A Proletarian Science: Marxism in Britain, 1917–1933

by Stuart Macintyre

In this highly-acclaimed study, the author uncovers the often-neglected history of a particularly fascinating generation of British Marxists. During this period, the self-taught worker intellectuals, of whom the most famous and colourful was T.A. Jackson, were the driving force behind British Marxism. The Labour Colleges played a major role in the development of Marxist ideas before academic Marxism established its current position in the universities.

The role of these autodidacts was crucial in the fierce controversies of the inter-war labour movement, and Stuart Macintyre restores to their rightful place in British labour and intellectual history a remarkable group of working-class activists and thinkers.

Genres: History

286 pages, Paperback

First published July 31, 1980

About the author

Stuart Macintyre was Emeritus Laureate Professor of the University of Melbourne and a Professorial Fellow of the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies. He was president of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia from 2007 to 2009 and a life member of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. With Alison Bashford, he edited the Cambridge History of Australia (2013). His last book, published posthumously, is The Party: The Communist Party of Australia from heyday to reckoning (2022), the second volume in his history of the Communist Party of Australia.