1 These developments have been subjected to minute analysis, which in addition to the Irish dimension, has proceeded in four directions. Maurice Cowling, from the perspective of “high politics,” has described The Impact of Labour 1920–1924 (Cambridge, 1971)Google Scholar; and what emerges from his study is that the thinking of the fifty or sixty Conservatives and Liberals who really mattered was colored by a fear of socialism. McKibbin, Ross, examining The Evolution of the Labour Party, 1910–1924 (Oxford, 1974)Google Scholar, after tracing the drafting of Labour's constitution of 1918, demonstrates that it embodied the aspirations of the right-wing trade unions who were wedded to the collectivism of the war years, and who henceforth dominated the development of the party. Gupta, Partha Sarathi has described Imperialism and the British Labour Movement 1914–1964 (London, 1975)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and concludes that the radical wing of the party supported the general idea of national self-determination, against the socialists who spoke the language of class struggle. Finally, Boyce, D. G. has explored the topic of Englishmen and Irish Troubles: British Public Opinion and the Making of Irish Policy 1918–22 (Cambridge, Mass., 1972)Google Scholar. Each of these approaches— Cowling's explication of the priorities and pressures which shaped the attitudes of politicians; McKibbin's dismissal of the possibility of a “Progressive Alliance” between the Liberal and Labour parties; Gupta's analogies and contrasts between Liberal and Labour views of empire; and Boyce's examination of the effect of public opinion on the Irish policy of the Coalition—provides a partial explanation of the significance of the rise of Labour and the development of its views on the “Irish question.” What is missing is an appreciation of the importance of the question in Labour's postwar search for an identity and a purpose.
