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"Historical Dictionary of Socialism, Fourth Edition contains a chronology, an introduction, a glossary, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 500 cross-referenced entries on activists, politicians, political thinkers, political parties and organizations, and key topics, concepts, and aspects of socialist theory"--

The third volume includes a range of pamphlets, lectures and other documents which help illustrate the intellectual and political activities and environment which shaped the British mainstream left of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The early concerns and activities of the Fabian Society since its foundation in the 1880s are illustrated in the selection, as are the concerns, problems, events and opportunities leading to the formation and early development of the Labour Party in the years from the turn of the century to the outbreak of the First World War. Also included are writings of members of the Independent Labour Party (ILP). Formed in the 1890s, the ILP not only became a key player in the formation and early development of the Labour Party but also served as a more radical alternative. The concerns and activities of these two parties and the Fabian Society overlapped one another and some of the key figures of British socialism were members of more than one of these three key organizations. As the volume illustrates, together the Fabians, ILP and Labour constituted the foundations of contemporary British social democracy.

In the early to mid-20th century Laski was a prominent critic of British Idealist political philosophy. Laski's political thought helps reveal weaknesses in the Idealism of Green and Bosanquet, who did not pay sufficient attention to divisions within society. Social unity, state sovereignty and the general will are among the concepts upon which Laski focused. The strength of Laski's criticism can be enhanced by drawing upon Gramsci's influential political thought. Laski and Gramsci were concerned with similar processes in the politics of capitalist countries. A Gramscian method justifies drawing the concept of hegemony from Gramsci's work and using that concept in support of Laski's arguments. Adapted from the source document.

Compared with some of his contemporaries Brailsford is relatively neglected today. He offered incisive analysis of the international relations of his times, discussing political and economic aspects together. He grounded his contributions upon a view of human nature that drew on the ideas of Godwin, Shelley and Condorcet. A cosmopolitan, socialist political philosophy also underpinned his work. Brailsford was sharply critical of balance-of-power theory, which served to veil the actual intentions of statesman and the capitalist entrepreneurs whose policies they benefited. He was also critical, like Laski, of sovereignty theory which masked the dominance of capitalist interests in the modern state and international system. Over several decades these aspects of his work contributed to his proposals for a radical league of nations. His work will be of interest to IR scholars today.

In the early to mid-20th century Laski was a prominent critic of British Idealist political philosophy. Laski's political thought helps reveal weaknesses in the Idealism of Green and Bosanquet, who did not pay sufficient attention to divisions within society. Social unity, state sovereignty and the general will are among the concepts upon which Laski focused. The strength of Laski's criticism can be enhanced by drawing upon Gramsci's influential political thought. Laski and Gramsci were concerned with similar processes in the politics of capitalist countries. A Gramscian method justifies drawing the concept of hegemony from Gramsci's work and using that concept in support of Laski's arguments.

In his contribution to socialist thought G.D.H. Cole adopted and revised Rousseau's concept of the general will. During his early guild socialist phase Cole drew on the general will in his scheme for a functional, associational democracy. In the late 1920s Cole began to question whether the socially oriented element of individual will might be expressed in the existing social and economic circumstances. In the 1930s he combined social democratic and Marxist tenets. Nevertheless, his interest in Rousseau persisted. Will was, for him, crucial to socialism. He made a significant, if neglected, contribution to the socialist tradition of Rousseau scholarship.

In a recent article, Tony Burns (2000) challenged the traditional view that politics is necessarily restricted to relations between human beings. However, what such a challenge does not take into account is that the values of non-human nature cannot be conveyed from their source to the humans that represent them. Indeed, such values are estimated by nature's human representatives. The ideas of Harold Laski and Plato can be invoked to support the argument that Robinson Crusoe's relation to nature is not a political one.