Synopses & Reviews
The rise of Hitler in Germany, alongside multiplying international and domestic fascist movements, should have been a natural cause to unite the British Left: the Socialist League, the Independent Labour Party and the Communist Party of Great Britain. But the opportunity passed as unity disappeared and the Left became defeated by mainstream Labour and the TUC. Based upon important new sources, Peter Corthorn puts forward an original interpretation of the Left's weaknesses in the 1930s. He casts new light on key players and the role of women such as Barbara Betts (later Castle) and the part that dramatic international developments played as the movement responded to the Soviet Union.
Synopsis
Paul Corthorn presents an illuminating, in-depth study of the British Left's response to the rise of international fascism in the 1930s. He uses a range of newly available archival sources to analyse how the Labour left - which took the form of the Socialist League between 1932 and 1937 - and the Independent Labour Party reacted to developments such as Mussolini's invasion of Abyssinia, Franco's uprising in Spain and Hitler's drive for territorial expansion. He argues that their responses to these threats from the fascist dictators were shaped above all by their constantly changing views of another dictatorship: the Soviet Union under Stalin.
About the Author
Paul Corthorn is Lecturer in Modern British History at Queen's University, Belfast, having taught previously at the University College, Oxford.