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Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / In 1956 a cadre of Marxist historians in Britain created what would come to be known as the New Left. The New Left in Britain took the form of a loose affiliation of scholars and intellectuals whose goal it was to create a space for socialist change within and between the existing structures in the British labor movement. These intellectuals greatly influenced socialist thought in the aftermath of Stalinsim and paved a way forward for future socialist activism. Existing works on the group analyze its impact and assess its successes and failures. By placing an emphasis on understanding the conditions that existed during the making of the First New Left, the following historical analysis argues that these assessments within the historiography require revision.

The purpose of the present study is to identify the participants in the British socialist movement who worked in the Second International. The Second International was a confederation of socialist groups from over twenty nations who tried to carry on the work of Marx in the years of its existence, from 1889 to the outbreak of World War One in 1914. the study explains the political work of the Independent Labour Party, the Social Democratic Federation, and the Fabian Society, all of which gained focus from their membership in the International. The findings of the present study are that the focus of the British socialist movement in the period from 1889 to 1914 came from the Second International, an organization that British socialists helped to form and through which they were able to formulate an effective political party that lasted long after the world war they were powerless to prevent. It was this triumph which gave evidence of their special kind of optimism.