisis increasingly seemed not just honourable and consistent, but right ... he was the unacknowledged precursor of the Blairs, the Schröders, and the Clintons of the 1990s and 2000s.[127]
Cultural depictions
Honours
In 1930, MacDonald was elected a
References
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- ^ Marquand 1977, p. 6.
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- ^ Marquand 1977, p. 12.
- ^ Marquand 1977, p. 15.
- ^ Bryher, Samual: An Account of the Labour and Socialist Movement in Bristol, 1929
- ^ Elton 1939, p. 44.
- ^ Marquand 1977, pp. 9, 17.
- ^ Tracey, Herbert: J. Ramsay MacDonald, 1924, p. 29
- ^ Marquand 1977, p. 20.
- ^ Marquand 1977, p. 21.
- ^ Morgan, J. Ramsay MacDonald (1987) p. 17
- ^ Marquand 1977, p. 23.
- ^ MacDonald, James Ramsay (1921). Socialism: critical and constructive. Cassell's social economics series. Cassell and Company Ltd.
- ^ Elton 1939, pp. 56–57.
- ^ "Letter from Ramsay McDonald to Birkbeck College – Birkbeck, University of London". Google Arts & Culture. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
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- ^ Marquand 1977, p. 22.
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- ^ Marquand 1977, p. 35.
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- ^ MacDonald Papers, P.R.O. 3/95
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- ^ Morgan 1987, p. 30.
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- ^ a b Marquand 1977, pp. 190, 191.
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- ^ Marquand 1977, p. 250.
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Ramsay MacDonald took office as both Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary of a minority government on 22 January 1924.
- ^ a b "Scotland Back in the Day: Remembering the first working-class PM, Ramsay MacDonald, 150 years after his birth", The National.
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- ^ S2CID 144072556.
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- ^ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- ^ Martin 2003, pp. 836–837; Shepherd 2007, pp. 31–33.
- ISBN 978-0857737113.
- ^ Martin 2003, p. 837.
- ISBN 978-0333605929.
- ^ Marquand 2004.
- .
- )
Bibliography
- Barker, Rodney. "Political Myth: Ramsay MacDonald and the Labour Party." History 61.201 (1976): 46–56. online
- Byrne, Christopher, Nick Randall, and Kevin Theakston. "Disjunctive Leadership in Interwar Britain: Stanley Baldwin, Ramsay MacDonald, and Neville Chamberlain." in Disjunctive Prime Ministerial Leadership in British Politics (Palgrave Pivot, Cham, 2020) pp. 17–49.
- Carlton, David. MacDonald versus Henderson: The Foreign Policy of the Second Labour Government (2014).
- Eccleshall, Robert, and Graham Walker, eds. Biographical Dictionary of British Prime Ministers (1998) pp. 281–288. online
- ISBN 978-1406730456.
- Heppell, Timothy, and Kevin Theakston, eds. How Labour Governments Fall: From Ramsay MacDonald to Gordon Brown (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).
- Hinks, John Ramsay MacDonald: the Leicester years (1906–1918), Leicester, 1996
- Howard, Christopher. "MacDonald, Henderson, and the Outbreak of War, 1914." Historical Journal 20.4 (1977): 871–891. online
- Howell, David MacDonald's Party. Labour Identities and Crisis, 1922–1931, Oxford: OUP 2002; ISBN 0198203047
- Jennings, Ivor (1962). Party Politics: Volume 3, The Stuff of Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521054348.
- Kitching, Carolyn J. "Prime minister and foreign secretary: the dual role of James Ramsay MacDonald in 1924." Review of International Studies 37#3 (2011): 1403–1422. online
- Lloyd, Trevor. "Ramsay MacDonald: Socialist or Gentleman?." Canadian Journal of History/Annales Canadiennes d'Histoire 15#3 (1980) online Archived 8 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine.
- Lyman, Richard W. The First Labour Government, 1924 (Chapman & Hall, 1957). online free to borrow
- Lyman, Richard W. "James Ramsay MacDonald and the Leadership of the Labour Party, 1918–22." Journal of British Studies 2#1 (1962): 132–160. online
- Martin, David E. (2003). "MacDonald, (James) Ramsay". In Loades, David (ed.). Reader's Guide to British History. Vol. 2.
- McKibbin, Ross I. "James Ramsay MacDonald and the Problem of the Independence of the Labour Party, 1910–1914." Journal of Modern History 42#2 (1970): 216–235. in JSTOR
- ISBN 0224012959.; 902pp
- Marquand, David (2004). "MacDonald, (James) Ramsay (1866–1937)". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34704; (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) online edn, Oct 2009 accessed 9 Sept 2012
- Morgan, Austen (1987). J. Ramsay MacDonald. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0719021688.
