Henry Pelling

Henry Mathison Pelling (27 August 1920 – 14 October 1997) was a British historian best known for his works on the history of the British Labour Party.

Life Pelling was born in Prenton, Wirral, the son of a wealthy stockbroker. He was educated at Birkenhead School and St John's College, Cambridge, where he gained firsts in Part I of the Classical tripos and Part II of the Historical tripos prior to completing a PhD in 1950. He began his career as a fellow at Queen's College, Oxford, where he remained until his return to St John's in 1966. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA) in 1992. Pelling's collection of British left-wing political pamphlets is held at Senate House Library, while his papers are lodged with St John's College.

Publications The Origins of the Labour Party, 1880–1900 (London: Macmillan, 1954) — second edition Oxford: Clarendon, 1965 The Challenge of Socialism (London: Adam and Charles Black, 1954) — edited by Pelling America and the British Left from Bright to Bevan (London: Adam and Charles Black, 1956) — New York University Press in the U.S. The British Communist Party: A Historical Profile (London: Adam and Charles Black, 1958) Labour and Politics, 1900–1906: A History of the Labour Representation Committee (London: Macmillan, 1958) — co-written with Frank Bealey Modern Britain, 1885–1955 (Edinburgh: Nelson, 1960) — W. W. Norton in the U.S. American Labor (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960) Chūshichi Tsuzuki, H. M. Hyndman and British Socialism (London: Oxford University Press, 1961) — prepared for publication by Pelling A Short History of the Labour Party (London: Macmillan, 1961) — later editions co-written with Alastair J. Reid A History of British Trade Unionism (London: Macmillan, 1963) Social Geography of British Elections, 1885–1910 (London: Macmillan, 1967) Popular Politics and Society in Late Victorian Britain (London and Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1968) Britain and the Second World War (London: Collins, 1970) Winston Churchill (London and Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1974) The Labour Governments, 1945–1951 (London and Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1984) Britain and the Marshall Plan (London and Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1988) Churchill's Peacetime Ministry, 1951–1955 (London and Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997) — St. Martin's Press in the U.S.