Radicals

“Wide-ranging, lucid and very readable, the book is a fresh account of the political left over two centuries.”—Chris Wrigley, author of British Trade Unions since 1933 “A brilliant, erudite and engaged history of the intersection of Britain’s working classes and its radical traditions in all their depth and many-sidedness. Whether or not you agree with all of Andrews’s conclusions, Radicals should be required reading for everyone interested in the past, present and the future of the British left.”—John Merrick, editor of Raphael Samuel’s Workshop of the World “Geoff Andrews' succinct retelling of the story of the British Left focuses on radical ideas and cultures rather than party politics. He shows how the working class, its emerging ethos and its struggle for self-education, helped to shape British society across more than a century.”—Tom Buchanan, University of Oxford “Geoff Andrews tells two centuries of working-class history in an informed, lucid style that is always engaging and often poignant. Radicals reminds us that the British working-classes were never dogmatic about socialist doctrine. British socialism developed out of working-class cultures that valued loyalty, mutualism, co-operation, fraternity, self-reliance, and self-improvement.”—Richard Johnson, Queen Mary University of London