England Objects to the Treaty of Versailles, June 1, 1919

Journal of Liberal History

Latest

Publications

Latest Event

On This Day

27 July 1930

Birth of Shirley Williams

Born in Chelsea, the daughter of Sir George Catlin and Vera Brittain, the pacifist and feminist writer, Williams joined the Labour Party and was elected to Parliament in 1964, later becoming a Cabinet minister. Increasingly out of sympathy with the leftward drift of Labour, particularly after 1979 when she lost her seat in the House of Commons, in 1981 she joined with Roy Jenkins, David Owen and Bill Rodgers, the so-called Gang of Four, to form the new Social Democratic Party and was elected as MP for Crosby at a dramatic by-election later that year. Williams supported the Alliance with the Liberal Party and later the merger which formed the Liberal Democrats. She became a Lib Dem life peer as Baroness Williams of Crosby in 1993 serving as leader in the Lords from 2001-2004. In 2016 she retired from the Lords, giving a memorable farewell speech, and in 2017 was appointed a Companion of Honour for services to political and public life. She died, aged 90, in April 2021.

Subscriptions

You have a choice of the following plans:

Digital

Download the latest and all previous issues of the Journal from our website.


Print

Four issues of the Journal per year, delivered to your door.


Top up

For print only subscribers who have not yet updated their standing order to £30 (£20 unwaged).

Digital Plus

Download the latest and all previous issues of the Journal from our website.


Four issues of the Journal per year, delivered to your door.


Liberal History offers a collection of books, concise booklets, and individual issues.

✴︎

learn
discuss

research

Share

We publish the Journal of Liberal History and a range of books

The Liberal Democrat History Group promotes the discussion and research of topics relating to the histories of the British Liberal Democrats and its predecessor parties, the Liberal Party and the SDP, and of liberalism more broadly.

Liberal History Logo

We aim to appeal to anyone with an interest in the history of British Liberalism, whether academics, party activists or spare-time students of political history.

Things we do:

Publish the quarterly Journal of Liberal History, containing articles, book reviews, biographies, and meeting reports

Publish books, including Peace, Reform and Liberation: A History of Liberal Politics in Britain 1679-2011Dictionary of Liberal Thought, and Great Liberal Speeches

Make resources available to students of Liberal history, including news of research in progress and guides to archive sources (see Research resources)

Provide a concise history of the Liberal Democrats and its predecessor parties, along with a more extensive set of historical articles and biographies – the Liberal History Online project, available through themes and time periods.

Publish shorter booklets as concise reference sources, including Liberal History (a concise history of the Liberal Democrats and its predecessor parties), Liberal Leaders 1828-1899Liberal Leaders of the Twentieth Century and Mothers of Liberty: Women who built British Liberalism

Organise discussion meetings, both in London and as fringe meetings at Liberal Democrat conferences

“There are hazards in everything one does, but there are greater hazards in doing nothing.”

Shirley Williams

Mailing List

Stay in the loop