Political commentators Polly Toynbee and David Walker (left) are the authors of Did Things Get Better? (Penguin), in which they explore the performance of Tony Blair's first administration. Here they choose the essential books to read if you want to understand New Labour, and some favourite political novels.
Read extracts from Did Things Get Better?
Read Polly Toynbee and David Walker's online discussion
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1. The Cunning of Unreason by John Dunn
A subtle, pessimistic book about democracy by an original mind. Read Dunn and the future of elective self-government looks bleak.
2. Mandelson and the Making of New Labour by Donald MacIntyre
More than just a biography of the prince of darkness, Don MacIntyre brilliantly conveys how Labour's defeats in 1983, 1987 and 1992 felt. This remains the great source book on why Mandelson and Gordon Brown fell out.
3. Primary Colors by Anonymous (Joe Klein)
This is still the best book about Bill Clinton - and Monica and Hillary - and the sheer exhilaration of running for national office in the USA. Of course it's a novel, but it speaks truth about power.
4. Politics and the Pound by Philip Stephens
The essential book about the John Major premiership and the ERM debacle. Money is the mother's milk of politics, they say; sterling's fate was John Major's and may yet be Tony Blair's.
5. The Life of William Ewart Gladstone by John Morley (Greenwood Press, ISBN: 0837105765)
Morley was himself a Liberal MP, and brings to the monumental task of describing the tree-chopping, prostitute-rescuing, three-hour-speechifying Victorian a shared love of the business of winning and using power for public purpose.
6. Sovereign Virtue: The Theory and Practice of Equality by Ronald Dworkin
Liberty, fraternity, equality: the greatest of the three is equality, and Ronald proves it with rigour. He is the kind of author who makes his readers feel cleverer.
7. Felix Holt: The Radical by George Eliot
Modern political novels never come close. Through her characters Eliot managed to explain class and (unfashionable idea these days but all too present in 1832) class conflict
8. The Prime Minister by Peter Hennessy
Throughout the country politicians are making speeches using bons mots and stories culled from this set of portraits of premiers since Attlee. Is Blair Boney? Hennessy reminds us that the historians will remember Blair as a successful war leader.
9. Paying for Progress by the Commission on Taxation and Citizenship (Fabian Society)
Here, in one place, all the arguments for and against income and indirect taxes, with handy charts and some passionate pleas for higher spending, too.
10. Phineas Finn by Anthony Trollope
An Irish adventurer rises in the Commons then comes a cropper. If only real politics was this witty and exciting.