Résumé
Wide-ranging and richly researched, this is the first sourcebook to reconstruct the tumultuous history of the Communist Party of Great Britain. Drawing together over one hundred and fifty documents-including party statements, press releases, published correspondence, reviews, poems, cartoons and articles-it presents a detailed portrait of the party, its abiding concerns and its many contradictions from the 1920s to the 1980s. It samples voices from the full spectrum of the party’s diverse personnel, from longstanding party leaders (Harry Pollitt, Rajani Palme Dutt), to prominent twentieth-century British intellectuals (E. P. Thompson, Eric Hobsbawm), to significant cultural figures (Jack Lindsay, Alan Bush, A.L. Lloyd).
Over half of the book is organized chronologically, bringing into sharp focus the CPGB’s trajectory: its emergence and consolidation; the adoption of new lines in response to shifting international contexts and Moscow directives; moments of damaging crisis and political isolation; the widening faultlines that eventually led to the party’s dissolution. Running through this overarching narrative are thematic chapters providing magnified coverage of central issues: the party’s critique of imperialism and engagement with anti-colonial struggles; the party’s cultural policies and interventions; its relationship with the Soviet Union and the broader British Labour movement.