Few historians, including Left-wing scholars and writers, have a good word to say about British Members of Parliament sympathetic to the Soviets--""the neo-Stalinist Left,"" ""crypto-Communists,"" ""left-wing gadflys."" Much has been published on ""Soviet spies"" and their connections with Labour MPs but Against the Cold War debunks this popular literature and shows in detail the relationships between the MPs and their ""handlers."" Lilleker shows the largely well-meaning attempts on the part of British MPs to develop a coexistence with the Soviet bloc--both culturally and...

Paul Corthorn presents an illuminating, in-depth study of the British Left's response to the rise of international fascism in the 1930s. He uses a range of newly available archival sources to analyse how the Labour left - which took the form of the Socialist League between 1932 and 1937 - and the Independent Labour Party reacted to developments such as Mussolini's invasion of Abyssinia, Franco's uprising in Spain and Hitler's drive for territorial expansion. He argues that their responses to these threats from the fascist dictators were shaped above all by their constantly changing views of...