Book excerpt: The British Communist Party (CPGB) offered a complete identity that could reach into virtually all aspects of life: personal conduct, moral codes, health and diet, personal hygiene, and aesthetic judgments. Communism in Britain, 1920-39 contends that it functioned as a "political religion" for some joiners who opted to enter the congregation of the communist devoted. Based on extensive use of primary evidence, this is the first study of interwar British communism to set the communist experience within the framework of the life cycle. The CPGB sought to address the communist experience at all the principal phases of life--its reach therefore extended to children and youth and control over the various aspects of the adult experience including marital and kinship relations.