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Government and politics

Page contents > Online catalogue | Briefing papers | Main collections | Small collections | Rare books | Election ephemera | Library subject guides

Online catalogue

  • The following link takes you to the Advanced search facility of the Archives catalogue: search for Politics in the Term field to find the main collections relating to this topic: Archives catalogue.
  • Some collections are catalogued to item-level on the Archives catalogue. For a full list of these see Completed Catalogues.

Briefing papers

Conservative political history| (PDF)

Labour history| (PDF)

Liberal history| (PDF)

Liberal Party, 1918-39| (PDF)

Main collections

LSE Archives holds many papers relating to government, including archives relating to:

  • all the main political parties
  • political organisations
  • politicians
  • civil servants
  • political scientists

The following is a list of some collections of political parties and organisations held at LSE Archives (reference codes to the documents are in brackets):

  • Centre for Policy Studies (CPS)
  • Fabian Society (FABIAN SOCIETY)
  • Federal Union and Federal Trust for Education and Research (FEDERAL UNION)
  • Independent Labour Party: for a handlist see ILP
  • Liberal Democrat Party (LIBERAL DEMOCRATS)
  • Liberal Party (LIBERAL PARTY)
  • Tory Reform Group (TRG)

The following is a list of some of the papers of politicians, civil servants and political scientists held at LSE Archives:

  • Adams, Samuel Vyvyan Trerice, 1900-1951 (ADAMS V)
  • Paddy Ashdown, 1941- (ASHDOWN)
  • William Beveridge, 1879-1963
  • Robert Chorley, 1895-1978 (CHORLEY)
  • Anthony Crosland, 1918-1977 (CROSLAND)
  • Hugh Dalton, 1887-1962 (DALTON)
  • Andrew Faulds, 1923-2000 (FAULDS)
  • Geoffrey Finsberg, 1926-1996 (FINSBERG)
  • Hugh Jenkins, 1908-2004 (JENKINS)
  • Dr Donald Johnson, 1903-1978 (JOHNSON)
  • Sir Gilbert Longden, 1902-1997 (LONGDEN)
  • Violet Markham, 1872-1959 (MARKHAM)
  • Sir Andrew Mcfadyean, 1887-1974 (MCFADYEAN)
  • Michael Meadowcroft, 1942- (MEADOWCROFT)
  • Edmund Morel, 1873-1924 (MOREL)
  • Alfred Morris, 1928- (MORRIS)
  • John Stuart Mill, 1806-1873 (MILL-TAYLOR)
  • Michael Oakeshott, 1901-1990 (OAKESHOTT)
  • John Parker, 1906-1987 (PARKER)
  • William Piercy, 1886-1966 (PIERCY) 
  • Denis Pritt, 1887-1972 (PRITT)
  • John Redcliffe-Maud, 1906-1982 (REDCLIFFE-MAUD)
  • Merlyn Merlyn-Rees, 1920-2006 (MERLYN-REES)
  • Neville Sandelson, 1923-2002 (SANDELSON)
  • Robert Sheldon, 1923-: for a handlist see SHELDON
  • Peter Shore, 1924-2001 (SHORE)
  • David Steel, 1938- (STEEL)
  • Richard Titmuss, 1907-1973: (TITMUSS)
  • Graham Wallas, 1858-1932 (WALLAS)
  • Beatrice Webb, 1858-1943 and Sidney Webb, 1859-1947 (PASSFIELD)
  • George Wigg, 1900-1983 (WIGG)
  • Juliet Rhys Williams, 1898-1964 (RHYS WILLIAMS J)

Small collections

For a guide highlighting some of our smaller collections see: Small political collections|.

Rare books

Many of the rare books| held at LSE Archives relate to government and politics. Highlights include first editions of David Ricardo's 'On The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation', 1817 and JS Mill's 'On Liberty', 1859; minutes of the Labour Representation League, 1873-1878; and the manuscript of Edward Pease's 'History of the Fabian Society'. See especially:

Election ephemera

For information regarding our collections of general election ephemera see Election Ephemera|.

Library subject guides

For more information on sources for politics see the Library's subject guides|, including:

Catalogues

Further information

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Sidney and Beatrice Webb

 

Sir Gilbert Longden

 

William Beveridge

 

Hugh Dalton

 

Michael Oakeshott