Churchill : The Radical Chancellor
James Brockhurst

When Winston Churchill became Chancellor in 1924 he fulfilled his lifelong ambition to succeed his father, Lord Randolph, whose disastrous Chancellorship of 1886 left an indelible mark on the young Churchill. Churchill's years at the Treasury were as much about vindicating his father's legacy as they were about promoting his father's radical form of Conservatism: Tory Democracy.

Churchill's long reign at the Treasury, from 1924 to 1929, is the most overlooked period of his life. There is much to learn about Churchill from these years in high office, when his political power was the equal of, and at times greater than, Prime Minister Baldwin's.

This book turns the Churchill myth on its head. Churchill in the 1920s is often portrayed in literature as a reactionary true-blue Conservative, but this book seeks to reappraise that image.

The figure which emerges is a social reformer who was pivotal in the introduction of new old age, widows’ and orphans’ pensions, brought in progressive taxation, poured scorn on the financial policies of the Bank of England, opposed Naval expansion, proposed novel and radical schemes, promoted pacific foreign policies and restlessly sought to alleviate unemployment.