Table of Contents

Series Preface
Foreword by John McDonnell
Introduction
1. Divided Beginnings
2. Second Time as Disaster
3. The Age of Consent
4. The Civil War
5. 'Though Cowards Flinch...'
6. The Broad Church Collapses
7. The Single Idea
8. The Corbyn Supremacy
Conclusion
Notes
Index

About the Author

Simon Hannah is a writer and political activist. He is the author of A Party with Socialists in It (Pluto 2018). His work has been featured in Open Democracy and New Left Project. He is currently researching at King's College the municipal socialist movement of the 1980s. He is an active trade unionist and a member of the Labour Party.

John McDonnell is a British Labour Party politician who was appointed the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer in September 2015. He became the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hayes and Harlington at the 1997 general election, and has retained his seat from then onwards.

Reviews

'A welcome corrective ... This book astutely appraises British politics' most frustrating but important dissident tradition'

-- Andy Beckett - Guardian

'Admirably clear-sighted'

-- George Eaton - New Statesman

'The rise to prominence of Jeremy Corbyn has made relevant again the history of the Labour Left from which he comes. But that history is not generally known. Simon Hannah has therefore done us a great service. At a very crucial time in British politics, his book helps us to fill in important gaps in our knowledge'

-- David Coates, author of Prolonged Labour: The Slow Birth of New Labour in Britain

'A well-timed explanation of the class contradictions at the root of the Labour Party from its creation to the present day'

-- Graham Bash, Labour Briefing

'This informative and thought-provoking historical account allows us to assess the Party's history, whilst acknowledging that the progressive movement inspired by Corbyn's leadership is something new and exciting'

-- Liz Davies, Labour Party Activist

'This well-researched history could hardly be more relevant for the political moment we are living through and participating in'

-- Morning Star

'Timely'

-- Left Foot Forward

'A well written and concise history of the Labour left from the party's inception through to the present day'

-- Workers' Liberty