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In the first three decades of the 20th century, two groups of radical political theorists — one British and one American — were bound together in a unique ideological relationship. This book provides an examination of the intellectual dialogue that constituted that bond. Drawing on archival research, and employing methods of conceptual analysis, it examines the efforts of these two initially distinctive political movements to forge a single ideology capable of motivating far-reaching reform in both of their countries. In so doing, the book emphasizes the exceptional development of American progressivism and British socialism, arguing that the intellectual inspirations and political programmes of both movements were constantly shaped and reshaped by international ideological exchange. It analyses the complex political demands of these movements and enables the works of their leading protagonists, including G. D. H. Cole, Herbert Croly, Harold Laski, and Walter Lippmann, to emerge as significant contributions to modern political thought.

Waiting for the revolution is a volume of essays examining the diverse currents of British left-wing politics from 1956 to the present day. The book is designed to complement the previous volume, Against the grain: The far left in Britain from 1956, bringing together young and established academics and writers to discuss the realignments and fissures that maintain leftist politics into the twenty-first century. The two books endeavor to historicise the British left, detailing but also seeking to understand the diverse currents that comprise ‘the far left’. Their objective is less to intervene in on-going issues relevant to the left and politics more generally, and more to uncover and explore the traditions and issues that have preoccupied leftist groups, activists and struggles. To this end, the book will appeal to scholars and anyone interested in British politics. It serves as an introduction to the far-left, providing concise overviews of organisations, social movements and campaigns. So, where the first volume examined the questions of anti-racism, gender politics and gay rights, volume two explores anti-nuclear and anti-apartheid struggles alongside introductions to Militant and the Revolutionary Communist Party.

Allan Flanders was one of the leading British industrial relations academics and his ideas exerted a major influence on government labor policy in the 1960s and 1970s. But as well as being an Oxford academic with a strong interest in theory and labor reform, he was also a lifelong political activist. Originally trained in German revolutionary ethical socialism in the early 1930s, he was the founder and joint editor of Socialist Commentary, the leading outlet for ‘revisionist’ social democratic thinking in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s. He was also the leading figure in the influential 1950s ‘think tank’ Socialist Union and played a key part in the bitter factional struggles inside the Labour Party. The main argument of the book is that Flanders’ ethical socialist ideas constituted both his strength and his weakness. Their rigor, clarity and sweep enabled him to exert a major influence over government attempts to negotiate labor reforms with the trade unions. Yet he proved unable to explain the failure of the reforms amidst rising levels of industrial conflict, as his intellectual rigor turned into ideological rigidity. The failure of negotiated reform led to Margaret Thatcher’s neo-liberal assault on trade union power in the 1980s. 1. Introduction: Industrial Relations and Social Democratic Politics 2. Revolutionary Ethical Socialism in Interwar Germany 3. Revolutionary Socialism in a Cold Climate 1932-1939 4. Trade Unions under Planned Capitalism 1939-1946 5. Democratic Socialism in the Cold War 1946-1951 6. The Recuperation of Ethical Socialism 1951-1959 7. Ethical Socialism and Industrial Relations Reform 1959-1973 8. The Limits and Failings of Industrial Relations Reform 9. Conclusions: Allan Flanders, Ethical Socialism and the Reform of British Industrial Relations. Epilogue: Industrial Relations Reform and Social Democratic Politics after Flanders John Kelly is Professor of Industrial Relations in the School of Management, Birkbeck College, London University. His main areas of research are comparative labor relations, labor unions and industrial relations theory. Recent publications include Varieties of Unionism (co-editor, 2004), Union Organization and Activity (co-editor, 2004) and Rethinking Industrial Relations (1998). \"Kelly's book on Flanders and ethical socialism is a valuable addition to the literature of industrial relations. It offers a detailed account of the political philosophy and policy activism of one of the founders of British industrial relations and in this way considerably illuminates an important historical chapter in the history of our field.\" -- Bruce E. Kaufman, Georgia State University, USA \"The book is the product of an intensive process of research, involving a comprehensive reading of Flanders’ published and unpublished writings, extensive archival work, and interviews and correspondence with many of his key associates...\" -- Richard Hyman, London School of Economics (English Book Reviews for RI/IR, Relations industrielles/Industrial Relations)

The Leveller movement of the 1640s campaigned for religious toleration and a radical remaking of politics in post-civil war England. This book, the first full-length study of the Levellers for fifty years, offers a fresh analysis of the originality and character of Leveller thought. Challenging received ideas about the Levellers as social contract theorists and Leveller thought as a mere radicalisation of parliamentarian thought, Foxley shows that the Levellers' originality lay in their subtle and unexpected combination of different strands within parliamentarianism. The book takes full account of recent scholarship, and contributes to historical debates on the development of radical and republican politics in the civil war period, the nature of tolerationist thought, the significance of the Leveller movement and the extent of the Levellers' influence in the ranks of the New Model Army.

Under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, Labour moves further to the left. For the first time since the 1970s, socialism is back on the agenda, and in an historic first, it defines the leadership. But clashes of ideology, tactics and styles have been the story of the Labour Party for the last 70 years and traditional leadership is often thought to fail. Could things be different with Corbyn? The answer lies in examining the party's history from 1979 to the present.0The forty year conflict within Labour is a fascinating story dominated by powerful political operators. Particularly trying times included the 1950s campaigns over nuclear disarmament and in the 1970s and 1980s over the perceived treachery of the Wilson and Callaghan governments, and their attempts to take power through internal changes with periodic challenges to the Labour leadership. Then there were the Blair Brown years and Iraq.0The strategies used to elect Jeremy Corbyn have been used to create a new mass movement on the left that is moving again to control the machinery of the Labour Party. However, the history of the Labour Party shows that groups that are dominant in one political generation do not necessarily cement that dominance. The left learnt this in 1983, New Labour in 2010. 0This book chronicles the battles within the Labour Party, the schisms between idealogues and pragmatistists, and how the fissures within the Labour Party seem destined to keep Labour in opposition.

George Orwell was one of the most significant literary figures on the left in the twentieth century. While titles such as 1984, Animal Farm and Homage to Catalonia are still rightly regarded as modern classics, his own politics are less well understood. Hope Lies in the Proles offers a sympathetic yet critical account of Orwell's political thinking and its continued significance today. John Newsinger explores various aspects of Orwell's politics, detailing Orwell's attempts to change working-class consciousness, considering whether his attitude towards the working class was romantic, realistic or patronising - or all three at different times. He also asks whether Orwell's anti-fascism was eclipsed by his criticism of the Soviet Union, and explores his ambivalent relationship with the Labour Party. Newsinger also breaks important new ground regarding Orwell's shifting views on the USA, and his relationship with the progressive Left and feminism.