British Conservatism and Trade Unionism, 1945-1964

This book examines the a brief period between the end of the Second World War and the election of Harold Wilson's Labour government in 1964, when the Conservative Party adopted a remarkably constructive and conciliatory approach to the trade unions, dubbed 'voluntarism'. During this time the party leadership made strenuous efforts to avoid, as far as was politically possible, confrontation with, or legislation against, the trade unions, even when this incurred the wrath of some Conservative backbenchers and the Party's mass membership. Making extensive use of primary and archival sources it explains why the 1945-64 period was unique in the Conservative Party's relations with the unions, and why, after 1964, things returned to a 'business as usual' confrontational approach.