Ralph Norman Angell Lane, an analysis of his political career, 1914-to 1931

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Authors
Gavigan, Patrick J., 1946-
Advisor
Mayfield, P. M.
Issue Date
1972
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Degree
Thesis (Ph. D.)
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Abstract

Norman Angell, most often remembered as the author of The Great Illusion, (1910), was also a member of the British Parliament from 1929 to 1931 and deserves to be remembered for the overall political career that this brief stay in Commons represents. Although Angell was never a popular political figure--the vast working class public failed to identify with him--he was not without great influence during the period in which the Labour Party went from one of ridicule and political obscurity to one of power and respectability. This study analyzes Angell's career in light of his impact on Labour Party leaders, particularly Edmond Dene Morel and James Ramsey MacDonald.The Angell-MacDonald relationship was a complex and ironic one. Although of similar ideological persuasion, neither assumed a dominant role in their relationship. They were both proud, vain and stubborn men, a fact which precluded their assuming a leader-follower relationship. Angell's relationship with Morel was equally full of irony since Morel, the most vociferous member of Labour's intelligentsia in 1924, epitomized the radical element which Angell desired to eliminate in the Labour Party. The fact that Angell had the confidence of both men and wrote many of Morell's articles criticizing MacDonald's policies in 1924, even though he publicly supported "Ramsey," is a measure of his intangible role in the drama of the First Labour Government.Angell's involvement in the personal lives as well as the political careers of these two antagonists predated the First World War. This is significant for several reasons. For one, Angell was instrumental in bringing these strange bedfellows together in 1914 through their co-founding of the Union of Democratic Control. Secondly, it contradicts the current notion that Angell was never greatly interested in politics. Thirdly, it shows that Angell was never completely satisfied with the nonpolitical peace movement which his Great Illusion fostered.Historians have so completely equated "Norman Angellism" with Ralph Norman Angell Lane that this study takes on an added dimension. It offers a perspective from which to view Angell if any future biography is to do justice to the man. Contrary to current thinking Angell was a politician; he eagerly sought a political identity and wanted political power. This study also shows that Angell, although often a man of great vision, should not be remembered as a prophet of the contemporary experience, but rather, as a spokesman for the nineteenth century. Angell was and even saw himself more as a product of the nineteenth century British liberal tradition than as a twentieth century man. Although he held twentieth century economic views, he actually mirrored the social, political, and cultural philosophy of the nineteenth century English middle class. He never altered his greater conception of English society even in the face of new economic and political realities.The tragedy of Angell's being remembered as the author of The Great Illusion is therefore twofold. It not only hides the historical significance of his political career but reflects adversely on the real thrust of his life. Internationalism and pacifism, the two "isms" most often referred to in conjunction with his seminal work, mask his most basic instincts. Norman Angell might have been an internationalist and a pacifist, but, Ralph Lane was a Nationalist and a British patriot of the first rank.