1917-1924
What did the Russian Revolution mean for the British Labour Party - and the British labor movement generally - in the period 1917-1924? Mr Graubard here presents a clear and incisive analysis of that problem: how the Bolshevik victory influences the Labour Party's views on foreign policy, particularly with respect to Russian affairs; the story behind the creation of the Communist Party in Great Britain and the Communists' rivalry with the Labour Party; and the Labour Party's attitude towards international communism, as reflected in its efforts to lead and organize the noncommunist socialist parties in a new labor and socialist international.

Mr Graubard views these and other questions as aspects of a single large questions: how did the victory of communism in Russia challenge a socialist party unwilling to accept Marxism but conscious of the necessity of coming to some sort of terms with it? He explores the British Labour Party's record in some detail, and, in doing so, explains why, in the realm of foreign affairs, the Labour Party showed a willingness to accept Soviet Russia, while in the domestic sphere its hostility towards the British Communist Party constantly increased. Mr Graubard traces the effects of this ambivalence on British domestic politics.