Book Description

With Foreword by Tony Benn. This edited collection explores the British labour movement's relationship with imperialism in the period 1800–1982 through nine inter-connected articles. Labour historians have tended to neglect the labour movement's interaction with imperialism, preferring to concentrate on industrial relations, internal factionalism, the Labour Party-trade union alliance, and economic policymaking. In order to redress the balance, this book takes a broad chronological overview of the subject and engages with key themes, ranging from trade union interaction with empire, and the influence of popular imperial culture, to post-war colonial development, and responses to post-colonialism. Taking stock both of the labour movement in a broader context and of new approaches to the history of British imperialism, the collection combines the work of leading authorities on labour history with recent scholarly research. By blending this combination of economic, social, political and cultural analyses, it makes a substantial contribution to the debates surrounding the legacy of imperialism and the evolution of the British labour movement. The book will be of interest to academics, researchers, teachers and students of modern British political, social, economic and cultural history. It will also appeal to Labour Party members and labour movement activists.