Liberalism and the Social Problem. by CHURCHILL, Winston S - 1909

London: Hodder and Stoughton,, 1909. Owned by Attlee, ally and adversary First edition, first impression, the copy of Clement Attlee, with his bookplate on the front pastedown. From 1940 to 1955, Churchill and Attlee were rival leaders of Britain's two main parties, Conservative and Labour. During the Second World War, they worked together as the leading members of the wartime ministry, Churchill as Prime Minister, Attlee as Deputy Prime Minister. In 1945, Attlee defeated Churchill in a shock general election result. For the next decade, they faced each other over the floor of the House of Commons. In 1951, Churchill took back Downing Street. Their relationship and rivalry was of enormous consequence to Britain's wartime and post-war history. Nonetheless, they were personally courteous and respectful. When Churchill died, Attlee told the House of Lords "We have lost the greatest Englishman of our time... I think the greatest citizen of the world of our time." Liberalism and the Social Problem collects the speeches of Churchill, then a Liberal Party MP, on pressing issues as the conciliation of South Africa, imperial preference, labour exchanges, and unemployment insurance. "That a young, radical Churchill was once held the scourge of the British Establishment and a traitor to his class is largely forgotten by those who think of him only in the modern or at least the Second World War context. Yet by 1909, when his third book of speeches was published, Churchill was an ardent reformer, the bane of Torydom" (Langworth, p. 90). Attlee donated part of his library to the newly founded University of York in the early 1960s. This copy has the library's neat stamp (marked "sold by order") on the copyright page. The copy was afterwards in the collection of Ron Cohen, with his ownership inscription in pencil on the front free endpaper. Cohen's Bibliography of the Writings of Sir Winston Churchill, published in three volumes in 2006, is the authoritative source for collectors, librarians, and dealers. Octavo. Original red cloth, spine lettered in gilt, facsimile of author's signature to the front cover in gilt, bottom edge untrimmed. Contemporary ownership signature "W. B. Fairbairn Nov '09" to front free endpaper. Light rubbing at extremities and soiling to rear cover, rear free endpaper removed, contents unmarked: a good copy. Cohen A29.1.a; Woods A15. Richard Langworth, A Connoisseur's Guide to the Books of Sir Winston Churchill, 1998.