Book Reviews : The Meaning of the First World War. By RENÉ ALBRECHT-CARRIÉ. (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1965. Pp. 181. $4.95.)

• Date: 01 December 1965
• Published date: 01 December 1965
• DOI: 10.1177/106591296501800418
• Author: Hoyt M. Jackson
• Subject Matter: Articles

902
The British General Election of f 1964. By D. E. BUTLER and ANTHONY KING. (New
York: St. Martin’s Press, 1965. Pp. ix, 401. $9.00.)
Students of elections who have come to value the five earlier Nuffield studies
will not be disappointed with this most comprehensive examination of the sixth
British general election since World War II. While reproducing many features of
the earlier volumes, it includes two novel features. One is a whole section devoted
to &dquo;The Making of Party Strategy&dquo; which depends on interviews with political
figures as well as press reports; and the other is an appendix on the influence of
immigration which is judged negligible except in the defeat of Patrick Gordon
Walker at Smethwick. Furthermore, this volume is conceived as part of a wider
study of the electorate involving an attitude study of a panel of 2,000 electors in 80
constituencies to be published in 1966.
What are the factors which produced the Labour victory? As in the earlier
studies, constituency and personality factors counted for little. Studies of the 1950,
1951, 1955, and 1959 general elections cast doubt on the influence of party organ-
ization on voting results. This period was also a time of Conservative organizational
vigor and Labour languor. The 1964 election took place following some Labour
&dquo;modernization&dquo; and it might be concluded that Labour victory was a consequence
of this renewal; it might also be that &dquo;modernization&dquo; and victory were the con-
sequence of a common cause in the broader political environment. The indexes of
the earlier volumes can lead the reader to appraisals of organizational influence;
the index of this volume does not. In a sense the whole volume is a study of this
issue, and it is inconclusive in spite of its examination of strategy, central to local
party communications, and local organizational elan. In any event Labour, Con-
servative, and Liberal parties continue organizational work in preparation for the
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