In this intellectually ambitious study, Elizabeth McKillen explores the significance of Wilsonian internationalism for workers and the influence of American labor in both shaping and undermining the foreign policies and war mobilization efforts of Woodrow Wilson's administration. McKillen highlights the major fault lines and conflicts that emerged within labor circles as Wilson pursued his agenda in the context of Mexican and European revolutions, World War I, and the Versailles Peace Conference. As McKillen shows, the choice to collaborate with or resist U.S. foreign policy remained an important one for labor throughout the twentieth century. In fact, it continues to resonate today in debates over the global economy, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the impact of U.S. policies on workers at home and abroad.

Explores the idea of the nation among internationalist thinkers, suggesting that major figures associated with international labor organizations never underestimated the attraction of nationalism. Each chapter begins with a discussion of main issues that framed the international labor movement's concern with the nation in different periods, then analyzes the ideas of major thinkers who stand for the main trends at each point. Coverage includes the International Working Men's Association of the mid-19th century, the apogee of the Second International between 1895 and the onset of WWI, the Third International, the Comintern--1919-43, and the influence of Stalin and Lenin. Paper edition (unseen), $17.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The Second World War was a watershed moment in foreign policy for the Labour Party in Britain. Before the war, British socialists had held that nationalism was becoming obsolete and that humanity was steadily evolving towards the ideal of a single world government. The collapse of the League of Nations destroyed this optimistic vision, compelling Labour to undertake a fundamental review of its entire approach to foreign affairs during a period of unprecedented global crisis. This book traces the controversy that ensued, as the British democratic left set about the task of defining the principles of a radically new international system for the postwar world. The schemes proposed by Labour policymakers during these years encompassed a wide variety of political institutions aiming at the restraint or supersession of the sovereign nation-state. What they shared in common, however, was a reconceptualization of British identity, in which the hyper-patriotism of the wartime period blended with the left's traditional internationalism. This new 'muscular' internationalism was to have a major impact upon the evolution of entities as diverse as the United Nations Organizations, the British Commonwealth and the accelerating campaign in favor of European unity after Labour assumed the reins of government in 1945. Breaking with the traditional accounts that place Cold War tensions at the centre of the Attlee government's activities in the immediate postwar years, R.M. Douglas's book provides an entirely new framework for reassessing British foreign policy and left-wing concepts of national identity during the most turbulent moment of Britain's modern history. This book will be essential reading for all students and researchers of British foreign policy, the Labour Party and international relations.

Nationalism and internationalism have always been powerful forces in the labour movements of the world. From the First to the Fourth International, from the International Labour Organization to the many international federations of trade unions, historians have studied both of these great forces for more than a hundred years. Interest in working-class nationalism and internationalism has also increased since the growth of global labour history, on the one hand, and the study of nationalism as a historically constructed phenomenon on the other. This volume is a part of this great upsurge in interest in working-class nationalism and internationalism. It brings together the work of postgraduate and postdoctoral scholars who have approached these two themes in their research. Covering subjects as diverse as the political instruction of Soviet sailors, the early and forgotten years of Chinese socialism, and debates within the socialist movement about Labour Zionism, this book represents an important contribution to labour, social and global history and helps us to understand the roads down which labour movements around the world have travelled to get where they are today.