Haldane: The Forgotten Statesman Who Shaped Britain and Canada

by John Campbell

Overview

Can you name the creator of the Territorial Army, the British Expeditionary Force, the Imperial General Staff, and the Officers' Training Corps? The man who laid the foundation stones of MI5, MI6, the RAF, the LSE, Imperial College, the "redbrick" universities, and the Medical Research Council? This book restores Richard Burdon Haldane to his rightful place among the great men of British and Canadian history. Serving as war minister in the 1905 Liberal British government, his groundbreaking proposals on defence, education, and government structure were astonishingly ahead of his time – the very building blocks of modern Britain. Even the Canadian Constitution, as now interpreted, is unthinkable without Haldane. His ubiquitous networks ranged from Wilde to Einstein, Churchill to Carnegie, king to kaiser; his polymathic interests enabled pioneering cross-party, cross-sector cooperation. Yet in 1915 he was ejected from the Lord Chancellorship, unjustly vilified by an ignorant press campaign as a German sympathizer. John Campbell charts these ups and downs, reveals the intensely personal side of Haldane through previously unpublished love letters, and shows his enormous relevance in our search for just societies and states today. Amidst political and national instability, it is surely now right to reinstate Haldane as an outstanding example of true statesmanship.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780228000938
Publisher:	McGill-Queens University Press
Publication date:	07/16/2020
Pages:	616
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 2.00(d)

About the Author

John Campbell OBE is co-founder and chair of Campbell Lutyens, an international private equity and infrastructure advisory house.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations xiii

Timelines of Haldane's Life and Times xix

Preface xxi

Introduction 1

Part 1 Laying the Foundations

1 A Family Tradition 13

2 The Head and the Heart 27

3 The Company of Friends 57

4 A Philosophy for Life 83

5 Wealth and the Nation 111

Part 2 Building the State

6 A Brave New World 145

7 A Man for All Seasons 171

8 Education, Education, Education 201

9 War and Peace 253

10 The New State 295

Afterword 335

Acknowledgements 345

List of Sources for Illustrations 351

Notes 361

Bibliography and Further Reading 425

Index 457

Editorial Reviews

"An outstanding biography that will have Haldane recognised, at long last, as one of our very greatest twentieth-century statesmen." Sir Malcolm Rifkind, former secretary of state for defence and foreign secretary


"This captivating, ground-breaking book firmly re-establishes Lord Haldane in the national consciousness as a remarkable statesman of the early twentieth century. Many of his innovations are still flourishing today, and his thoughts on statecraft have muc

From the Publisher