Raphael Samuel, the Labour Party, and the 'First New Left’

 

 

The political Left in Britain rose out of the Industrial Revolution, as the working classes emerged as the leading force in the call for social change. Their contributions extended widely to political representation, the birth of the Labour Party and women’s suffrage, the autodidact tradition in adult education, and Britain’s literary culture. Throughout subsequent decades, the working classes remained central to the British radical tradition.

 

Geoff Andrews will trace one strand of this story through the life of Raphael Samuel, the post-1945 Labour Party and the ‘first new left’. This is part of a wider book on labour radicals' contribution to British culture, politics, and the movements which have driven social change.