ABSTRACT
When Gilbert and Sullivan’s musical spoof of English politics and society was fi rst performed in 1882, the audience may well have believed that the division between the Liberal and Conservative parties neatly refl ected the major ideological divisions of their day. But the range of ideological choices was not so narrow even then. Many socialists were active in North America and Europeincluding Karl Marx, who died in England the year following the fi rst performance of Iolantbe. Anarchists of different stripes were also active, as were the various nationalists, elitists, and racial theorists who were sowing the seeds of fascism and Nazism. Anyone seeking an alternative to liberalism and conservatism did not have far to look.
