Marx, Engels and Modern British Socialism

Zusatztext

This book offers a new account of the emergence of socialism in late nineteenth-century Britain. It reassesses three central figures, H.M. Hyndman, E.B. Bax and William Morris, to show how they interacted with Marx and Marxism. Through these new interpretations, this study eschews the historiographical consensus on Hyndman and Bax, complicates historians' understanding of Morris, recovers crucial sources rarely mentioned elsewhere and finally, rejects the conventional chronology of the secondary literature. It argues that Hyndman was not a Tory radical, but a liberal and republican in the tradition of John Stuart Mill and Giuseppe Mazzini; that Bax, similarly, was not a 'muddle-headed academic' but sophisticated and influential figure in European socialist circles; and that Morris' debt to Bax and liberalism has not been given its due. The book also reveals other liberal influences at work, beyond Marx and Marxism, helping to explain in part the sectarian attitude adopted by the Social Democratic Federation towards New Unionism, the Independent Labour Party and the Labour Party. It will be of interest to historians of political thought and intellectual history, as well as those working in the fields of cultural and labour history.

Autorenportrait

Seamus Flaherty is an independent scholar. He has taught widely across modern history and the history of ideas, and he has published his research in the History of European Ideas, Modern Intellectual History and The English Historical Review.

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