Politics and Social Movements

Many of the primary source collections published by British Online Archives (BOA) relate to the broad theme of “Politics and Social Movements”. This is a useful umbrella term that captures the myriad ways in which, throughout history, people have thought about and influenced how our societies are organised. 

The collections within this theme should prove valuable to students and researchers interested in the development and influence of Marxist and socialist thought—the history of leftist politics in Britain is one of BOA’s collection strengths. For example, we have numerous collections drawn from the archives of the Communist Party of Great Britain. You can also explore the papers of the British Labour Party, as well as the development of the trade union movement. The collections grouped here also illuminate broader trends in British politics, such as the career of the Liberal Party throughout the twentieth century, British diplomacy throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the development of the women’s suffrage movement in Scotland and the broader development of Scottish nationalism, as well as the short-lived success of Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists.

The collections within this theme likewise evidence broader social and political trends, such as the collapse of the Ottoman empire, the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany, the onset of the Cold War, and the development of Black nationalism in South Africa.