SDP: The Birth, Life, and Death of the Social Democratic Party

Launched on a wave of euphoria in 1981, the SDP aroused the hopes and enthusiasm of millions of people. Promising to break the mould of British politics, its leaders included four of the most respected figures in British public life - Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers, and Shirley Williams. But the SDP failed. Despite winning with the Liberals a quarter of the vote in two general elections, by the autumn of 1987 it had disintegrated amidst acrimony and bitter in-fighting. This book, based on unprecedented access to the SDP's archive and extensive interviews with all the leading players, chronicles the party's short but turbulent history and analyses in detail the reasons for its early success and its ultimate demise.

Table of Contents:
Pre-history: 1964-1979 The Gang of Three Jenkins and the Jenkinsites Anguish: 'Severe Mental Pain' Born in Despair Defectors and Loyalists What Kind of Party? And Whose? The Golden Age: March - December 1981 Jenkins as Leader: 1982-3 A 'Partnership of Principle' Disappointment: June 1983 New Institutions for a New Party Machinery, Members, and Money A 'Media Party'? The Party of a New Class The SDP, The Alliance, and the Electorate The Owen Ascendency I: 1983-5 The Owen Ascendency II: 1985-7 Humiliation: June 1987 The SDP Disintegrates: 1987-8 Of Merger and a Dead Parrot Who Was to Blame? SDP: A Study in Failure Epilogue

About the Author :
Ivor Crewe and Anthony King are Professors of Government at the University of Essex, and frequent contributors to the national media. Ivor Crewe directed the British Election Study from 1973 until 1981 and is now Vice-Chancellor of the University of Essex. His books include Decade of Dealignment (with Bo Särlvik) and The British Electorate 1963-1992 (with Anthony Fox and Neil Day). He is well known as a political commentator on television and radio and writes for the Guardian and the Observer. Anthony King has been Professor of Government at the University of Essex since 1969. His books include Westminster and Beyond (with Anne Sloman), British Members of Parliament: A Self-Portrait and Britain Says Yes: The 1975 Referendum on the Common Market. He analyses the Gallup Poll for the Daily Telegraph and appears frequently as an election commentator on BBC Television. Since 1994 he has been a member of the Committee on Standards in Public Life (the Nolan Committee).

