The European Context: Aspects of British Labour and Continental Socialism Before 1920

While the distinctiveness of the British Labour Party is rightly a norm of writing about European labour movements, it is easy to overstate its ‘otherness’ and isolation from continental European socialism. The intellectual and physical links with European socialism have received some attention from historians of the British labour movement and socialism.1 Nevertheless, it is an aspect of the Labour Party’s development which is often understated. This chapter offers a fresh consideration of several aspects of the European connections which influenced the identity and some features of the Labour Party’s broad culture during the period of its foundation and its early development.