Professor Andrew Thorpe
Research Interests
My research centres on twentieth-century British political history, the history of party and policymaking, and international Communism in the era of the Communist International. I have worked extensively on the history of the Labour party, and also on Communist party history, but my interests are not confined to the parties of the left.
Recent project
My latest book, published by OUP in January 2009, investigates the organisation of all the major parties in Britain during the Second World War. This project was funded by the British Academy and the AHRC and made extensive use of constituency-level records, as well as national party records and the papers of politicians.
Current project
I am now researching on the life and career of Arthur Henderson (1863-1935). Henderson was a pivotal figure in the early history of the Labour party, one of its first MPs, three times its leader, architect of its 1918 constitution, and a senior minister in the first two Labour governments of 1924 and 1929-31. He was also important as a leading lay Wesleyan Methodist, and as a trade unionist, while in his later years he emerged as one of Labour's foremost experts on foreign policy. After serving as Foreign Secretary between 1929 and 1931, he went on to serve as president of the World Disarmament Conference at Geneva (1932-4), being awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1934. This major figure lacks a detailed modern biography covering all aspects of his work: this project aims to use hitherto under-utilised sources to provide such a study.
Recent conference and research seminar papers
‘Reconsidering Arthur Henderson’, University of Reading, February 2011
‘Labour leaders and the Liberals, 1906-24’, conference on the Liberal party, 1906-24, University of Rouen, France, January 2011
‘Historians and Labour parties: changing methods, approaches and purposes’, conference on Revisiting Labour History, Valletta, Malta, October 2010
‘Nina Fishman’s Arthur Horner and labour biography’, conference on biography and identity in the making of British radicals, Swansea, May 2010
‘Failure in Communist party leadership: Harry Pollitt and the British Communist party after 1945’, Eighth European Social Science History Conference, Ghent, April 2010
‘Labour and the Second World war’, Political Studies Association Labour Movements Group conference, University of Bristol, December 2009
‘Myth and counter-myth in World War II Britain’, North American Conference on British Studies, Louisville, Kentucky, USA, November 2009
‘The 1929 general election reconsidered’, conference on Britain’s second Labour government, 1929-31: a reappraisal, Anglia Ruskin University, May 2009
‘Myth and counter-myth in Second World War British politics', North East Conference on British Studies, Boston College, Boston, November 2008
‘ British society and politics during the Second World War’, conference on Britain: History, Education, Culture, Yaroslavl' State Pedagogical university, Yaroslavl', May 2008
‘Politics or organisation? Labour party membership in the Second World War’, Seventh European Social Science History Conference, Lisbon, March 2008
‘The Communist party and the New party’, conference on Oswald Mosley’s New party, University of Reading, September 2007
‘Labour party finance in the Second World War’, conference on modern British History, Universities of Stirling and Strathclyde, Glasgow, June 2007
‘Conservative party membership in World War II Britain’, MOBSS conference, Durham University, May 2007
‘Labour party membership in World War II Britain’, Political Studies Association conference, University of Bath, April 2007
‘Social Democrats and Liberal Politics in Britain, 1918-45’, First ‘Rethinking Social Democracy’ Conference, London, April 2004
‘Engaging Youth in Politics: British Political Parties and Young People, 1940-1950', Fifth European Social Science History Conference, Berlin, March 2004
Research Supervision
Twentieth-century British history remains a vibrant field of study. I have supervised research postgraduates in a range of areas. Exeter is, of course, a prime location from which to study the South-West of England, and the sources both at the University, in the city and a little further afield are very rich for a number of topics. However, as can be seen from my own list of publications and the topics that I have researched at doctoral level, Exeter is also a good location from which to pursue national-level topics. Its good transport links, in particular, mean that it is not difficult to get to archives and libraries in London, the midlands, South Wales, or, indeed, archives further north. In particular, my extensive experience of using the holdings of local record offices all over Britain means that I am able to offer advice as to which topics are more or less viable according to the location of archives and the student's ability to travel.
I would be especially keen to supervise students in the following broad areas, although the list is by no means exclusive:
- The history of the Labour party.
- Conservative party history.
- The history of the Liberal party.
- Communist party history.
- Studies of electoral politics, at either a regional or national level.
- The careers of politicians.
- The political history of the twentieth-century South-West.
- Religion and politics in twentieth-century Britain.
Of course, each of these categories in itself contains dozens, if not hundreds, of possible PhD research topics: the categories are merely broad indications of the kinds of fields that are available. I would be happy to discuss with potential research students the possibilities of research in any area of twentieth-century British history.
Research Students
- Michael D Kandiah, ‘Lord Woolton’s chairmanship of the Conservative party, 1946-1951’
- Neil Riddell, ‘The second Labour government, 1929-31, and the wider Labour movement’
- Garry Tregidga, ‘The Liberal party in the South-West of England, 1929-1959’
- Lynne Thompson, ‘Agricultural Education in England, 1880-1950’
- Nicola Jeffery, ‘The British National government, 1931-1935’
- Claire Waddingham, ‘British policy towards Kenya and Rhodesia in the 1950s and 1960s’
- Sue Hess, ‘Civilian evacuation in World War II Devon’
- Michael Callaghan, ‘John Aloysius Costello: The forgotten Taoiseach’
- Larissa Kuzmitcheva, ‘The British Labour Party and Europe since 1988’
- Richard Wevill, The role of the British Embassy in Washington in Anglo-American relations, 1945-1948''
- Mario Ellul, H.M. Dockyard Malta, 1945-1958'
