Enemies of the red flag: Anti-socialism in Britain, 190040

A study of British anti-socialism, 1900–40, demonstrating its popular, cross-class and cross-party character through analysis of political campaigns, religious activism and cultural representations within parliamentary, civil society and transnational contexts. Few forces shaped British political culture in the twentieth century more fundamentally than anti-socialism. It underpinned the identity and success of the period’s most dominant political force, the Conservative Party, and its mission of resisting the appeal of the Labour Party. Enemies of the red flag challenges conventional understandings of anti-socialism that frame it as a purely reactionary form of politics, motivated by fears of expropriation and subversion and confined to right-wing politicians, extremists and commercial interests. The book offers a fresh and more nuanced assessment of anti-socialism, demonstrating that opposition to socialism was a genuinely popular phenomenon that crossed divisions of party, class and ideology. It explores the varied ideology and activism of Conservative and Liberal politicians and voluntary organisations and the construction of anti-socialist character archetypes in popular fiction. Through an analysis of a broad array of anti-socialist activism – including strike breaking, public morality campaigns and religious practices such as the conversion of socialists – the book stresses that anti-socialism was never a uniform ideological or political formation in early twentieth-century Britain. Through its engagement with the history of anti-socialism, this book illuminates the enduring significance of Europe to British politics, the continuing importance of religion, the explicit ideological character of civil society and the blurred nature of class distinctions in the early twentieth century. Enemies of the red flag is the first systematic book-length study of British anti-socialism in the early twentieth century. It demonstrates that opposition to socialism was not confined to the Conservative Party but constituted a diverse political and cultural phenomenon that crossed divisions of class, party and belief. The book examines anti-socialist campaigns, stereotypes and ideas across parliamentary politics, voluntary activism and popular culture. It emphasises the centrality of religion to particular forms of British anti-socialism and the significance of conflicts between Christianity and secularism. By situating anti-socialism within wider transnational, cultural and ideological contexts, it highlights the importance of Europe to British politics and foregrounds the explicitly ideological character of civil society in early twentieth-century Britain.