A.L. Morton and the Radical Tradition by James Crossley, Palgrave Macmillan, 2025. 432pp.

In his heyday, the Marxist historian, literary critic and journalist A.L. Morton (1903-1987) was admired by and influenced, now more famous contemporaries such as Eric Hobsbawm and Christopher Hill. While his most popular work, A People’s History of England (1938), still remains in print across several languages, apart from a small coterie of admirers, today he seems a largely forgotten figure. Might that now begin to change when for many the geopolitical certainties of old appear to be fracturing.

At last there is a first full length biography of Morton, by James Crossley, reviewed by Mike Mecham in the latest issue of Labour History Review (Vol.90, No.3, December 2025). It presents a compelling case for revisiting Morton. Its strength is that it presents an ‘intellectual biography’ detailing the progression of Morton’s mode of thinking, and its ‘shifts in emphasis, all within the contexts that helped shape them: British Communism and the Cold War.

The book is impressively researched and Crossley marshals a tightly argued narrative across Morton’s wide spread of intellectual interests ranging from history to literary criticism, religion, and political commentary. Key features of the book include its valuable insights into the life of a dedicated, disciplined and trusted British and international communist, alongside its capacity to surprise, including revealing that Morton could also be open and unblinkered, who thrived in ideologically contradictory settings.

The review concludes that ‘Crossley is to be congratulated for filling a long-standing gap in the history of English radical and Marxist thought … [which] …teases the reader into exploring Morton’s own texts further’ with the potential for opening up avenues of study which will hopefully lift him out of obscurity.’

The book’s publication also coincides with Mike Mecham’s detailed catalogue of the Morton papers held in the Marx Memorial Library archive. A biography of Morton’s friend and colleague, Christopher Hill, is also reviewed in the same latest issue of Labour History Review.

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