Ernest Gowers [Elektronisk resurs] Plain words and forgotten deeds / Ann Scott.

• Preface Anatomy of a Victorian Family Education for Public Service Coping with Lloyd George WW1: Under Cover at Wellington House Influential Head of 'Enfeebled' Mines Department Quis Custodiet? -- Surtax, Syntax and Scandal Mine Owners' Bogy Man WW2: Preparing for London's Civil Defence WW2: Leading London through the Blitz Postwar Reconstruction Abolishing Capital Punishment Plain Words Revising Fowler 'A Last Retrospect'.

• Draws on previously inaccessible family archives to penetrate the anonymity and public reticence of one of Britain's great twentieth century civil servants. Gowers was highly influential in public policy throughout his long civil service career, which began in 1903 and culminated in running London's civil defence throughout the Second World War. -- During his long career as a British civil servant Ernest Gowers was close to the centre of many of the momentous events of the first half of the twentieth century. However, he only became famous in 1948 when Plain Words, originally written as a training pamphlet for the British Civil Service, became an instant best-seller for HMSO. Ann Scott has had access to Gowers' family archives. Using these and other previously untapped primary sources she builds a portrait of the career of one member of a cohort of high-flying civil servants who began their careers at the turn of the century. Gowers' final task as a civil servant was to run London's civil defence during WW2. Because of the wealth of original material available, two chapters are devoted to the way in which civil defence was planned and the many challenges he had to face, using his own words and those of his colleagues. Described as Britain's 'No 1 Chairman' he chaired many inquiries after the war. The Royal Commission into Capital Punishment had a profound effect on him, turning him into a convinced and influential abolitionist. At the age of 75 he began the task that engaged him for the final ten years of his life: revising Fowler's Modern English Usage. 

Ämnesord

Politics and Government.  (eflch)

Klassifikation

POL (ämneskategori)