The Centennial History of the Independent Labour Party.

Visions are in short supply at the moment and the Labour Party appears busy enough anyway with post-revisionisms, renewals, transformations and reinventions, at least judging by some of the books reviewed here. Perhaps it is a salutary reminder then to look first at the past where people now dead had their own visions and their revisions, lived within fiercely political presents without knowledge of the future.

Certainly, the activities recorded in Martin Crick's History of the Social Democratic Federation and in the articles in the Centennial History of the Independent Labour Party are a long way …