Written between 1957 and 2011 and appearing in publications such as New Left Review and Marxism Today, these twenty essays are Stuart Hall's best known and most important writings that directly engage with political issues.

Selected Political Writings gathers Stuart Hall's best-known and most important essays that directly engage with political issues. Written between 1957 and 2011 and appearing in publications such as New Left Review and Marxism Today, these twenty essays span the whole of Hall's career, from his early involvement with the New Left, to his critique of Thatcherism, to his later focus on neoliberalism. Whether addressing economic decline and class struggle, the Cuban Missile Crisis, or the politics of empire, Hall's singular commentary and theorizations make this volume essential for anyone interested in the politics of the last sixty years.

"It’s hard to imagine a better time for the arrival of this book. Political uncertainty and reactionary posturing are a defining feature of recent months. The care and thoughtfulness carried in its pages are very welcome, the sense of context and sharpness of insight feel invaluable. . . . Hall’s writing was always political, but here we find him exercising his prodigious analytical skills on explictly political questions and issues. The result is something to behold. A book that scans across time telling stories that are likely to matter whenever the book is read."

Introduction / Sally Davison, David Featherstone and Bill Schwarz  1
Note on Texts  16
Part 1: The New Left and after
1. The new Conservatism and the old (1957)  18
2. A sense of classlessness (1958)  28
3. The supply of demand (1960)  47
4. The Cuban crisis: trial-run or steps towards peace? (1963)  70
5. Political commitment (1966)  85
6. A world at one with itself (1970)  107
7. The first New Left: life and times (1990)  117
Part 2: Thatcherism
8. Racism and reaction (1978)  142
9. 1970: Birth of the law and order society (1978)  158
10. The great moving right show (1979)  172
11. The 'Little Caesars' of social democracy (1981)  187
12. The empire strikes back (1982)  200
13. The crisis of Labourism (1984)  207
14. The state: socialism's old caretaker (1984)  223
15. Blue election, election blues (1987)  238
16. The meaning of new times (1989)  248
17. And not a shot fired: the end of Thatcherism? (1991)  266
18. Our mongrel selves (1992)  275
Part 3: Neoliberalism
19. The great moving nowhere show (1998)  283
20. New Labour's double-shuffle (2003)  301
21. The neoliberal revolution (2011)  317
Afterword / Michael Rustin  336
Notes on historical figures  354
Index  361