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Cover -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- 1 Creation and Early Years, 1900-14 -- 2 The Surge to Second-Party Status, 1914-22 -- 3 Progress and Collapse, 1922-31 -- 4 Remaking the Party? 1931-39 -- 5 The Impact of the Second World War, 1939-45 -- 6 The Attlee Governments, 1945-51 -- 7 Searching for a New Direction, 1951-64 -- 8 Wilson in Power, 1964-70 -- 9 Labour in Crisis? 1970-79 -- 10 Down and Out? 1979-87 -- 11 Modernization and New Labour, 1987-97 -- 12 New Labour in Power, 1997-2007 -- 13 Moving beyond Blair, 2007-15 -- Conclusion -- Appendix 1: Seats and Percentage of Votes Won at General Elections, 1900-2010 -- Appendix 2: Labour Party Leaders -- Appendix 3: Labour Cabinets -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.

The Second World War represented the most sustained challenge to the British party system during the twentieth century. Parties at War explores how the main political parties responded to this challenge, showing that struggles over organization had significance for the long-term development of 'party' in modern British politics.

Traces the background to the 1931 election, which saw the collapse of a struggling Labour government and the formation of a National government under Ramsay MacDonald. The book argues that the trends towards Conservative hegemony and two-party politics were little disturbed by the crisis