C.A.R. Crosland (1956) The Future of Socialism, Jonathan Cape, London.Donald Sassoon (1997), One Hundred Years of Socialism, HarperCollins London. (First published by I.B.Tauris in 1996).John Callaghan (2000), The Retreat of Social Democracy, Manchester University Press, Manchester.Between them these three books provide an excellent overview of the theory and practice of social democracy as it has twisted and turned over the past century. As Sassoon reminds us in his magisterial review of the West European left, revisionism of one kind or another has been a constant feature of socialist discourse. The key question has always been whether such revisions have helped to bring about the transformation of capitalism (or, perhaps more realistically, its humanisation) or, in contrast, helped to secure its long-term survival. The first, and arguably the most controversial, revisionism of social democratic thought occurred in Germany at the end of the nineteenth century.
