Opening the Books

This work serves as an introduction to, and an overview of, key issues and themes in the history of the Communist Party in Britain, and an assessment of the CP's changing historiography, particularly in view of the availability of previously inaccessible archives.;Thirteen contributors examine particular aspects of the party's history from the early Comintern period, to the events in Hungary in 1956 and the Eurocommunism and cultural politics of recent years. The scope of the book is deliberately broad, covering not only the more conventional aspects of CP participation in the labour movement, but also the broader cultural influence of the party on writers, artists, scholars, activists and opinion-formers at various stages in its history.