Limit search to available items
Book Cover
E-book
Author Beers, Laura, 1978- author.

Title Red Ellen : the life of Ellen Wilkinson, socialist, feminist, internationalist / Laura Beers
Published Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, [2016]

Copies

Description 1 online resource (viii, 532 pages, 26 unnumbered pages of plates) : illustrations
Contents The only girl who talks in school debates -- Ellen's Great War -- On the road to radicalization -- From Ireland to Russia -- A woman candidate with communistic views -- The mighty atom bursts into Parliament -- Nine days that (almost) shook the world -- No longer upsetting the apple cart -- Out of parliament -- On the international stage -- A fight for humanity itself -- Pursuing social justice in Britain and beyond -- The anti-fascist tribune -- Ellen is now a minister -- Reforming education -- Death of a good comrade
Summary In 1908 Ellen Wilkinson, a fiery adolescent from a working-class family in Manchester, was "the only girl who talks in school debates." By midcentury, Wilkinson had helped found Britain's Communist Party, earned a seat in Parliament, and become a renowned advocate for the poor and dispossessed at home and abroad. She was one of the first female delegates to the United Nations, and she played a central role in Britain's postwar Labour government. In Laura Beers's account of Wilkinson's remarkable life, we have a richly detailed portrait of a time when Left-leaning British men and women from a range of backgrounds sought to reshape domestic, imperial, and international affairs. Wilkinson is best remembered as the leader of the Jarrow Crusade, the 300-mile march of two hundred unemployed shipwrights and steel workers to petition the British government for assistance. But this was just one small part of Red Ellen's larger transnational fight for social justice. She was involved in a range of campaigns, from the quest for official recognition of the Spanish Republican government, to the fight for Indian independence, to the effort to smuggle Jewish refugees out of Germany. During Wilkinson's lifetime, many British radicals viewed themselves as members of an international socialist community, and some, like her, became involved in socialist, feminist, and pacifist movements that spanned the globe. By focusing on the extent to which Wilkinson's activism transcended Britain's borders, Red Ellen adjusts our perception of the British Left in the early twentieth century.-- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 457-508) and index
Notes Online resource; title from PDF title page (EBSCO, viewed October 12, 2016)
Subject Wilkinson, Ellen Cicely, 1891-1947.
SUBJECT Wilkinson, Ellen Cicely, 1891-1947 fast
Subject Communist Party of Great Britain -- History
Labour Party (Great Britain) -- History
SUBJECT Communist Party of Great Britain fast
Labour Party (Great Britain) fast
Subject Stateswomen -- Great Britain -- Biography
Statesmen -- Great Britain -- Biography
Feminism -- Great Britain -- History -- 20th century
Internationalists -- Great Britain -- Biography
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Government -- Legislative Branch.
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Historical
Feminism
Internationalists
Statesmen
Stateswomen
Great Britain
Genre/Form Electronic books
Biographies
History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2016012438
ISBN 9780674972711
0674972716