- Morgan, Kenneth O. Labour People: Leaders and Lieutenants Hardy to Kinnock (1987) pp. 39–53. online free to borrow
- Morgan, Kevin. Ramsay MacDonald (2006) online free to borrow
- Mowat, C. L."Ramsay MacDonald and the Labour Party," in Essays in Labour History 1886–1923, edited by Asa Briggs, and John Saville, (1971)
- Mowat, C. L. Britain Between the Wars, 1918–1940 (1955). online free to borrow
- Owen, Nicholas (2007). "MacDonald's Parties: The Labour Party and the 'Aristocratic Embrace' 1922–31". Twentieth Century British History. 18 (1): 1–53. .
- Phillips, Gordon: The Rise of the Labour Party 1893–1931, (Routledge 1992).
- Riddell, Neil. Labour in Crisis: The Second Labour Government, 1929–31 (1999).
- Robbins, Keith (1994). Politicians, Diplomacy and War in Modern British History. A&C Black. pp. 239–272. ISBN 978-0826460479.
- Rosen, Greg (ed.) Dictionary of Labour Biography, London: ISBN 978-1902301181
- Rosen, Greg (ed.) Old Labour to New. The Dreams That Inspired, the Battles That Divided (London: Politicos Publishing 2005; ISBN 978-1842750452).
- Sacks, Benjamin. J. Ramsay MacDonald in Thought and Action (University of New Mexico Press, 1952), favourable biography by American scholar
- Shepherd, John and Keith Laybourn. Britain's First Labour Government (2006).
- Shepherd, John. The Second Labour Government: A reappraisal (2012).
- Skidelsky, Robert. Politicians and the Slump: The Labour Government of 1929–1931 (1967).
- Stewart, John. "Ramsay MacDonald, the Labour Party, and child welfare, 1900–1914." Twentieth Century British History 4.2 (1993): 105–125.
- Taylor, A. J. P. (1965). English History: 1914–1945.
- Thorpe, Andrew. "Arthur Henderson and the British political crisis of 1931." Historical Journal 31#1 (1988): 117–139, On the expulsion of MacDonald from the Labour Party.
- Thorpe, Andrew Britain in the 1930s. The Deceptive Decade (Blackwell 1992; ISBN 0631174117)
- Ward, Stephen R. James Ramsay MacDonald: Low Born among the High Brows (1990).
- Weir, L. MacNeill. The Tragedy of Ramsay MacDonald: A Political Biography (1938). Highly influential and extremely negative account by a former aide. online
- Williamson, Philip: National Crisis and National Government. British Politics, the Economy and the Empire, 1926–1932, Cambridge: CUP 1992; ISBN 0521361370
- Wrigley, Chris. "James Ramsay MacDonald 1922–1931," in Leading Labour: From Keir Hardie to Tony Blair, edited by Kevin Jefferys, (1999)
Historiography
- Callaghan, John, et al. eds. Interpreting the Labour Party: Approaches to Labour Politics and History (2003) online
- Loades, David, ed. Reader's Guide to British History (2003) 2:836–837.
- Shepherd, John (November 2007). "The Lad from Lossiemouth". History Today. Vol. 57, no. 11. pp. 31–33.
Primary sources
- Barker, Bernard (ed.) Ramsay MacDonald's Political Writings (Allen Lane, 1972).
- Cox, Jane A Singular Marriage: A Labour Love Story in Letters and Diaries (of Ramsay and Margaret MacDonald), London: Harrap 1988; ISBN 978-0245546761
- MacDonald, Ramsay The Socialist Movement (1911) online; free copy
- MacDonald, Ramsay Socialism and Society (1914) online
- MacDonald, Ramsay. Labour and Peace, Labour Party 1912
- MacDonald, Ramsay. Parliament and Revolution, Labour Party 1919
- MacDonald, Ramsay. Parliament and revolution (1920) online
- MacDonald, Ramsay. Foreign Policy of the Labour Party, Labour Party 1923
- MacDonald, Ramsay. Margaret Ethel MacDonald (1924) online
- MacDonald, Ramsay. Socialism: critical and constructive (1924) online
External links
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Ramsay MacDonald
- Ramsay MacDonald – 1924 First Labour Government – UK Parliament Living Heritage
- A left-wing criticism of Macdonald's career Archived 27 February 2020 at the Wayback Machine Socialist Review
- More about Ramsay MacDonald Prime Minister's Office
- Ramsay MacDonald Papers, 1893–1937
- Portraits of Ramsay MacDonald at the National Portrait Gallery, London
- "Archival material relating to Ramsay MacDonald". UK National Archives.
- Newspaper clippings about Ramsay MacDonald in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW