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How did the early-twentieth century socialist parties of Britain, France, and Germany cooperate with each other to create a united vision on international issues? Talbot Imlay offers a new perspective on how European socialists 'practised internationalism', addressing issues such as post-war reconstruction, European integration, and decolonization.
List of contents
- Introduction: The Practice of Socialist Internationalism
- 1: International Socialism at War, 1914-1918
- 2: Reconstituting the International, 1918-1923
- 3: European Socialists and the International Order, 1918-1925
- 4: The Quest for Disarmament, 1925-1933
- 5: European Socialists and Empire between the Wars
- Entr'acte: Socialist Internationalism during the 1930s
- 6: Reconstituting the International, 1940-1951
- 7: Constructing Europe, 1945-1960
- 8: The Cold War and European Security, 1950-1960
- 9: The Stakes of Decolonization, 1945-1960
- Conclusion
About the author
Talbot Imlay teaches in the history department at the Université Laval in Québec, Canada. He is the author of Facing the Second World War: Strategy, Politics, and Economics in Britain and France 1938-1940 (2003) and co-editor with Monica Duffy Toft of Fog of Peace and War Planning (2006). With Martin Horn he has just finished a book entitled The Politics of Industrial Collaboration: Ford France, Vichy and Nazi Germany during the Second World War.
Summary
The Practice of Socialist Internationalism examines the efforts of the British, French, and German socialist parties to cooperate with one another on concrete international issues. Drawing on archival research from twelve countries, it spans the years from the First World War to the early 1960s, paying particular attention to the two post-war periods, during which national and international politics were recast. In addition to highlighting a neglected dimension of twentieth-century European socialism, the volume provides novel perspectives on the history of internationalism and the history of international politics. By practicing internationalism, European socialists sought to forge a new practice of international relations, one that would emerge from their collective efforts to work out 'socialist' approaches to pressing issues of international politics such as post-war reconstruction, European integration, and decolonization.
Additional text
Talbot C. Imlay's The Practice of Socialist Internationalism is a reminder of the need to think about internationalism in the plural, and the fact that capturing this pluralism requires crossing national and historiographical borders. Based on dazzling archival research in a dozen countries, the book draws from personal papers and party collections from Ottawa to Oslo and across Europe. The historiographical treatment is also wideranging, as is the thematic range. This means that the book can be read in a number of ways.
