In this major new biography, John Shepherd draws on an impressive range of research in Britain, Australia, and the USA to reconstruct the life of George Lansbury, a charismatic Labour pioneer, and to estimate his importance in British politics. As Labour leader, Lansbury was known universally as a committed socialist an implacable opponent of capitalism and imperialism. He never sought personal wealth, travelled everywhere by public transport and made his home in impoverished East London. His final years were spent in a tireless international peace crusade to prevent world war.

Eighty years ago Ramsay MacDonald took office as the first British Labour Prime Minister, the placards announcing LENIN DEAD, RAMSAY MACDONALD PREMIER. The judgement of historians on this short-lived minority administration in 1924, dependant on Liberal parliamentary votes, has often been 'in office, but not in power'. The First Labour Government is the first major account for nearly fifty years to re-assess critically Labour's first period in office in terms of domestic, foreign and imperial policy. It draws on a wide range of private papers and official sources and reconstructs the history...