Abstract: Political parties formed the cornerstone of the liberal democracy for which Britain claimed it was fighting in the Second World War. But that conflict represented the most sustained challenge to the British party system during the 20th century. War placed serious obstacles in the way of the normal functioning of politics, exerted considerable extra demands on the time and loyalties of party activists and organizers, and forced the suspension of normal electoral politics. This all posed a serious challenge to the Conservative, Labour, and Liberal parties. How did they respond, and what were the results for the long-term development of ‘party’ in Britain? This book uses a broad and deep range of records of the main political parties to answer this question. The book focuses on what parties actually did, at both local and national levels, to sustain their party organization during the war. It assesses the differential impacts of war, not just on each of the parties, but also over time, and between the different regions and areas of Britain. And attention is paid to the extent to which wartime struggles hastened or hindered structural reform thereafter; changes in party and personnel; how far gender roles changed; and the general place of the war in the development of party in 20th-century British politics.

Keywords: activists, British party system, British politics, Conservative, electoral politics, gender, Labour, Liberal, liberal democracy, local-level archives