One consequence of the triumph of the political left is the proliferation of fanciful psychiatric diagnoses for all manner of conservatives.

Now Kerry Bolton has written a factually based account of the pathology of the left - the vanity of Rousseau, the narcissistic personality of Karl Marx, the megalomania of Trotsky, the father-hating hedonist Mao Zedong, through to the paedophile promoting Allen Ginsberg, and the Oedipus complex of Louis Althusser who on release from a mental hospital strangled his wife.

Kerry Bolton's The Psychotic Left not only makes fascinating reading, but it provides an insight into the hypocrisy of many of the leading figures on the political left, who despite their rhetoric were totally devoid of compassion or empathy for their fellow man.

A common thread of many of the personalities discussed in this book is an overwhelming narcissism - the arrogance of people who are absolutely confident in their prescriptions for redesigning society and absolutely ruthless in putting their ideas into action - whatever the cost in human lives and suffering.

Jewish radicals manned the barricades on the avenues of Petrograd and the alleys of the Warsaw ghetto; they were in the vanguard of those resisting Franco and the Nazis. They originated in Yiddishland, a vast expanse of Eastern Europe that, before the Holocaust, ran from the Baltic Sea to the western edge of Russia and incorporated hundreds of Jewish communities with a combined population of some 11 million people. Within this territory, revolutionaries arose from the Jewish misery of Eastern and Central Europe; they were raised in the fear of God and taught to respect religious tradition, but were caught up in the great current of revolutionary utopian thinking. Socialists, Communists, Bundists, Zionists, Trotskyists, manual workers and intellectuals, they embodied the multifarious activity and radicalism of a Jewish working class that glimpsed the Messiah in the folds of the red flag. Today, the world from which they came has disappeared, dismantled and destroyed by the Nazi genocide. After this irremediable break, there remain only survivors, and the work of memory for red Yiddishland.This book traces the struggles of these militants, their singular trajectories, their oscillation between great hope and doubt, their lost illusions-a red and Jewish gaze on the history of the twentieth century.

Rajani Palme Dutt (1896-1974) was a leading figure in the Communist Party of Great Britain from the 1920s to the 1960s. His strong links with the Comintern made him, throughout this period, a devoted - and stern - supporter of orthodoxy within the CPGB. Through an intertwining of personal and political history, this well-documented book not only tells the fascinating story of Palme Dutt's life, but also provides a key to understanding the rise and fall of communism in the 20th century. '...a remarkable political biography.' John Torode, The Independent 'Excellent, scholarly and thoughtful.' Ben Pimlott, Independent on Sunday John Callaghan is Professor of Politics at the University of Wolverhampton. He is author of The Far Left in British Politics (1987) and Socialism in Britain since 1884 (1990).

From 1918 to 1945 the British Labour Party worked closely with some of the most prominent names in international relations (IR) scholarship. Through such structures as the 'Advisory Committee on International Questions', academic IR specialists were instrumental in the construction of Labour foreign policy, preparing a wealth of memoranda, reports and pamphlets for the Party. Here Lucian Ashworth examines the crucial role played by IR theorists. He puts the international theories of five key writers - Leonard Woolf, H.N. Brailsford, Philip Noel Baker, Norman Angell and David Mitrany - into the context of both the development of Labour's international policy and the evolution of the international environment between the wars. He demonstrates the inadequacy of the current interpretation within IR of the inter-war period and argues the obsession with the anachronistic division between realism and idealism - terms that had different connotations before World War II - masks both the very different debates that were going on at the time, and the changing international landscape of the inter-war period itself.

As the twenty-first century dawned, social democratic parties across Europe and beyond found themselves newly, and rather surprisingly, in the ascendant. Britain's New Labour was only the most spectacular in a whole series of political restorations. For many, this renewal only became possible when 'modernizing' social democratic parties jettisoned their old ideological and institutional baggage, setting off down a 'third way' that rejected the outmoded ideas of both left and right. The argument of "Hard Choices" is that this view is doubly misleading: it misrepresents the past and misunderstands the present.

The first half of the book restores some of the complexity to social democracy's past and shows that it was much more subtle, varied and intelligent than its latter-day critics suppose. Turning to the present, the second half of the book shows how a few contemporary half-truths - relating to globalization and demographic change - have been used to justify the abandonment of the defining core of a social democratic politics. The book does not argue that 'nothing has really changed'. In fact, a great deal has changed and policy-makers have to adjust to a range of new circumstances, constraints (and opportunities). But those who exhort us simply to abandon the 'traditional' terrain of the centre-left are wrong. Social democracy remains just what it always was - a politics of messy compromises and hard choices.

This book will appeal to undergraduates, postgraduates and scholars in politics, social policy and political sociology, as well as the interested general reader.

Following Labour's defeat at the polls in 2015, and at time when the Party is attempting to redefine its meaning, values and even identity, there is an urgent need for fresh thinking. Most people agree that a new start is needed. But in which direction should Labour turn? A crucial conversation is beginning, and it is in this fluid and volatile context that Blue Labour ideas could make a crucial difference. Seeking to move beyond the centrist pragmatism of both Blair and Cameron, and attempting to inject into politics a newfound passion and significance with which people can truly engage, this essential work speaks to the needs of diverse people and communities across the country. Critiquing the dominance in Britain of a social-cultural liberalism linked to the left and a free-market liberalism associated with the right, Blue Labour blends a 'progressive' commitment to greater economic equality with a more 'conservative' disposition emphasising personal loyalty, family, community and locality. It is the manifesto of a vital new force in politics: one that could define the thinking of the next generation and beyond.

