Dr Geoff Andrews

Professional biography

Dr Andrews has researched and published widely on twentieth century British history, the history of political ideas and movements, political biography and Italian politics. His current book project - to be published by Yale University Press in 2026 -  is a major study of the interplay between the British working classes, the labour movement and British culture. Drawing on a range of new material, and reflecting on several years of researching and writing about the labour movement and the left, the book provides a bold and challenging argument that the contribution of the working classes to the making of modern Britain has been seriously neglected and undervalued. 

Previous Publications 

Political Biography (all in hardback and paperback).

The Shadow Man. (Bloomsbury, 2015/2023)

Agent Moliere: the Life of John Cairncross, the Fifth Man of the Cambridge Spy Circle (Bloomsbury, 2020/2023)

Smooth Operator: the Life and Times of Cyril Lakin (Parthian, 2021/2022)

The History of British Communism:

Endgames and New Times: the Final Years of British Communism (Lawrence and Wishart, 2004).

Italian Politics and History. 

The Slow Food Story (Pluto, McGill, Il Mulino 2008) (published in three editions).

Not a Normal Country: Italy After Berlusconi (Pluto, 2005),

Un paese anormale (Effepi Libri, 2006)

PhD supervision

Geoff Andrews welcomes applications from students interested in doing a PhD on labour history, political biography or the history of political ideas and movements. He is currently supervising PhD students on the Welsh anti-nuclear movements in the 1980s, the political interventions of Prince Charles, and the history and politics of the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

Geoff Andrews has been closely involved with the production of several Open University politics modules. These include Modern Political Ideas (DD316) which he has chaired from production to presentation. He has also made substantial contributions to Understanding Politics: Ideas and Institutions in the Modern World (DD211), Power, Dissent, Equality: Understanding Contemporary Politics (DD203) and Living Political Ideas (DD306). He has contributed to other interdisciplinary modules, including Media, Politics and Society, (ADXS001), Introducing the Social Sciences (DD102) and Investigating the Information Society: Social Science in Action (DXR220), a residential school module. At Oxford he teaches on the MSt in Historical studies, and modern British history at the History and Politics Summer School. He also runs a 'Writing Biography' workshop. He is an External Assessor for Oxford University's Foundation Certificate in History

His research has been featured on several BBC programmes including The Today Programme (R4), Thinking Allowed (R4), The Essay (R3), Nightwaves (R3) The Food Programme (R4) The Jeremy Vine Show (R2), and the BBC World Service. He has written for the New Statesman, Financial Times, Prospect, Open Democracy, The Times Higher Education Supplement, Marxism Today, and La Stampa. He is a former associate editor of Soundings. 

Recent BBC radio series. 

The Essay BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, The Enormous Condescension of Posterity, The Making of EP Thompson

Britain's Communist Thread BBC Radio 4 - Britain's Communist Thread, The Party's Over