Clem Beckett was fourteen when he first rode a homemade motorcycle over the cobbled streets of his hometown. It was the start of a lifelong love affair with speed and machines. For Beckett, the motorbike was a means of escape from the uncertain future of Oldham’s stricken industries in the aftermath of the First World War. Beckett’s zest for life, his natural exuberance and determination to be a winner, overcame the disadvantages of a poor home bereft of a father. As a pioneering Dirt Track (speedway) rider he broke records galore, and as a volunteer in the Spanish Civil War he broke down class barriers. Whether as a tearaway teenager, an outspoken sportsman, or a member of the Communist Party, his life was characterized by broadsides of irreverence towards authority. To Beckett, the appeal of revolutionary politics was youthful rejection of ‘old fogey’ values and the dominating role of of tweedy gentility in motorcycle sport. Reviving faded memories and anecdotes of his career as a pioneer speedway rider, this book traces Beckett’s extraordinary rise from blacksmith’s apprentice to superstar, in a new sport which typified the energy of the Roaring Twenties, and was characterised by risk-taking and serial injury. Ever the showman, and banned from the Dirt Track for trying to protect his fellow riders from exploitation, Beckett took to riding the Wall of Death. Observing the rise of fascism on his travels in Europe, Beckett’s increasing involvement with politics led to marriage to the mysterious Lida Henriksen, and inexorably to volunteer service in the British Battalion of the International Brigades in Spain. A narrative spiced with anecdotes and new revelations about Beckett shows why from boyhood to the poignant circumstances of his death in battle, Clem Beckett inspired love and loyalty.

This book examines the experience of the British volunteers in the Spanish Civil War and places them in a broad intellectual, political, social, and cultural framework.

Includes radicals of the Chartist and earlier periods, trade unionists and other radicals after 1850. The book is especially concerned with 20th-century activists and intellectuals, notably those whose formative years or main political life was spent during the period between the two World Wars.

1937 dawned over the golden sun kissed lands of Spain, upon a divided country and a vicious and bloody Civil War. The war had, originally, begun as a simple military coup, back in mid-July of the previous year. At first it looked as though it would carry the day, but due to the early up-rising in the Spanish protectorate of Morocco, the timing of the revolt on the mainland was thrown into disarray, and due to this certain areas didn’t commence their planned revolts at the designated time. In particular, the major cities of Barcelona and Madrid were both critically effected by the timing of these events, and the whole of the 18th July was spent in inactivity. It was this delay, to the originally planned timetable, that enabled the republican government, but more importantly, especially in Barcelona, the unions and other forces on the left, to organise some sort of resistance. It was this fact, which meant that they were able to defeat the rebellion in these, and several other vital towns and cities. By the end of the 20th July, after the first two days of the rebellion, and bitter fighting throughout the length and breadth of the country, the battle lines had been drawn, and Spain was a nation split into two basic zones. The areas that remained loyal, under the control of the government, and the rest of Spain, which was now under the command of the rebel’s or nationalist’s as they were to become known.

The story of a group of idealistic British volunteers who achieved the first victory against Fascism – the greatest unknown turning point of the 20th century. In 1937 a group of idealistic British volunteers sailed from England to fight the dark threat of dictatorship in Spain. In the olive groves of Jarama, near Madrid, they achieved the first victory against Franco's army. It was Fascism's first defeat. Hardly remembered today, it proved a crucial military turning point in the fight against Fascism. For the first time, Ben Hughes reconstructs the battle in a vivid blow-by-blow account, and considers its fascinating aftermath.

The Dictionary of Labour Biography has an outstanding reputation as a reference work for the study of nineteenth and twentieth century British history. Volume XIV maintains this standard of original and thorough scholarship. Each entry is written by a specialist drawing on an array of primary and secondary sources. The biographical essays engage with recent historiographical developments in the field of labour history. The scope of the volume emphasises the ethnic and national diversity of the British labour movement and neglected political traditions.

Having lost an election, been thrown out by their party, or retired on grounds of ill-health, what do former British prime ministers do? In the first book to look at the lives, political roles and influence of former prime ministers, Theakston analyzes all the former prime ministers from Walpole in the 18th century to Blair today.

The models, the riders and the propaganda that surrounded them: those interested in Soviet era Russian motorcycles and the era that created them, need look no further than this evocatively illustrated and unique book covering the cold war period, when East and West were divided by ideology.

"Selected essays by Christopher Caudwell, on culture, psychology, and capitalism. Material drawn from Caudwell's previous book, "Illusion and Reality, Studies in a Dying Culture" and his essay, "Heredity and Development.""--