Do you ever read a book that you're desperate to reach the final page, but you don't want to finish? This is one of those books.

Told from a gently left wing perspective, this is the story not of leaders, not of organisations, but of the ordinary man (and I accept both that no one may be called 'ordinary' and that the term 'man' very firmly includes woman).

Selina Todd manages to keep her story on what is referred to as 'the working class'. She does what any good historian should, and very few do, she sticks to the facts. She does not judge the miners, or the strike breakers; those who fight for equality, or the BNP members; men or women; politicians or workers. She takes the admirable view that, if you give people the facts, they can arrive at their own conclusions.

This book is an EXCELLENT read! ( )

The People The Rise and Fall of The Working Class

The People The Rise and Fall of The Working Class by Selina Todd is the natural bedfellow to EP Thompson’s The Making of the English Working Class both seminal works and much needed in the context of current historical discourse. Selina Todd covers an area which has much need and a book that has been badly needed as nobody has looked at how the working classes rose to a nadir and since then been sold a pup and sold down river.

The People offers a clear readable and concise history of the working class over the last century and uses the stories from the working classes to give the book clarity which helps to give a compelling historical narrative covering a century of British History. In the century that this covers we have seen two world wars the creation of a welfare state and the neglect and turning on the working classes. One can argue that the working class in both wars served enmass and while their welfare was being neglected at the same time.

Todd examines how the working classes became the enemy within not once but twice in a century and in the final chapters offers some excellent analysis of this. The historical and political arguments laid out in this book are compelling and one feels the anger at the injustice at the same being written in a style that is open to all rather than those engrossed in history and politics.

What makes this book really compelling is that Selina Todd as a historian has written it in a way that can be seen as both neutral but passionate, factual not overbearing but rather subtle. One can compare the policies of the Baldwin Conservative government of the 1930s with that of the current coalition government and that the Conservatives have not changed one iota since then.

The hope that the election of the Labour Government in 1945 can be compared to that of the Labour Government elected in 1997. Not afraid to tackle subjects such as equality and feminism that can be quite dry are engaging and leave you wondering why Labour when it had the opportunities did not raise the equality for all but were in deference to the moneyed.

Todd could have easily have argued that some things do not change but leaves it to the reader to make up their own mind. We are taken on a journey and can see how Thatcher’s Britain finally put the working class back in their box to serve the rich as they had always done. The actual scope of this book is frightening but is backed up by first class research, some fantastic autobiographical extracts that are interwoven throughout the book.

This is an excellent book and Selina Todd finally puts on our shelves a book that is much needed and required reading for all students of British Politics and British History. Maybe one day the meek will inherit the earth but as this book shows the working class will always have to fight for it because there is some rich man willing to sell them down river to protect his money and class. ( )