This work serves as an introduction to, and an overview of, key issues and themes in the history of the Communist Party in Britain, and an assessment of the CP's changing historiography, particularly in view of the availability of previously inaccessible archives. Thirteen contributors examine particular aspects of the party's history from the early Comintern period, to the events in Hungary in 1956 and the Eurocommunism and cultural politics of recent years. The scope of the book is deliberately broad, covering not only the more conventional aspects of CP participation in the labour movement, but also the broader cultural influence of the party on writers, artists, scholars, activists and opinion-formers at various stages in its history.

'This collection is a real achievement and sets a new standard which other historians of the left will need to match' Nick Tiratsoo, New Times

'Serious students of British communist history will be glad to have [Opening the Books] on their shelves' Peter Fryer, Workers Press

'This book could be of value as a source for some aspects of the early history of the CPGB' Morning Star

'A judicous blending of praise and blame. Sue Bradley is very interesting on the Lancashire women who made up the majority of the county's over half a million cotton workers. Nina Fishman is equally good on the 1926-56 trade union movement as a whole. Mike Waite adds a well-informed study of the dubious youth culture of the 1960's. But the CP, Eric Hobsbawn emphasizes in a postscript to Opening the Books, was a far from negligible force, and ought not to be forgotten.' History Today, Dec '95