Swift's first book, a history of the British Left during the First World War, was described by reviewer Prof Peter Stansky as ‘an important contribution to the ever-fascinating subject of the history of the British left [and] the development of the Labour party’.[9]
Swift's second book, A Left for Itself,[10] was the first analysis of 'political hobbyism' in the UK,[11][12] and focused on what he termed 'performative radicalism' in the era of the internet and social media.[13] It was heralded as a definitive analysis of the failure of Jeremy Corbyn's Labour party at the 2019 United Kingdom general election.[14]
In 2022 Swift published his third book, The Identity Myth,[15][16] which interrogated common understandings of different 'identities' such as class, race, gender, and generation.[17] It was a Next Big Idea Club finalist for 2022.[18]
Works
For Class and Country: the Patriotic Left and the First World War (2017)
A Left for Itself: Left-wing Hobbyists and Performative Radicalism (2019)
The Identity Myth: Why We Need to Embrace our Differences to Beat Inequality (2022)