Demolishing the Blairite opposition in 2015, Jeremy Corbyn saw off an attempted coup against his leadership under the banner of the soft left one year on. This unassuming antiwar socialist now leads Labour with a huge mandate. For the first time in decades, socialism is back on the agenda-and for the first time in Labour’s history, it defines the leadership.

This book tells the story of how Corbyn’s rise was made possible by the long decline of Labour and a deep crisis in British democracy. It surveys the makeshift coalition of trade unionists, young and precarious workers, and students who rallied to Corbyn. It shows how a novel social media campaign turned the media’s Project Fear on its head, making a virtue of every accusation thrown at him. And finally it asks, with all the artillery that is still ranged against Corbyn, given the crisis-ridden Labour Party that he has inherited, the devastating impact of the coup attempt and the fall-out from Brexit, what it would mean for him to succeed.