Where other books are either highly partisan dismissals or appreciations of the Third Way, or dull sociological accounts, this book gets behind the cliches in order to show just what is left of Labour party ideology and what the future may hold. New Labour has changed the face of Britain. Culture, class, education, health, the arts, leisure, the economy have all seen seismic shifts since the 1997 election that raised Blair to power. The Labour that rules has distanced itself from the failed Labour of the 70s and 80s, but the core remains. Labour remains gripped by its own past - unable and unwilling to shed its ties to the old Labour party, but determined to avoid the mistakes of which lead to four electoral defeats between 1979 and 1992. Cronin covers the full history of the party from its post war triumph through decades of shambolic leadership against ruthless and organised opposition to the resurgent New Labour of the 90s that finally took Britain into the new millennium.

The World the Cold War Made examines the Cold War and its lasting legacy. Cronin explores the creation and structure of the post-war settlement; its successes, failures and adaptions; and the eventual coming apart of the post-war order in the 1980s and early 1990s. Cronin argues that the current state of the world must be understood against the backdrop of the post-war order that until recently governed, prevented or distorted political and economic change.
He shows how this legacy has allowed some nations and industries to grow but has blocked others' paths to economic development. At the same time, he states that the end of the Cold War has removed powerful external constraints on the political choices of nations, allowing previously disenfranchised people the freedom to chart distinctive paths into the next century that are more responsive to their own histories.

In "What's Left of the Left," distinguished scholars of European and U.S. politics consider how center-left political parties have fared since the 1970s. They explore the left's responses to the end of the postwar economic boom, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the erosion of traditional party politics, the expansion of market globalization, and the shift to a knowledge-based economy. Their comparative studies of center-left politics in Scandinavia, France, Germany, southern Europe, post-Cold War Central and Eastern Europe, the United Kingdom, and the United States emphasize differences in the goals of left political parties and in the political, economic, and demographic contexts in which they operate. The contributors identify and investigate the more successful center-left initiatives, scrutinizing how some conditions facilitated them, while others blocked their emergence or limited their efficacy. In the contemporary era of slow growth, tight budgets, and rapid technological change, the center-left faces pressing policy concerns, including immigration, the growing population of the working poor, and the fate of the European Union. This collection suggests that such matters present the left with daunting but by no means insurmountable challenges.

Contributors
Sheri Berman
James Cronin
Jean-Michel de Waele
Arthur Goldhammer
Christopher Howard
Jane Jenson
Gerassimos Moschonas
Sofia Perez
Jonas Pontusson
George Ross
James Shoch
Sorina Soare
Ruy Teixeira