Life and Career
From 1906 to 1909, Attlee worked as manager of Haileybury House, a charitable club for working class boys in Stepney in the East End of London run by his old school. Prior to this, his political views had been conservative. However, he was shocked by the poverty and deprivation he saw while working with slum children. He came to the view that private charity would never be sufficient to alleviate poverty, and only massive action and income redistribution by the state would have any serious effect. This sparked up a process of political evolution that saw him develop into a full-fledged supporter of socialism. He joined the Independent Labour Party in 1908, and became active in London local politics.
In 1909, he worked briefly as secretary for Beatrice Webb. Between 1909 and 1910, he worked as secretary for Toynbee Hall. In 1911 he took up a government job as an "official explainer", touring the country to explain David Lloyd George's National Insurance Act. He spent the summer of that year touring Essex and Somerset on a bicycle, explaining the Act at public meetings.
Attlee became a lecturer at the London School of Economics in 1912, but promptly applied for an army officer commission following the outbreak of World War I in August 1914.
Read more about this topic: Clement Attlee
Famous quotes containing the words life and/or career:
“A woman can get marries and her life does change. And a man can get married and his life changes. But nothing changes life as dramatically as having a child. . . . In this country, it is a particular experience, a rite of passage, if you will, that is unsupported for the most part, and rather ignored. Somebody will send you a couple of presents for the baby, but people do not acknowledge the massive experience to the parents involved.”
—Dana Raphael (20th century)
“From a hasty glance through the various tests I figure it out that I would be classified in Group B, indicating “Low Average Ability,” reserved usually for those just learning to speak the English Language and preparing for a career of holding a spike while another man hits it.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)