Staff Profile:Dr Matthew Worley

Name:

Dr Matthew Worley

Job Title:

Reader, Director of Research, School of Humanities

Responsibilities:

Reader in History, University of Reading

My teaching responsibilities include:

An MA option 'Building a New Jerusalem: The Labour Party, 1900-45'

A 'special' third year module 'In Search of revolution: International Communism, 1902-43'

A second year 'period' module, 'Under the Red Flag: Labour and British Politics, 1880-1939'

A third-year 'topic' module on 'Political Extremism in Britain between the Wars'

I am currently involved in the supervision of six PhD students and would be happy to supervise others intersted in the subjects of British politics, communism, socialism, fascism, and British youth cultures in the later twentieth century

Areas of Interest:

My main areas of interst lay in twentieth-century British politics. To date, I have concentrated mainly on the interwar years, with a particular interest in the British labour movement. I have also written on communism in Britain and in Europe, while my research into Sir Oswald Mosley's New Party led me to work on the far right of the British political spectrum. My current interest is directed towards the link between politics and youth culture in the late 1970s and early 1980s. This, I hope, will lead to book entitled Anarchy in the UK: Politics, Punk and Society, 1976-84. I am a part of the steering commitee for the Interdisciplinary Network for the Study of Subculture, Popular Music and Social Change, for further information please click here                      

Research groups / Centres:

I am currently a co-editor of the Twentieth Century Communism journal and the reviews editor for the Socialist History Journal. I am also a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Publications:

Monographs

2010 Oswald Mosley and the New Party (Palgrave)

2005 Labour Inside the Gate: A History of the British Labour Party between the Wars (I.B. Tauris), VIII + 288 pp.

2002 Class Against Class: The Communist Party in Britain between the Wars (I.B.Tauris), X + 352 pp.

Edited Collections

2009 (ed.), The Foundations of the British Labour Party: Identities, Cultures and Perspectives, 1900-39 (Ashgate), XIV + 260 pp.

2008 (ed.), with N. LaPorte and K. Morgan, Bolshevism, Stalinism and the Comintern: Perspectives on Stalinization, 1917-53 (Palgrave), X + 304 pp.

2005(ed.) Labour's Grass Roots: Essays on the Activities of Local Labour Parties and Members, 1918-45 (Ashgate) X + 268 pp.

2004(ed.) In Search of Revolution: International Communist Parties in the Third Period (I.B. Tauris), XI + 380 pp.

Journal Articles

2008 'Towards a Comparative History of Communism: A Survey of the British and German Communist Parties to 1933', Contemporary British History , Vol 22 No 2

2008 'A Call to Action: New Party Candidates and the 1931 General Election', Parliamentary History

2007 'Who Makes the Nazis? North-West Experiences of the New Party, 1931-32', North West Labour History Journal, No 32, pp. 7-16

2007 'What Was the New Party? Sir Oswald Mosley and Associated Responses to the "Crisis", 1931-32', History, Vol 92, No 1, pp. 39–63

2005'Building the Party: Labour Party Activism in Five British Counties between the Wars', Labour History Review Vol 70, No 1, pp. 73-95

2004 'Echoes from the Dustbin of History: A Reply to John McIlroy and Alan Campbell', Labour History Review Vol 69, No 3, pp. 367-72

2004 with S. Ball and A. Thorpe, 'Researching the Grass Roots: The Records of Constituency Level Political Parties in Five British Counties, 1918-45', Archives No. 110, pp. 72-94

2004 with K. Hunt, 'Rethinking British Communist Party Women in the 1920s', Twentieth Century British History Vol 15, No 1, pp. 1-27

2000 'Left Turn: A Reassessment of The Communist Party of Great Britain in the Third Period, 1928-35', Twentieth Century British History Vol 11, No 4, pp. 353-378

2000 'For A Proletarian Culture: CPGB Culture in the Third Period, 1928-35', Socialist History No 18, pp. 70-91

2000 'The Comintern, The CPGB and the Third Period', European History Quarterly Vol 30, No 2, pp. 185-208

1999 'Reflections on Recent British Communist Party History', Historical Materialism No 4, pp. 241-261

Chapters in Edited Collections

2009 'The Fruits on the Tree: Constituency Parties and the Widening of Labour's Appeal', in M. Worley (ed.), The Foundations of the British Labour Party: Identities, Cultures and Perspectives, 1900-39 (Ashgate)

2008 with Kerry Taylor, 'Testing the Limits: Stalinization and the New Zealand and British Communist Parties', in N. LaPorte, K. Morgan and M. Worley (eds), Bolshevism, Stalinism and the Comintern: Perspectives on Stalinization, 1917-53  (Palgrave)

2008 with N. LaPorte and K. Morgan, 'Stalinization and Communist Historiography', in N. LaPorte, K. Morgan and M. Worley (eds), Bolshevism, Stalinism and the Comintern: Perspectives on Stalinization, 1917-53 (Palgrave)

2008 'The Soviet Union and Bolshevism Abroad', in N. Atkin (ed.), Themes in Modern European History, 1890-1945 (Routledge)

2006 'Eva Collet Reckitt', in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press).

2005 'Introduction: Labour's Grass Roots', in M. Worley (ed.), Labour's Grass Roots: Essays on the Activities of Local Labour Parties and Members, 1918-45 (Ashgate), pp. 1-6

2005 with S. Ball and A. Thorpe, 'Elections, Leaflets and Whist Drives: Constituency Party Members in Britain between the Wars', in M. Worley (ed.), Labour's Grass Roots: Essays on the Activities of Local Labour Parties and Members, 1918-45 (Ashgate), pp. 7-32

2004 'Courting Disaster? The Comintern and the Third Period' in M. Worley (ed.) In Search of Revolution: International Communist Parties in the Third Period (I.B. Tauris), pp. 1-17

2004 'To the Left and Back Again: The Communist Party of Great Britain and the Third Period' in M. Worley (ed.) In Search of Revolution: International Communist Parties in the Third Period (I.B. Tauris), pp. 65-87

Edited Series

Communist LivesThis comprises six biographies of leading international communists, all published by I. B. Tauris (2008-12):

Dimitrov by Marietta Stankova

Gramsci by Claudio Natoli

Thälmannby Norman LaPorte

Thorezby John Bulaitis

Titoby Geoff Swain

Togliattiby Aldo Agosti

Edited Journals

2009 Oswald Mosley and the New Party, Contemporary British History, Vol 23 No. 4

2007 (ed.), Political Activism: Socialist History Journal 32 (Rivers Oram), pp. 118

2004(ed.), with A. Flinn, Youth Politics, Youth Cultures: Socialist History Journal 26 (Rivers Oram), pp. 128

OTHER

2004 'Women in the Early CPGB: Sources in the Bodleian Library ', Communist History Network Newsletter 17, 2004

1999 'Come the Revolution …', The Guardian 19 November 1999

1997'The British Communist Party, 1920-45: A Survey of the latest writing on the CPGB', The Historian No 55, pp. 26-28

PAPERS AND CONFERENCES

2007 'The New Party in Perspective', as part of the 'Oswald Mosley and the New Party' conference organised with Professor Philip Murphy at the University of Reading

2007 'National Political Cultures and the Wider World', Conference organised at the University of Reading with Dr Jon Bell and Dr Linda Risso

2005 'What Was the New Party?', University of Birmingham, Research Seminar

2003'Comparative Labour History', UK-Australian Labour History Conference, University of Manchester

2003 'Is CPGB History Important?', Institute of Historical Research, Contemporary British History Seminar

2002 'Labour History: Crisis or Opportunity?', University of Reading Research Seminar

2001 'Communist Biographies: A Roundtable Discussion', University of Manchester

2000'The Communist Party of Great Britain in the Third Period', University of Reading Research Seminar

1998 'The Regional and Organisational Development of the Communist Party of Great Britain in the 1920s', University of Nottingham Research Seminar