CHRIS COOK was educated at St Catherine's College, Cambridge. After research at Nuffield College, Oxford, he was Lecturer in Politics at Magdalen College, Oxford. In 1970, he moved to the London School of Economics as Senior Research Officer and in 1976 took up his present senior appointment at the Royal Commission on Historical manuscripts. He has been author or co-author of ten other books as well as acting as join editor of Pears Cyclopaedia and editor of the British Political Biography series. In June 1976 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.PHILIP JONES read history at the London School of Economics. He subsequently undertook research on Britain's relations with China during the First World War. He is co-editor of International Movement and is currently Research Officer for the Anglo-Palestine Archives Project sponsored by the British Academy.JOSEPHINE SINCLAIR was educated at the University of Keele. From 1970 to 1975 she was Research Assistant with the Political Archives Investigation. She is now with the research staff of a trade union.JEFFREY WEEKS was educated at University College London. He subsequently undertook research on contemporary political theory before taking up his current post as Research Officer at the British library of Political and Economic Science. He is presently engaged on a study of changing social attitudes towards morality.

'Chris Cook and his enterprising staff at the British Library of Political and Economic Science have produced the first of [five] projected volumes on contemporary historical archives. A guide to the records of more than 500 organisations and societies, all active and (to a greater or lesser extent) influential during the first half of this century, it constitutes a towering achievement of scholarship and a supremely useful bibliographical tool.' - Times Literary Supplement

• Foreword Acknowledgements Members of the Political Archives Investigation Committee Introduction A Guide to the Private Papers of Members of Parliament: A-K Appendix I: A note on archives relating to Ireland Appendix II: Postal addresses of libraries and record offices cited in the text