Kevin Harris

My research considers how the British far right has attempted to survive following repeated failed attempts at political breakthroughs. I am particularly interested in Oswald Mosley’s movements and in what happened to their political ideas and memories after the movement failed to achieve electoral legitimacy.

I argue that experiences of political marginalisation, repression, and repeated electoral failure helped produce 'a culture of victimhood’, through which fascists explained their defeat. I explore how this was maintained through memoirs, oral and family histories, and archived far-right materials.

I am interested in 'the politics of the archive': how decisions about what is collected, preserved, and made accessible shape what can subsequently be known about the past. More broadly, I am interested in how political movements can continue to shape historical memory beyond the movement's lifetime.