Profile
Colm became Lecturer in British Politics at Queen Mary University of London in 2022. He is a historian of modern British and Irish party politics, political culture, and political economy.
His first book, Futures of Socialism (2023), interrogated debates about the political future of the Labour Party (UK) from the 1970s to the 1990s, a period of defeat and disorientation for the left across Europe and North America. Colm has published several additional articles and book chapters on 1970s-80s social democracy (including its political culture, evolving electoral strategy, and economic policymaking) and on Irish labour relations and nationalism in the 1910s. His more recent work has focused on the discipline of political history, the politics of ‘austerity’, and the Keynesian political tradition.
Since 2018, Colm has worked for the Mile End Institute and is currently its Deputy Director. His research has been published, cited or mentioned in media outlets like the Observer, City AM, History Today, Prospect, Times Radio, the Fabian Review, and the Irish Examiner, and he has appeared on France 24 and Deutsche Welle’s ‘Inside Europe’. He is a co-convenor of the ‘Britain at Home and Abroad since 1800’ seminar at the Institute of Historical Research, a Special Sections co-editor at The Political Quarterly, and a Contributing Editor to Renewal: A Journal of Social Democracy.
Students who wish to book an advice and feedback appointment in Colm’s office hours should visit this page.
Teaching
- POL108 – Background to British Politics
- POL3001 – Boom and Bust: The Politics of the British Economy
Research
Research Interests:
My research lies at the intersection of British party politics, ideology and political culture, and the political economy of Britain in its different global contexts.
Much of my work focuses on changes within the British left since the 1970s. My first book Futures of Socialism (Cambridge University Press) explores debates over the ‘modernisation’ of socialism, and their influence on the Labour Party, 1973-1997. It challenges existing accounts of ‘Labour’s modernisation’ and illuminates the trajectory of social democracy from the ‘Alternative Economic Strategy’ to ‘New Labour’. Using this case study, it intervenes in wider debates, over constitutional reform, European integration, new social movements, and neoliberalism. I have also published journal articles on race, sexuality, and 1980s political culture, and a book chapter on the 1983 Labour Party manifesto.
Since late 2020, I began a new project on the ‘crisis of British Keynesianism, 1973-1993’. By exploring Keynesian advocacy for import controls, a prominent but now neglected campaign, my research unsettles narratives that emphasise ‘neoliberalism’ and highlights the intellectual and political importance of deindustrialisation and European integration at the Cold War’s climax.
Methodologically, I am interested in the relationships between the disciplines of history, political science, and political economy. With Lyndsey Jenkins and Robert Saunders, I co-edited special section on the ‘future of British political history’ for The Political Quarterly.
Publications
Books
Futures of Socialism: “Modernisation”, the Labour Party, and the British Left, 1973-1997 (Cambridge University Press, 2023).
Articles
‘Introduction: The Future of Political History’, The Political Quarterly 94:2 (2023), 201-207.
‘The forgotten rival of Marxism Today: the British Labour Party’s New Socialist and the Business of political culture in the late twentieth century’, The English Historical Review 138:593 (2023), 871-897.
‘The “rainbow alliance” or the focus group? Sexuality and race in the Labour Party’s electoral strategy, 1985-7’, Twentieth Century British History 31:3 (2020), 291-315.
‘Rival Imagined Communities in the Dublin Lockout of 1913’, History Workshop Journal 86 (2018), 184-204.
Co-authored articles
Nigel Kettley and Colm Murphy, ‘Augmenting excellence, promoting diversity? Preliminary design of a foundation year for the University of Cambridge’, British Journal of the Sociology of Education 42:3 (2021), 419-434.
Edited collections
Lyndsey Jenkins, Colm Murphy and Robert Saunders (eds), ‘The Future of Political History’, The Political Quarterly 94:2 (2023), 201-320.
Book chapters
‘What did the 1983 manifesto ever do for us?’, in Nathan Yeowell (ed.), Rethinking Labour’s Past (I.B. Tauris, 2022), 215-231.
Forthcoming
‘Towards a modern democracy? The constitutional politics of the 1990s British left’ (forthcoming in Contemporary British History).
‘The Pitfalls and Promise of Contemporary Labour History’, in Sarah Kenny and Sarah Crook (eds), The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary British History (forthcoming).
Selected Reviews
The Neoliberal Age? Britain since the 1970s, edited by Aled Davies, Ben Jackson and Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite (Twentieth Century British History, 2023).
The modernisation of the Labour Party, 1979-97 by Christopher Massey (Party Politics, 2022).
Michael Young, Social Science & the British Left, 1945-1970, by Lise Butler (Reviews in History, 2021).
Selected reports, articles and blogs
‘The “polycrisis” and social democracy’, Renewal blog (2024).
(with Patrick Diamond), ‘Why Labour must adopt radical new tax policies - including on wealth and capital’, Observer (2024).
‘Keir Starmer: three warnings from history for Labour’s seventh British prime minister’, The Conversation (2024).
‘Britain’s energy transition in the shadow of the 1970s’, Engelsberg Ideas (2024).
(with Alfie Steer), ‘Convert, Cooperative, or Condemn: What Could the Labour Left Do Now?’, Political Insight (2023).
‘Back to the Future?’, Fabian Review (2023).
(edited with Farah Hussain), Governing in Hard Times: Urgent Questions for the British Centre-Left (2023).
‘Keir Starmer and the Philosopher’s Stone’, Renewal 30:3 (2022).
‘Kinship to Daggers Drawn: Tony Blair and Gordon Brown’, Institut Montaigne (2022).
‘Who can Stop the War? The British Left, NATO, and Russia’, UK in a Changing Europe (2022).
‘Are the 1930s the true historical parallel for Labour today?’, Prospect (2020).
‘Editorial: The unspoken dilemmas of Corbynomics’, Renewal 27:3 (2019).
Supervision
PhD students
Robin Campbell (with Patrick Diamond)
Prospective PhD candidates
I am interested in supervising PhD projects on British and Irish domestic politics in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including parties, elections, institutions, and political thought. I am especially interested in topics relating to: a) the history of British social democracy and/or socialism; b) nationalism(s), the Union, and the implications of European integration for domestic politics; and c) the history of economic policymaking.
Public Engagement
Co-convenor, ‘Britain at Home and Abroad since 1800’, Institute of Historical Research Seminar
Contributing Editor, Renewal: A Journal of Social Democracy.
Special Sections Editor, The Political Quarterly
Colm’s work has been published, cited or mentioned in outlets like the Observer/Guardian, City AM, the Irish Examiner, History Today, Prospect, LabourList, Times Radio, Fabian Review, RTVE, The Sunday National, Institut Montaigne and The Conversation. He has appeared on France 24, BFMTV and Deutsche Welle’s ‘Inside Europe’.
