Harold Wilson bibliography


James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, PC was one of the most prominent British politicians of the 20th century.
There is an extensive bibliography on Harold Wilson. He is the author of a number of books. He is the subject of many biographies and academic analyses of his career and various aspects of the policies pursued by the governments he has led. He features in many "humorous" books. He was the Prime Minister in the so-called "Swinging London" era of the 1960s, and therefore features in many of the books about this period of history.

Principal books by Harold Wilson

In addition, several speeches and articles by Wilson are listed in the COPAC catalogue.

Selected titles about Harold Wilson

Biography

  • Farr, Martin. ""Wilson, Harold, 1st Baron Wilson 1916-1995." in Reader's Guide to British History London: Routledge, 2003. online at Credo Reference.
  • Jenkins, Roy. "Wilson, Harold, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2009
  • Moran, Jon. "Conspiracy and contemporary history: revisiting MI5 and the Wilson plot ." Journal of Intelligence History 13.2 : 161–175.
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Memoirs of his staff

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Politics

  • Crines, Andrew Scott. "Harold Wilson's rhetoric." Renewal: a Journal of Labour Politics 22.3/4 : 128+ .
  • Favrettoa, Ilaria. "'Wilsonism' reconsidered: Labour party revisionism 1952–64," Contemporary British History 14#4 pages 54–80
  • Fielding, Steven. "Rethinking Labour's 1964 Campaign," Contemporary British History, 21#3 pp 309–324
  • Fielding, Steven, ed. The Labour governments, 1964–70, volume 1: Labour and cultural change.
  • Harper, Tobias. "Harold Wilson’s ‘Lavender List’Scandal and the Shifting Moral Economy of Honour." Twentieth Century British History 31.1 : 79-100.
  • Heppell, Timothy. "The Labour Party leadership election of 1963: Explaining the unexpected election of Harold Wilson." Contemporary British History 24.2 : 151-171.
  • Irving, Henry. "The birth of a politician: Harold Wilson and the bonfires of controls, 1948–9." Twentieth century British history 25.1 : 87-107.
  • King, Anthony. The British General Election of 1966.
  • Lapping, Brian. The Labour Government, 1964–70.
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Domestic policies

  • Blick, Andrew. "Harold Wilson, Labour and the machinery of government." Contemporary British History 20#3 pp: 343-362.
  • Cairncross, Alexander Kirkland, and Barry J. Eichengreen. Sterling in Decline: the Devaluations of 1931, 1949, and 1967
  • Childs, David. Britain since 1945: a political history.
  • Crines, Andrew S., and Kevin Hickson, eds. Harold Wilson: The Unprincipled Prime Minister?: A Reappraisal of Harold Wilson.
  • Dorey, Peter. "The Fall of the Wilson Government, 1970." in How Labour Governments Fall: From Ramsay Macdonald to Gordon Brown : 83+.
  • Dorey, Pete. "‘Well, Harold Insists on Having It!’—The Political Struggle to Establish The Open University, 1965–67." Contemporary British History 29.2 : 241-272.
  • Heppell, Timothy. Choosing the Labour Leader: Labour Party Leadership Elections from Wilson to Brown.
  • O'Hara, Glen. "'Dynamic, Exciting, Thrilling Change': the Wilson Government's Economic Policies, 1964–70," Contemporary British History, 20#3 pp 383–402
  • Rogers, Chris. "Economic Policy and the Problem of Sterling under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan," Contemporary British History 25#3 pp 339–363.
  • Warner, Geoffrey. "Putting pressure on O'Neill: the Wilson government and Northern Ireland 1964–69." Irish Studies Review 13#1 pp: 13-31.

Foreign and military policies

  • Broad, Matthew. Harold Wilson, Denmark and the Making of Labour European Policy, 1958-72.
  • Coggins, Richard. "Wilson and Rhodesia: UDI and British policy towards Africa." Contemporary British History 20#3 pp: 363-381.
  • Colman, Jonathan. "Harold Wilson, Lyndon Johnson and Anglo-American 'summit diplomacy', 1964–68." Journal of Transatlantic Studies 1#2 pp: 131-151.
  • Dockrill, Saki. "Forging the Anglo-American global defence partnership: Harold Wilson, Lyndon Johnson and the Washington summit, December 1964." Journal of Strategic Studies 23#4 pp: 107-129.
  • Dockrill, Saki. "Britain's power and influence: Dealing with three roles and the Wilson government's defence debate at Chequers in November 1964." Diplomacy and Statecraft 11#1 pp: 211-240.
  • Doyle, Suzanne. "A Foregone Conclusion? The United States, Britain and the Trident D5 Agreement." Journal of Strategic Studies 40.6 : 867-894.
  • Gill, David James. Britain and the bomb: nuclear diplomacy, 1964-1970.
  • Gill, David James. "The Ambiguities of Opposition: Economic Decline, International Cooperation, and Political Rivalry in the Nuclear Policies of the Labour Party, 1963-1964," Contemporary British History 25# 2 pp 251–276
  • Haeussler, Mathias. "A pyrrhic victory: Harold Wilson, Helmut Schmidt, and the British renegotiation of EC membership, 1974–5." International History Review 37.4 : 768-789.
  • Hughes, Geraint. Harold Wilson's Cold War: The Labour Government and East-West Politics, 1964-1970.
  • Llewelyn, James. "Steadfast Yet Reluctant Allies: Japan and the United Kingdom in the Vietnam War," Diplomacy and Statecraft 22#4 pp 608–633.
  • Oliver, Michael J. "The Management of Sterling, 1964–1967," English Historical Review 126#520 pp 582–613.
  • Pine, Melissa. Harold Wilson and Europe: Pursuing Britain's Membership of the European Community
  • Robb, Thomas. "The 'Limit of What is Tolerable': British Defence Cuts and the 'Special Relationship,' 1974-1976," Diplomacy and Statecraft 22#2 pp 321–337.
  • Rogers, Chris. "Economic Policy and the Problem of Sterling under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan," Contemporary British History 25#3 pp 339–363.
  • Spelling, Alex. "'A Reputation for Parsimony to Uphold': Harold Wilson, Richard Nixon and the Re-Valued 'Special Relationship’1969–1970." Contemporary British History 27#2 pp: 192-213.
  • Stoddart, Kristan. "The British Labour Government and the development of Chevaline, 1974–79." Cold War History 10.3 : 287-314.
  • Stoddart, Kristan. "The Wilson government and British responses to anti-ballistic missiles, 1964–1970." Contemporary British History 23.1 : 1-33.
  • Vickers, Rhiannon. "Harold Wilson, the British Labour Party, and the War in Vietnam." Journal of Cold War Studies 10#2 pp: 41-70.
  • Walker, John R. Britain and Disarmament: The UK and Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Weapons Arms Control and Programmes, 1956-1975.
  • Wall, Stephen. The Official History of Britain and the European Community, Volume III: The Tiger Unleashed, 1975-1985.
  • Wilson, Craig. "Rhetoric, reality and dissent: The Vietnam policy of the British labour government, 1964–1970." Social Science Journal 23#1 pp: 17-31.

Swinging London

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"Humour"

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