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From Serfdom to Socialism
'the first man from the midst of the working class who completely understood them, completely championed them ... never deserted them, never turned his back on a single principle which he had professed, never drifted away from his class in thought, in feeling or in faith.' - John Bruce Glasier
'France had her Jaures, Germany her Bebel and Liebknecht, Austria her Victor Adler, Russia her Lenin. Britain produced, and continues to produce, men to carry on the struggle of the poor, but no one who more personifies the spirit of that struggle than the miner from the coalfields of Lanarkshire.' - James Maxton
Keir Hardie was the founder of the Labour Party, a pioneer trade unionist, a tireless campaigner for women's rights, and the first working man ever to be elected to Parliament. As a key text for the first generation of Labour Party activists, From Serfdom to Socialism stands both as a founding document of the Labour Party and as the fullest exposition of Hardie's political thought. It draws together into a coherent and explicitly socialist whole Hardie's - often disparate - ideas on history, religion, women's rights, and local and national government. In signalling the arrival of the Labour Party on the national stage, and defining all that it stood for, this book was to change the political landscape of Britain forever."
'France had her Jaures, Germany her Bebel and Liebknecht, Austria her Victor Adler, Russia her Lenin. Britain produced, and continues to produce, men to carry on the struggle of the poor, but no one who more personifies the spirit of that struggle than the miner from the coalfields of Lanarkshire.' - James Maxton
Keir Hardie was the founder of the Labour Party, a pioneer trade unionist, a tireless campaigner for women's rights, and the first working man ever to be elected to Parliament. As a key text for the first generation of Labour Party activists, From Serfdom to Socialism stands both as a founding document of the Labour Party and as the fullest exposition of Hardie's political thought. It draws together into a coherent and explicitly socialist whole Hardie's - often disparate - ideas on history, religion, women's rights, and local and national government. In signalling the arrival of the Labour Party on the national stage, and defining all that it stood for, this book was to change the political landscape of Britain forever."
- GenresPolitics
194 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2015
3 people are currently reading
38 people want to read
About the author
Keir Hardie
3 booksJames Keir Hardie was a Scottish socialist, politician and trade unionist. He was the founder of the Labour Party, the first Leader of the Labour Party and the first ever Labour Member of Parliament.
Hardie was a dedicated Georgist for a number of years and a member of the Scottish Land Restoration League. It was "through the single tax' on land monopoly that Hardie gradually became a Fabian socialist. He reasoned that "whatever the idea may be, State socialism is necessary as a stage in the development of the ideal."
Having won the parliamentary seat of West Ham South as an independent candidate in 1892, he helped to form the Independent Labour Party (ILP) the following year. In 1900 he helped to form the union-based Labour Representation Committee, soon renamed the Labour Party, with which the ILP later merged. Hardie was also a lay preacher and temperance campaigner, who supported votes for women, self-rule for India, home-rule for Scotland, and an end to segregation in South Africa. At the outbreak of World War I, he tried to organise a pacifist general strike, but died soon afterwards.
Hardie was a dedicated Georgist for a number of years and a member of the Scottish Land Restoration League. It was "through the single tax' on land monopoly that Hardie gradually became a Fabian socialist. He reasoned that "whatever the idea may be, State socialism is necessary as a stage in the development of the ideal."
Having won the parliamentary seat of West Ham South as an independent candidate in 1892, he helped to form the Independent Labour Party (ILP) the following year. In 1900 he helped to form the union-based Labour Representation Committee, soon renamed the Labour Party, with which the ILP later merged. Hardie was also a lay preacher and temperance campaigner, who supported votes for women, self-rule for India, home-rule for Scotland, and an end to segregation in South Africa. At the outbreak of World War I, he tried to organise a pacifist general strike, but died soon afterwards.
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June 4, 2024
Nice little summary of Socialism as seen from the typical reformist view of the early 20th century, where it was an ascendent force looking set to take the world. Particular fan of the comparison of unemployed workers during a depression to Midas, surrounded by wealth of their own creation but in want of it. Fun reading list in the back you wouldn't see from the Labour Party of today. The 2015 introduction by John Callow is worth a read as well.
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