Peter Catterall is Reader in History at the University of Westminster, UK. In addition, he teaches on democracy and public policy for the Hansard Society. He is also chair of the George Lansbury Memorial Trust. He has published widely on 20th-century British history and his most recent work is Labour and the Politics of Alcohol: The Decline of a Cause (2014).

This is a really important book. The relationship between the Labour party and the free churches is widely recognised, but very little understood. Peter Catterall has done a first-class job in combining an acute understanding of the Labour movement, and a deep knowledge of the nonconformist churches, to produce the first serious history of the relationship between the two. Based firmly on meticulous research in the relevant political and religious archives, Catterall constructs an analysis that comfortably outstrips anything that has gone before. This is a book that was urgently needed, and it will be the primary point of reference in its field for some time to come.

• 1. Introduction2. Theological and Political Changes amongst the Free Church Leadership3. The Nonconformist Conscience4. Changes in Chapel Society5. The Politics of Pewmanship6. Free Churchmen and Women in the Labour Party7. The Nonconformist Conscience and the Labour Party8. The Free Churches and Class Consciousness9. The Kingdom, the State and Socialism10. ConclusionsAppendices on Nonconformist Candidatures in General Elections 1918-35BibliographyIndex

Peter Catterall is Reader in History at the University of Westminster, UK. In addition, he teaches on democracy and public policy for the Hansard Society. He is also chair of the George Lansbury Memorial Trust. He has published widely on 20th-century British history and his most recent work is Labour and the Politics of Alcohol: The Decline of a Cause (2014).

This is a really important book. The relationship between the Labour party and the free churches is widely recognised, but very little understood. Peter Catterall has done a first-class job in combining an acute understanding of the Labour movement, and a deep knowledge of the nonconformist churches, to produce the first serious history of the relationship between the two. Based firmly on meticulous research in the relevant political and religious archives, Catterall constructs an analysis that comfortably outstrips anything that has gone before. This is a book that was urgently needed, and it will be the primary point of reference in its field for some time to come.

• 1. Introduction2. Theological and Political Changes amongst the Free Church Leadership3. The Nonconformist Conscience4. Changes in Chapel Society5. The Politics of Pewmanship6. Free Churchmen and Women in the Labour Party7. The Nonconformist Conscience and the Labour Party8. The Free Churches and Class Consciousness9. The Kingdom, the State and Socialism10. ConclusionsAppendices on Nonconformist Candidatures in General Elections 1918-35BibliographyIndex

Peter Catterall is Reader in History at the University of Westminster, UK. In addition, he teaches on democracy and public policy for the Hansard Society. He is also chair of the George Lansbury Memorial Trust. He has published widely on 20th-century British history and his most recent work is Labour and the Politics of Alcohol: The Decline of a Cause (2014).

This is a really important book. The relationship between the Labour party and the free churches is widely recognised, but very little understood. Peter Catterall has done a first-class job in combining an acute understanding of the Labour movement, and a deep knowledge of the nonconformist churches, to produce the first serious history of the relationship between the two. Based firmly on meticulous research in the relevant political and religious archives, Catterall constructs an analysis that comfortably outstrips anything that has gone before. This is a book that was urgently needed, and it will be the primary point of reference in its field for some time to come.

• 1. Introduction2. Theological and Political Changes amongst the Free Church Leadership3. The Nonconformist Conscience4. Changes in Chapel Society5. The Politics of Pewmanship6. Free Churchmen and Women in the Labour Party7. The Nonconformist Conscience and the Labour Party8. The Free Churches and Class Consciousness9. The Kingdom, the State and Socialism10. ConclusionsAppendices on Nonconformist Candidatures in General Elections 1918-35BibliographyIndex