Tony Collins is Emeritus Professor of History at De Montfort University. He has published extensively on working-class culture and sport, including Sport in Capitalist Society and Rugby League: A People’s History.

• List of FiguresAbbreviationsIntroduction1 Mr Hyndman versus Comrade Engels: The Birth of the Social Democratic Federation1 The Birth of the Social Democratic Federation2 From the Socialist League to the Independent Labour Party2 The Labour Party Question: Labourism, Leftism, and the Second International1 The Russian Influence2 The Labour Party and the Second International3 Britain in Crisis: Labour’s Great Unrest and the Revolutionary Left1 Realignment on the Left and the British Socialist Party2 The Second International Steers towards the Labour Party3 The Rise of the Revolutionary Left4 The SLP and Revolutionary Syndicalism5 Beyond Suffragism4 August 1914: British Marxists in the Face of War1 The BSP and SLP and the Test of War2 The Anti-war Left3 Revolutionary Opponents of War5 The Clyde Turns Red: John Maclean and the Enemy at Home1 The War on the Home Front2 The Easter Rising and the British Left3 Nashe Slovo, the BSP and Revolutionary Internationalism4 The Zimmerwald Debate in Britain6 ‘Lads Like Me Had Whacked the Bosses’: The Coming of the Russian Revolution1 Repression and Revolt2 Follow Russia! The Leeds Convention3 Labourism Responds to the Russian Revolution4 Bolshevism and the British Left7 1919: The Question of Power1 ‘Are You Ready to Take Power?’2 The Police Strikes3 Leadership, the Lefts and the Left4 Racist Scourge in Europe5 Ireland’s Tragedy, Labour’s Disgrace8 Between Labour and Bolshevism: Towards A Communist Party1 Towards Unity … and the Labour Party?2 The Coming of the Communist International3 Britain and the Amsterdam Bureau4 The Fate of John Maclean9 ‘Long Live the Communist Party!’ Building a British Section of the Communist International1 The Second Congress of the Comintern2 The Birth of the Communist Party of Great Britain3 The Unification Conference4 A Stillborn Party?ConclusionIn Praise of LearningAppendix 1: TimelineAppendix 2: FiguresBibliographyIndex

"An invaluable contribution to the literature on the British left, especially those in the Marxist tradition, before, during and after World War One."–Alex Snowdon, Counterfire "A riveting history of British communism between the Second International and interwar period."–Vik Chechi-Ribeiro, rs21