Socialism has been an influential force for social change for almost two centuries. Its philosophy and ideology have inspired millions while simultaneously arousing fear and revulsion in its enemies. Having emerged after the French Revolution in the effort to build upon and develop the egalitarian ideas of the Enlightenment, socialism has taken many forms. It has, furthermore, sometimes been manipulated and reformulated by opportunists who have built authoritarianism and totalitarian dictatorships in its name. Opponents seize on such examples to frighten away people who may otherwise have found socialism attractive. Socialism has survived such criticism and misrepresentation as its core principles have struck a chord with generations of people concerned with social justice. This third edition of Historical Dictionary of Socialism contains a chronology, an introduction, a glossary, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 500 cross-referenced entries on activists, politicians, political thinkers, political parties and organizations, and key topics, concepts, and aspects of socialist theory.. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the Socialism.

Some social movements bring in quick, radical political and social changes while others get incorporated into existing systems or subjected to harsh repression. This book examines why social movements elicit different policy responses and their varying impact on the societies in which they occur. It also seeks to understand why seemingly inconsequential movements can nonetheless have enduring effects. These issues are explored through the comparative historical analysis of four labor movements, in the UK and the U.S. in the late 1800s -early 1900s, in Japan from 1945 to 1960, and in Turkey during the mid to late 1900s, which is the book's primary case study. Turkey's labor movement, although often seen as a failure, greatly influenced state-society relations and contemporary Turkish politics. This significant study offers a new framework of analysis by focusing on social movement impacts rather than successes or failures. This leads to having to reconsider the enduring effects of repressed or failed movements. By doing so, it will help researchers study the likely impact of social movements in today's politics.

At a time when the word "socialist" is but one of numerous political epithets, divorced from its historical context in America's political history, The Socialist Party of America: A Complete History presents a new, mature understanding of America's most important minor political party of the twentieth century. From its origins in the Labor and Populist movements at the end of the nineteenth century, to its heyday under the charismatic Eugene V. Debs and persistence through the Depression and Second World War under the steady leadership of "America's conscience," Norman Thomas, The Socialist Party of America guides readers through the Socialist party's twilight, ultimate demise, and the successor groups that arose from the party's collapse.

This book examines the coming of age experiences of young men and women who became active in radical Left circles in 1960s England. Based on a rich collection of oral history interviews, the book follows in depth the stories of approximately twenty individuals to offer a unique perspective of what it meant to be young and on the Left in the post-war landscape. The book will be essential reading for researchers of twentieth-century British social, cultural and political history. However, it will be of interest to a general readership interested in the social protest movements of the long 1960s. -- .

Major political and economic shifts have marked the turn into the 21st century: the collapse of the Soviet bloc; the rise to prominence of ecological issues; social changes generated by globalization; and, most recently, one of the worst world financial crises ever. These developments compel us to examine the capitalist system with a critical eye and to reflect on the need for alternatives. The 150th anniversary of the birth of the International Workingmen's Association (IWA) (1864-2014) offers an important opportunity to compare present mainstream paradigms and the political platform developed by the IWA in order to better address our contemporary crisis?] and theorize solutions. This sourcebook introduces and contextualizes the most valuable notes and proceedings from these legendary meetings, and includes letters and commentary surrounding the events themselves, many appearing for the first time in English. The carefully compiled materials reach beyond Marx's writings through the history of the IWA to include the cooperative movement, trade union reformism, collectivism, and anarchism. In his introductions to these texts, acclaimed scholar Marcello Musto provides accessible critical evaluations and explanations. The text also highlights how certain themes--self-emancipation of the working class versus communist vanguardism and the taking of political power to achieve social ends versus oppressive Soviet-style state control--find sharp discontinuity between Marx's thought as a political leader of the IWA and the tradition of Soviet Marxism. Carefully selected and painstakingly translated, this volume is an invaluable resource for all those interested in the foundations of modern political and labor history.

Mussolini, in the thousand guises he projected and the press picked up, fascinated Americans in the 1920s and the early '30s. John Diggins' analysis of America's reaction to an ideological phenomenon abroad reveals, he proposes, the darker side of American political values and assumptions. Originally published in 1972. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

R. H. Tawney was the most influential theorist and exponent of socialism in Britain in the 20th century and also a leading historian. Based on papers deposited at the London School of Economics, including a collection of personal material previously held by his family, this book provides the first detailed biography. Lawrence Goldman shows that to understand Tawney's work it is necessary to understand his life. This biography takes a broadly chronological approach, and uses this framework to examine major themes, including Tawney's political thought and historical writings. Tawney was the most representative of Labour's intellectuals as well as the most influential, and the contradictions he embodied are evident in the general history of British socialism.

Communism in Russia and Eastern Europe was a "Baron Munchausen syndrome" - a venture similar to that of a fairytale personage who boasted to be able to lift himself up by grabbing hold of his own hair. Post-communist transition still involves social, cultural, and political engineering, since fundamentally it is a transition to modern society in the conditions of an assertive and sometimes forceful presence of ready-made Western institutional and cultural formats. Such is the challenge facing Russia in the epoch of globalisation. Russia's Road to Modernity looks at Russian social change through the prism of modernisation theory. It singles out Russia's modern traits, traditional traits, and the mergers of the two. By doing this, the book tries to answer the questions about Russia's place among other nations, in what way she is different from other countries, and whether she is unique in the sense some of Russian intellectuals have claimed her to be. The conclusions drawn may be of interest not only to Russia scholars, but also to those who study any country undergoing rapid modernization, like post-communist countries or newly democratic Arab societies. The overall conceptual framework applied in this research allows, in author's view, to illuminate some basic issues, relating to how a comparatively closed society opens up to the world under the influence of the more advanced societies, which it aspires to emulate. Publisher's website: http: //sbpra.com/JerzyGierus