For the Left, the Second World War can be seen as a time of triumph: a united stand against fascism followed by a landslide election win and a radical, reforming Labour government. The First World War is more complex. Given the gratuitous cost in lives, the failure of a 'fit country for heroes to live in' to materialise, the deep recessions and unemployment of the inter-war years, and the botched peace settlements which served only to precipitate another war, the Left has tended to view the conflict as an unmitigated disaster and unpardonable waste. This work hopes to move away from a concentration on machinations at the elite levels of the labour movement, on events inside Parliament and intellectual developments; there is a focus on less well-visited material.

Introduction -- 'If this is to be a jingo, then I am a jingo' - Labour patriotism before 1914 -- 'I'd sooner blackleg my union than blackleg my country' - Labour patriotism, 1914-18 -- 'Middle-class peace men?' - Labour and the anti-war agitation -- 'Our platform is broad enough and our movement big enough' - the war and recruits to Labour -- 'The experiments are not found wanting' - Labour and the wartime state -- 'The greatest democratic force British politics have known' - Labour cohesion and the war.