Labour General Secretary Morgan Phillips famously claimed that the Labour Party owed more to Methodism than to Marxism. But was he right? In this episode of Since Attlee & Churchill, Richard and Lee explore the Methodist tradition and its influence on the Labour movement - including the importance of Methodism in teaching working class people about political organisation and public speaking. Throughout the episode, Richard shares the stories of some of the remarkable Labour politicians whose lives were shaped - even transformed - by Methodism, before wondering whether the debate posed by Phillips’ statement is still relevant to Labour today.

In this episode, the following books are mentioned:

'Labour and the Free Churches, 1918-1939' by Peter Catterall.

'The New Dark Ages: The End of Reading and the Dawn of a Post-Literate Society' by James Marriott. Available at: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/16406/9781847929518

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Since Attlee & Churchill is a podcast about post-war British politics - since Attlee & Churchill - and is hosted by Lee David Evans, an historian of the Conservative Party, and Richard Johnson, an historian of the Labour Party.

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