Anthony Crosland

Anthony Crosland, 1976

Charles Anthony Raven Crosland (born August 29, 1918 in St Leonards-on-sea , Sussex , † February 19, 1977 in Oxford ) was a British politician and Member of Parliament for Labor . He was also a socialist theorist.

Life

Crosland was the second of three children of Secretary of State in the War Department Joseph Beardsell Crosland (1874–1935) and his wife Jessie nee. Raven, lecturer in Old French at Westfield College (University of London) . The family belonged to the Brethren movement ; Crosland's maternal grandfather was the preacher Frederick Edward Raven .

Crosland attended Highgate School and Trinity College , Oxford. 1940-45 he took part as a paratrooper in World War II , for which he was awarded a Medal of Honor. After the war he continued his studies at Trinity College, where he became a lecturer in economics in 1947 .

From 1950 to 1955 Crosland was a Member of the House of Commons for the constituency of South Gloucestershire , from 1959 until his death he represented the constituency of Grimsby . Under Prime Minister Harold Wilson, he held the post of education minister from 1965 to 1967, from 1969 to 1970 that of minister for local self-government and regional planning and from 1974 to 1976 that of environment minister. After Wilson's resignation in 1976, he applied for the position of Labor chairman, but finished last. However, since he subsequently supported the winner James Callaghan , he was appointed Secretary of State. His early death put an end to this activity after only ten months.

Crosland was a member and temporarily (1961-62) chairman of the Fabian Society . In his book The Future of Socialism (1956) he advocated an adaptation of traditional socialism to modernity.

Crosland was married twice: 1952–57 with Hilary Anne Sarson from Newbury , from 1964 with the American author Susan Barnes Catling (1927–2011), who brought two daughters into the marriage.

Publications (selection)

• Britain's Economic Problem (1953)
• The Future of Socialism (1956)
• The Conservative Enemy (1962)
• Socialism Now (1974)

literature

• Giles Radice: Friends and Rivals: Crosland, Jenkins and Healey . Little Brown, London 2002, ISBN 0-316-85547-2
• Kevin Jeffreys: Anthony Crosland . Cohen, London 1999, ISBN 1-86066-157-2
• Dick Leonard (Ed.): Crosland and New Labor . Macmillan, Basingstoke 1999, ISBN 0-333-73990-6