Best known for his notorious 'Rivers of Blood' speech in 1968 and his outspoken opposition to immigration, Enoch Powell was one of the most controversial figures in British political life in the second half of the twentieth century and a formative influence on what came to be known as Thatcherism. Telling the story of Powell's political life from the 1950s onwards, Paul Corthorn's intellectual biography goes beyond a fixation on the 'Rivers of Blood' speech to bring us a man who thought deeply about - and often took highly unusual (and sometimes apparently contradictory) positions on - the central political debates of the post-1945 era: denying the existence of the Cold War (at one stage going so far as to advocate the idea of an alliance with the Soviet Union); advocating free-market economics long before it was fashionable, while remaining a staunch defender of the idea of a National Health Service; vehemently opposing British membership of the European Economic Community; arguing for the closer integration of Northern Ireland with the rest of the UK; and in the 1980s supporting the campaign for unilateral nuclear disarmament. In the process, Powell emerges as more than just a deeply divisive figure but as a seminal political intellectual of his time. Paying particular attention to the revealing inconsistencies in Powell's thought and the significant ways in which his thinking changed over time, Corthorn argues that Powell's diverse campaigns can nonetheless still be understood as a coherent whole, if viewed as part of a long-running, and wide-ranging, debate set against the backdrop of the long-term decline in Britain's international, military, and economic position in the decades after 1945.

About the Author
Paul Corthorn is Senior Lecturer in Modern British History at Queen's University Belfast. He has published widely on twentieth century British political history, including In the Shadow of the Dictators: The British Left in the 1930s (2006) and The British Labour Party and the Wider World: Domestic Politics, Internationalism and Foreign Policy (2008), co-edited with Jonathan Davis. He lives in Belfast with his family.

Reviews
Paul Corthorn must be thanked for providing such a clear, multi-faceted analysis of an extremely complex political figure, acknowledging very evidently his most striking contradictions, some of which Powell himself was aware of, for he 'almost made specific arguments that he knew did not quite add up' * Olivier Esteves, Universite de Lille, Journal of Contemporary History *
Enoch Powell remains the single most controversial politician in modern British history. Yet more than half a century after his most incendiary speech, his influence is arguably greater than ever. In this splendidly learned, astute and provocative study, Paul Corthorn invites us to look more closely at what Powell said and believed. With scrupulous care and attention to detail, he examines the roots and legacy of Powell's ideas, both placing him in his historical context and exploring his afterlives in British politics. Mercifully free from academic jargon and armchair moralising, this is a gripping and colourful read and a model of historical scholarship. * Dominic Sandbrook, author of State of Emergency: The Way We Were: Britain, 1970-1974 *



Book Information
ISBN 9780198747154
Author Paul Corthorn
Format Paperback
Page Count 256
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 268g
Dimensions(mm) 215mm * 138mm * 18mm