Labour, British radicalism and the First World War

Description

This book provides a concise set of twelve essays looking at various aspects of the British left, movements of protest and the cumulative impact of the First World War. There are three broad areas this work intends to make a contribution to; the first is to help us further understand the role the Labour Party played in the conflict, and its evolving attitudes towards the war; the second strand concerns the notion of work, and particularly women's work; the third strand deals with the impact of theory and practice of forces located largely outside the United Kingdom. Through these essays this book aims to provide a series of thirteen bite-size analyses of key issues affecting the British left throughout the war, and to further our understanding of it in this critical period of commemoration. Contents List of figures and tables Notes on contributors List of abbreviations Introduction 1 Peace, but not at any price: British socialists’ calls for peace on the eve of the First World War 2 At the crossroads: the Labour Party, the trade unions and the choices of direction for the democratic left 3 ‘One of the most revolutionary proposals that has ever been put before the House’: the passage of the Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act 1918 4 Labour and socialism during the First World War in Bristol and Northampton 5 A stronghold of liberalism? The north-east Lancashire cotton weaving districts and the First World War 6 Living through war, waging peace: comparing Mary Macarthur and Sylvia Pankhurst 7 ‘Industrial unionism for women’: Ellen Wilkinson and the unionisation of shop workers, 1915–18 8 The unsung heroines of radical wartime activism: gender, militarism and collective action in the British Women’s Corps 9 Charlie Chaplin’s war: a British radical in tumultuous times 10 Irish Labour and the ‘Co-operative Commonwealth’ in the era of the First World War 11 Russia’s war and revolutions as seen by Morgan Philips Price and Arthur Henderson 12 The Stanford connection: David Starr Jordan, eugenics and the Anglo-American anti-war movement 13 The problem of war aims and the Treaty of Versailles Index