The Rise of Socialism in Britain

Description

c. 1881-1951

By Keith Laybourn
Sutton Publishing

In the 1880s and 1890s most socialists believed in the imminent establishment of socialism in Britain. By the end of the First World War its success was not immediately apparent but, through the growth of the Labour Party, which adopted Clause Four in its constitution in 1918, and the activities of the Communist Party of Great Britain, many socialists came to believe that it was only a matter of time before socialism would be achieved. By the late 1940s there seemed to be tangible proof that it had arrived with the creation of the modern welfare state under Attlee’s Labour government. Although this was more illusion than reality, for in many respects this merely strengthened capitalism by alleviating some of its major features, it appeared that a socialist Britain was at hand. It is this vital growth and development of socialism that is the focus of this study.