This biography of the British Labour politician J.R. Clynes, and traces his remarkable rise from impoverished Lancashire mill-hand to cabinet minister. It looks at the role he played in the 'New Unionism' of the late nineteenth century, and his participation in the Lloyd George wartime coalition government World War 1. Clynes, briefly leader of the Labour Party, was also a member of the cabinet in both minority Labour governments of 1924 and 1929-31, and had a intimate view of the political and economic dramas of the time. This included the General Strike of 1926, the collapse of the Labour government in 1931, the partial recovery of Labour in the 1930's, the wartime coalition government, and the spectacular Labour victory in 1945. This book traces the attempts by Clynes to maintain a balance between the claims of democratic socialism and those of the national interest.