Ralph Miliband and the Politics of the New Left

Michael Newman

Ralph Miliband (1924–94) was a key 20th-century political thinker. His books The State in Capitalist Society (Quartet) and Parliamentary Socialism (Merlin) influenced a generation of the left and provided a focus for academic debate. Miliband’s life and work were devoted to the attempt to define and apply an independent form of socialism. As a result of his published works, teaching and role in political movements, he became the most influential socialist political theorist writing in English, and he was as well known in North America, where he held several visiting professorships, as in Britain. His writings were also widely translated. The Socialist Register, which he founded (with John Saville) and edited for thirty years, brought him into contact with left-wing intellectuals throughout the world. Miliband, an energetic letter writer, corresponded on political issues with such figures as C.Wright Mills, E.P. Thompson, Leszek Kolakowski, John Saville, Marcel Liebman, Rossana Rossanda, K.S.Karol, André Gorz and Perry Anderson. Based on exclusive access to Miliband’s extensive personal papers and supplemented by interviews, this book analyses the ideas and contribution of a key figure in the British and international Left from the second world war until the collapse of communism. It also provides an interpretative history of the evolution, debates and dilemmas of socialists throughout the period, and of the problems they faced both at work defending academic freedom and in society at large.

About the Author

 Michael Newman is Jean Monnet Professor of European Integration Studies and Professor of Politics and he is also Course Leader of the BA in Peace and Conflict Studies. He is the Director of the London European Research Centre and is convenor of the European Studies subject group on the pan-European curriculum development project (the Tuning Project). His publications include Socialism and European Unity: The Dilemma of the Left in Britain and France, John Strachey, Harold Laski–A Political Biography, Ralph Miliband and the Politics of the New Left, and Socialism: A Very Short Introduction. His latest book, Humanitarian Intervention: Confronting the Contradictions will be published by C.Hurst and Co. in 2008.