The Radical Right in Britain

'Alan Sykes has produced a thoughtful and well-structured work, which manages to analyse a complex subject with clarity and a sure understanding of the intellectual debate...One theme that recurs throughout the book is the continuing ability of the radical right to adapt to and manipulate public grievances, which were seen as being ignored by the mainstream parties. In the troubled post-9/11 world such a book deserves a wide readership both within and, more especially, outside the academy.' - David Thackeray, Reviews in History

In its many and varied forms, the Radical Right has been a hyper-nationalist thorn in the side of Britain's liberal political system for over 100 years.In its many and varied forms, the Radical Right has been a hyper-nationalist thorn in the side of Britain's liberal political system for over 100 years. Standing outside the liberal political system, it rejected liberal principles in their entirety in favour of values derived from racial nationalism, while its concept of 'Britain for the British' entailed social as well as national revolution, and the transformation of the individual. The policies of the Radical Right have ranged from the authoritarian fascism of Sir Oswald Mosley and the BUF and the later National Front, to the virtual anarchism of Distributism and Social Credit; from de facto nationalization to the redistribution of property.

In this approachable introductory guide, Alan Sykes examines the troublesome history of the Radical Right and its critique of British liberal politics. Sykes traces the development of Radical Right ideas from their origins in the Edwardian fears of imperial disintegration and racial decadence that gave rise to Social Imperialism, to the contemporary achievements of the modernized BNP.