• List of figures and tables; Acknowledgments; Introduction; 1. The class cleavage: conceptual and methodological framework; 2. The European Left: size, ideological orientation and organizational cohesion; 3. Industrialization, urbanization and Labor's response; 4. Cultural heterogeneity; 5. Enfranchisement; 6. Organizational structuring and membership mobilization; 7. Political integration; 8. Cleavage structures; 9. The communist split: united and divided Lefts; 10. The macroconstellation of class cleavage structuring; Data appendix; References; Index.

'Stefano Bartolini has written a large, intimidating monster of a book, but there is beauty in this beast. This work of substantial scholarship encompasses over a century of politics in about 600 pages of closely argued text … this is a book that should be essential rewarding for any scholar interested in European politics, including graduate students. It is an essential resource for anyone interested in the left, party politics or the history of the European nation-state; but it is much more than a resource book as it develops a powerful and compelling argument.' Regional and Federal Studies