This is a pathbreaking comparative and trans-national study of the neglected influences of nation, empire and race upon the development and electoral fortunes of the Labour Party in Britain and the Australian Labor Party from their formative years of the 1900s to the elections of 2010.

Based upon extensive primary and secondary source-based research in Britain and Australia over several years, it makes a new and original contribution to the fields of labour, imperial and 'British world' history. The book offers the challenging conclusion that the forces of nation, empire and race exerted much greater influence upon Labour politics in both countries than suggested by 'traditionalists' and 'revisionists' alike. The book will appeal to undergraduates, postgraduates, scholars in history and politics and all those interested in and concerned with the past, present and future of Labour politics in Britain, Australia and more generally.

Neville Kirk is Emeritus Professor of Labour and Social History at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK.

PART I: SETTING THE SCENE
1. Subject Matter, Debates and Issues
2. Labour and Elections
PART II: THE GROWTH OF INDEPENDENT LABOUR
3. Chronology, Constituencies, Impact
4. Explanations and Characteristics
PART III: THE POLITICS OF LOYALISM
5. Anti-Socialism and the Tarring of Labour
6. Labour Responses and Political Outcomes
PART IV: MIXED FORTUNES: FROM THE 1940'S WORLD WAR TO THE 1970'S CLASS WAR
7. Labour Successes: The 1940s
8. Out in the Cold
9. Transnational Ties, Electoral Successes and Bitter Defeats
PART V: TRADITIONALISM, MODERNISATION AND REVISIONISM
10. Successes and Failures
11. From Hawke and Keating to the Rise of New Labour, 1983–1997
12. From Howard to Gillard, from Blair to Brown, 1997–2010
Conclusion
Index