Stephen Brooke – författare

Labour's War is the first scholarly history of the Labour Party during the Second World War, and offers a fresh look at British politics during the war years. Stephen Brooke examines the effect of war upon the party's ideology and policy, the experience in government of Labour leaders such as Clement Attlee and Hugh Dalton, and the tensions produced within the party by the circumstances of war. Dr Brooke's extensively researched and original study calls into question the long-standing belief in an atmosphere of consensus among the political parties. His analysis uncovers the sharp ideological differences which persisted throughout the war years and after. He also demonstrates the impact of the war on the development of Labour's socialism. The Labour victory in the 1945 election remains one of the most significant turning-points in modern British history, setting Britain on a new course, towards the welfare state and the managed economy. The book is an important contribution to our understanding of how this came about.

In London in 1984 two very different cities came into conflict, one rooted in radical politics and the other shaped by Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative government. This was a city poised between two eras and identities, remoulded in conflicting ways by social democracy and neoliberalism. Using a wide array of sources, many of which have never been used before, London, 1984 explores the radical history of the capital in this tumultuous era, from a major anti-apartheid march in central London to an alternative childcare centre in Dalston, from a protest staged on the Thames against Docklands development to tensions on housing estates in the East End and Tottenham around racial violence and policing, from a raid on a gay bookshop in Bloomsbury to the Greater London Council's attempt to build a challenge to Thatcherism from County Hall, Lambeth, and from controversial and well-known historical actors, such as Ken Livingstone and Margaret Thatcher, to the compelling stories of numerous less famous Londoners who also sought to influence the shape and nature of their city. This is a story of struggles within the corridors of power, but it is also one of those on the ground, waged through popular culture and activism, and in daily life.In so doing, London, 1984 offers a panoramic, timely, and revealing portrait of the city in a pivotal decade in its modern history. These years saw deep problems of racial violence, policing, and poverty, as well as other controversies and struggles—over feminism, gay and lesbian rights, anti-racism, jobs and economic strategy, neoliberalism and the nature of the state, and global issues, such as Apartheid, nuclear weapons, and Northern Ireland. Across these, and the stories of those who lived, shaped, and fought them, we see the roots of London and Britian today.

Sexual Politics explores the complex relationship between sexuality and socialist politics in Britain between the 1880s and the present day. Looking at birth control, abortion law reform, and gay rights, this is a timely examination of the relationship between the personal and the political over the last century and a half. Stephen Brooke tells the stories of individuals such as Edward Carpenter, Dora Russell, Sheila Rowbotham, Ken Livingstone, Peter Tatchell, and Tony Blair, and organizations like the Workers' Birth Control Group, the Abortion Law Reform Association, the National Abortion Campaign, and the Labour Campaign for Lesbian and Gay Rights. Sexual radicalism, first and second wave feminism, and gay liberation all feature in the book's portrait of the progress of sexual politics from the late nineteenth century to the early twenty-first century. Sexual Politics also offers an analysis of the Labour Party's long and sometimes ambiguous link to issues of sexuality, ending with the considerable contribution made to sex reform by the New Labour governments of 1997 to 2010. Sexual issues were always under the surface of Labour politics in the twentieth century, emerging forcefully in the 1970s and 1980s in a way that brought both division and unity to the party. Brooke stresses the importance of class and gender identity to the fate of sexual issues in British politics, the dynamic nature of British socialism, and the impact of sexual radicalism, feminism, and gay liberation upon socialist and working-class politics. Sexual Politics argues that the shifting relationship between the personal and the political is a central element of twentieth-century British history, a relationship that helped define the character of political modernity.

Sexual Politics explores the complex relationship between sexuality and socialist politics in Britain between the 1880s and the present day. Looking at birth control, abortion law reform, and gay rights, this is a timely examination of the relationship between the personal and the political over the last century and a half. Stephen Brooke tells the stories of individuals such as Edward Carpenter, Dora Russell, Sheila Rowbotham, Ken Livingstone, Peter Tatchell, and Tony Blair, and organizations like the Workers' Birth Control Group, the Abortion Law Reform Association, the National Abortion Campaign, and the Labour Campaign for Lesbian and Gay Rights. Sexual radicalism, first and second wave feminism, and gay liberation all feature in the book's portrait of the progress of sexual politics from the late nineteenth century to the early twenty-first century. Sexual Politics also offers an analysis of the Labour Party's long and sometimes ambiguous link to issues of sexuality, ending with the considerable contribution made to sex reform by the New Labour governments of 1997 to 2010. Sexual issues were always under the surface of Labour politics in the twentieth century, emerging forcefully in the 1970s and 1980s in a way that brought both division and unity to the party. Brooke stresses the importance of class and gender identity to the fate of sexual issues in British politics, the dynamic nature of British socialism, and the impact of sexual radicalism, feminism, and gay liberation upon socialist and working-class politics. Sexual Politics argues that the shifting relationship between the personal and the political is a central element of twentieth-century British history, a relationship that helped define the character of political modernity.