For decades after the death of Marx, the socialist parties of the Second International were the living hope of revolutionaries around the world, but this promising movement ended in disastrous support for the Great War and the bloody repression of revolutionary workers' movements. Today socialists have much to learn from this profound historical experience. This talk will pose the question: what is the legacy of the Second International?

1. German Social Democracy, 1905-1917: The Development of the Great Schism by Carl Schorske
2. Lenin Rediscovered: What is to be Done? In Context by Lars Lih
3. Classical Marxism: Socialist Theory and the Second International by David Renton