Book review : Civil Liberties and Human Rights in Twentieth-Century Britain. By Chris Moores.

Civil Liberties and Human Rights in Twentieth-Century Britain. By Chris Moores. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New York, 2017. xiv+ 330 pp. ISBN 978-1107088610, £75. Civil Liberties and Human Rights in Twentieth-Century Britain is a study of the longevity and durability of the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL) from its foundation in 1934, through its rebranding as ‘Liberty’ in 1989, to the present day. It examines how the organization has been at the forefront of debates about the protection and extension of rights and liberties. The opening of the book powerfully encapsulates the trajectory of the NCCL since the 1930s. It contrasts Shami Chakrabarti’s role, in her capacity as Director of Liberty, as a flag-bearer during opening ceremony for the 2012 London Olympics, with Special Branch reports from 1934 identifying the NCCL’s founder, Ronald Kidd as a ‘communist sympathiser’. This contrast not only reveals the changing politics of the NCCL/Liberty but also the changing role of NGOs and the place of human rights in British politics.