Review :
`impressive, thorough and thoughtful ... full of fascinating personal incident and political insight ... Their account is rich and detailed combining careful analysis of intricate personal and institutional politics with shrewd sociological observation ... Crewe and King have performed a mighty task and their book is a mine of data on the politics of the Eighties ... Given Crewe and King's own role in the SDP's genesis, it was not doubt fitting that the SDP, on its deathbed, donated its archives to the University of Essex, where Crewe and King have exploited them. They have done so to such effect that all who study British politics are in their debt.' R. W. Johnson, London Review of Books `Professors Crewe and King have produced a masterpiece of contemporary history. They marshal complex arguments and masses of detail with the art that conceals art. Their narrative sweeps forward with captivating energy and style, and bristles with mordant phrases ... Above all, Crewe and King analyse the complex interplay between personality, belief and context - the key to any political story - with a marvellous mixture of precision and empathy ... For once, the overworked adjective `definitive' is an understatement ... I cannot believe that any future historian will displace this account, and I doubt if anyone will be fool enough to try.' David Marquand, Observer `This brilliant history - definitively researched, graced with wit, insight and countless pungent anecdotes - tells of an attempt to break away from bitterly personalised politics which foundered because it was almost from the start bedevilled by bitterly personlised politics.' Gerald Kaufman, Sunday Telegraph `A clear and witty appraisal of the Gang of Four ... admirable book ... Our two professors really go to town in this history of the SDP. They write clearly, sometimes wittily, and without academic jargon. They are masters of their material. They declare their sympathy for the effort of the Gang of Four to reorganise British politics, but this sympathy makes much of their comment particularly damning. Along the way they unearth nuggets of new fact ... Despite the skill of the professors one cannot help wondering at the sheer massiveness of their effort ... In this book the details, the late-night sessions, the ashen faces, the passionate tears, the farcical press conference are described with a thoroughness worthy of a summit between Reagan and Gorbachev.' Douglas Hurd, The Daily Telegraph `Ivor Crewe and Anthony King have written what will be for long the definitive account of the rise and fall of the SDP. They do not just analyse what went wrong but they also offer an absorbing narrative of the party's tortured disintegration with vivid character sketches of the Gang of Four.' Peter Riddell, The Times `The book brings alive the self-absorbed world of the SDP, in its final days like "a small country's government in exile".' Peter Riddell, The Times `Admirable book ... They write clearly, sometimes wittily, and without academic jargon. They are masters of their material. They declare their sympathy for the effort of the Gang of Four to reoganise British politics, but this sympathy makes much of their comment particularly damning. Along the way they unearth nuggets of new fact ... one cannot help wondering at the sheer massiveness of their effort ... In this book the details, the documents, the late-night sessions, the ashen faces, the passionate tears, the farcical press conferences are described with a thoroughness worthy of a summit between Reagan and Gorbachev.' Daily Telegraph `Any student of British politics must read this book. Here is the history of the Social Democratic Party ... No scholar of British politics need feel impelled to write such a book again ... it is a cracking good story that Crewe and King have to tell.' Financial Times `Brilliant history - definitively researched, graced with wit, insight and countless pungent anecdotes.' Sunday Telegraph `Thoroughly exhaustive chronicle.' The Independent `Professors Crewe and King have produced a masterpiece of contemporary history. They marshal complex arguments and masses of detail with the art that conceals art. Their narrative sweeps forward with captivating energy and style, and bristles with mordant phrases.' The Observer `The detailed and sympathetic reportage even of minor players' motives and feelings makes it clear how close the authors are to their subjects ... impressive, thorough and thoughtful ... full of fascinating personal incident and political insight ... Crewe and King have performed a mighty task and their book is a mine of data on the politics of the Eighties ... all who study British politics are in their debt.' London Review of Books `Even more compelling than it is poignant.' The Times `They have written what will surely be the definitive account. The detail is formidable ... the 83 pages of footnotes are not for the frivolous. But this reviewer found them riveting.' New Statesman and Society `A much more entertaining read than its purely academic origins might suggest.' Sunday Times `In the first detailed account of the Liberal leadership's botched attempt to ditch Roy Jenkins during the 1983 general election, they illustrate the Alliance's inherent fragility.' Tribune `Often gripping.' The Times `In SDP ... Ivor Crewe and Anthony King combine a detailed and enjoyable account of the party's development with a persuasive analysis of its most important features. They carefully and deliberately dissect the structure of the SDP ... Crewe and King have a sharp eye for the farcical and the bizarre; the history of the SDP provides them with plenty of material.' Times Literary Supplement `This study of the SDP is a classic of its kind, accurate, detailed, perceptive, mercilessly honest ... theirs is a notable accomplishment, valuable as history, stimulating as contemporary commentary, detached as befits two fine political scientists without being "academic", and throughout its many pages, a delight to read.' Times Higher Education Supplement `Wonderful account of the brief life of the Social Democratic Party.' The Economist `A comprehensive account of the why, having briefly and gloriously flourished ... the infant quietly expired nine years later leaving little of note for posterity.' The Guardian `Wonderful account of the brief life of the Social Democratic Party.' The Economist `There is scarcely a serious student of contemporary British politics, on either side of the Atlantic, who will fail to enjoy and profit intellectually from reading this book. Exhaustively researched, intelligently and cogently written and effectively organized, SDP is unquestionably the definitive study to date of the political party ... riveting narrative ... Crewe and King's judgement is sound and their obituary not unduly harsh.' British Politics Group Newsletter `A great story extremely well told by Messrs Crewe and King ... as a thorough academic and historical exercise it is to be admired.' Liberal Democrat News `They have written what is almost certainly the definitive study both of this particular party and of centre-left politics in Britain over the past fifteen years.' Political Quarterly `In the hands of Crewe and King, the story of the SDP is more than a gripping narrative. Apart from providing a concise summary of the party's organization ... they also subject the motives of the original defectors to a convincing analysis ... Crewe and King display considerable ingenuity in testing less obvious factors, such as potential earnings outside parliament, membership of the trade unions, local government experience, and the defector's place of residence.' Government and Opposition `Crewe and King present a very detailed history of this strange enterprise to create a centre party, including five appendices and numerous comprehensive notes ... There is unlikely to be a better history of the SDP written in the future.' Parliamentary Affairs `a magisterial work - a definitive account of a remarkable episode in British political history ... It is full of 'inside dope' and tackles every question that one could think to ask about the SDP ... the book is splendidly written and is a thoroughly good read. It is full of excellent character sketches.' David Denver, EPOP Newsletter, January 1997 `This book charts the birth, brief life and death of the SDP and will be instructive reading for the large number of MCD members who want to see a Christian Democrat Party arise out of a supporting and continuing Movement.' The Christian Democrat `as a near-definitive piece of contemporary political history it would be hard to better' John Stevenson, Worcester College, Oxford, Contemporary British History, Vol. 10, No. 1, Spring '96 `an exhaustive account of what in the 1980s seemed a remarkable and possibly decisive shift in British politics. Its 47 pages of appendices offer a comprehensive compilation of statistical data but it is the story that captures the attention. Crewe's and King's is not the first detailed history of the rise and fall of the SDP but it is by far the best.' Journal of Legislative Studies, vol.3, no.2, Summer 1997 `In crisp, intelligent newsman's prose they unfold the sorry tale of the party.' The Daily Telegraph `They set out to tell the story of the S.D.P., and to place it in the context of late twentieth-century British politics. They do so meticulously and with a feast of detail on electoral support, party membership, and of course the dealings and wheelings of the principal actors. S.D.P. is an impressive account, and its judgements are in general astute and well balanced.' Rodney Barker