Using Comintern archives, oral interviews and a wide range of other sources, this collection presents a sample of some of the exciting new work currently being produced in the field of communist biography. Geographically, the contributions take in North America and New Zealand as well as a range of European countries. Some chapters focus on individuals like Clara Zetkin, William Z. Foster, Umberto Terracini, William Gallacher or Jozsef Pogány. Others adopt a collective approach to explore communist cultures in rural Austria or the Netherlands, or the impact of institutions like the International Lenin School. There are also chapters on communist institutional biographies, the role of general secretaries and the significance of generations and family links.

The Editors: Kevin Morgan teaches at the University of Manchester. The first two volumes of his Bolshevism and the British Left are to be published in 2005. Gidon Cohen teaches politics at the University of Northumbria and researches left-wing political activism and the use of computers in historical research. Andrew Flinn teaches at University College London and works on the participation of youth and minority groups within political parties. The editors’ prosopographical study Communists in British Society 1920-91 is forthcoming.

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