What differencies and similarities were there in the Labour movements around Europe when they grew strong around the start of 1900? In Political Change and the Rise of La-bour in Comparative Perspective historian Mary Hilson presents a comparative analysis of social change, democratisation and the development of modern party politics in Britain and Sweden during the period 18901920. With particular reference to the emergence of social democracy as a political current she emphasises the similarities of political changes in these two countries at the time, and also in the wider European context. Drawing on a case study of two naval dockyard towns, Plymouth and Karlskrona, Hilson also discusses the response of labour organisations to the politics of nationalism and naval defence in the early twentieth century.

Mary Hilson has a PhD in Economic and Social History (University of Exeter, 1998) and is Lecturer in Contemporary Scandinavian History at the Department of Scandinavian Studies, University College London.