Acclaimed historians Nick Dyrenfurth and Frank Bongiorno tell the story of the Australian Labor Party’s rich history of more than 130 years and examine its central role in modern Australia. The Australian Labor Party is one of the oldest labour parties in the world and the first to form a government. From the prime ministerships of Watson and Fisher to the tragedies of Hughes and Scullin, through the 1940s legends Curtin and Chifley to governments of Whitlam, Hawke, Keating, Rudd and Gillard, A Little History of the Australian Labor Party recounts times of triumph and failure, as well as resilience. This updated edition examines Labor’s recent performance in state and territory politics and takes the national story up to the Albanese government. ‘Informative and insightful, the authors shrewdly marshal the key events, policies and personalities in Labor’s long and lively history to tell the compelling story of the party that has shaped Australia more than any other. I enjoyed it immensely.’ — Troy Bramston ‘The history of Australia’s Labor Party is the story of how ordinary men and women dreamed, organised, argued and raged to form a political movement that has weathered wars, depressions, financial crises, bitter splits, rivalries and betrayals, and yet forged great alliances to shape this country into a good and safe place to live. The story of Labor is the story of a nation that was not born on a distant battlefield, but in the homes and workplaces, pubs and halls where people gathered to make the world better. This enthralling, questing book is not just great Labor history, it is great Australian history.’ — Janet McCalman

Now in its eleventh edition, this book provides a concise introductory account of the Labour Party from its foundation up to Tony Blair's leadership, and the subsequent redrafting of the party's statement of aims in its constitution. It describes the main groups involved in the foundation of the party and the main influences on its changes of policy. It also describes the role of the trade unions within the party and their relations with the parliamentary leadership and the rank-and-file members. It concludes by discussing the problems Labour has faced in gaining an effective parliamentary majority, and the solutions which have been devised by successive generations of the party's leadership. This book thus provides the essential background for an understanding of current politics.

Providing an introductory account of the Labour Party from its foundation, this book covers the whole period up to the General Election of 1992 and the subsequent choice of John Smith to succeed Neil Kinnock as party leader. It also discusses the role of labour unions within the party.

Does work give our lives purpose, meaning and status? Or is it a tedious necessity that will soon be abolished by automation, leaving humans free to enjoy a life of leisure and basic income? In this erudite and highly readable book, Jon Cruddas MP argues that it is imperative that the Left rejects the siren call of technological determinism and roots it politics firmly in the workplace. Drawing from his experience of his own Dagenham and Rainham constituency, he examines the history of Marxist and social democratic thinking about work in order to critique the fatalism of both Blairism and radical left techno-utopianism, which, he contends, have more in common than either would like to admit. He argues that, especially in the context of COVID-19, socialists must embrace an ethical socialist politics based on the dignity and agency of the labour interest. This timely book is a brilliant intervention in the highly contentious debate on the future of work, as well as an ambitious account of how the left must rediscover its animating purpose or risk irrelevance.

'Those who were originally called radicals and afterwards reformers, are called Chartists', declared Thomas Duncombe before Parliament in 1842, a comment which can be adapted for a later period and as a description of this collection of papers: 'those who were originally called Chartists were afterwards called Liberal and Labour activists'. In other words, the central argument of this book is that there was a substantial continuity in popular radicalism throughout the nineteenth and into the twentieth century. The papers stress both the popular elements in Gladstonian Liberalism and the radical liberal elements in the early Labour party. The first part of the book focuses on the continuity of popular attitudes across the commonly-assumed mid-century divide, with studies of significant personalities and movements, as well as a local case study. The second part examines the strong links between Gladstonian Liberalism and the working classes, looking in particular at labour law, taxation, and the Irish crisis. The final part assesses the impact of radical traditions on early Labour politics, in Parliament, the unions, and local government. The same attitudes towards liberty, the rule of law, and local democracy are highlighted throughout, and new questions are therefore posed about the major transitions in the popular politics of the period.