Militant

When it was originally published in 1984, Michael Crick's treatise on the Militant tendency was widely acclaimed as a masterly work of investigative journalism, and although the rise of Jeremy Corbyn can be attributed more to the phenomenon of 'Corbynmania' than to hard-left entrism, to some within the party, Crick's ground-breaking book must seem like a lesson from history.Updated and expanded, Crick explores the origins, organisation and aims of Militant, the secret Trotskyite organisation that operated clandestinely within the Labour Party, edging out adversaries at grass-roots level and recruiting people to its own ranks, which, at its peak in the mid-1980s, swelled to around 8,000 members.

Whilst eventually most of its leaders were expelled, it caused damaging rifts within the party and closed the door to Downing Street for almost a generation.