Hope Lies in the Proles

George Orwell was one of the most significant literary figures on the left in the twentieth century. While titles such as 1984, Animal Farm and Homage to Catalonia are still rightly regarded as modern classics, his own politics are less well understood. Hope Lies in the Proles offers a sympathetic yet critical account of Orwell's political thinking and its continued significance today. John Newsinger explores various aspects of Orwell's politics, detailing Orwell's attempts to change working-class consciousness, considering whether his attitude towards the working class was romantic, realistic or patronising - or all three at different times. He also asks whether Orwell's anti-fascism was eclipsed by his criticism of the Soviet Union, and explores his ambivalent relationship with the Labour Party. Newsinger also breaks important new ground regarding Orwell's shifting views on the USA, and his relationship with the progressive Left and feminism

Reading and Ownership

First paragraph: ‘It is as easy to make sweeping statements about reading tastes as to indict a nation, and as pointless.’ This jocular remark by a librarian made in the Times in 1952 sums up the dangers and difficulties of writing the history of reading. As a field of study in the humanities it is still in its infancy and encompasses a range of different methodologies and theoretical approaches. Historians of reading are not solely interested in what people read, but also turn their attention to the why, where and how of the reading experience. Reading can be solitary, silent, secret, surreptitious; it can be oral, educative, enforced, or assertive of a collective identity. For what purposes are individuals reading? How do they actually use books and other textual material? What are the physical environments and spaces of reading? What social, educational, technological, commercial, legal, or ideological contexts underpin reading practices? Finding answers to these questions is compounded by the difficulty of locating and interpreting evidence. As Mary Hammond points out, ‘most reading acts in history remain unrecorded, unmarked or forgotten’. Available sources are wide but inchoate: diaries, letters and autobiographies; personal and oral testimonies; marginalia; and records of societies and reading groups all lend themselves more to the case-study approach than the historical survey. Statistics offer analysable data but have the effect of producing identikits rather than actual human beings. The twenty-first century affords further possibilities, and challenges, with its traces of digital reader activity, but the map is ever-changing

Schoolbooks and textbook publishing.

In this chapter the author looks at the history of schoolbooks and textbook publishing. The nineteenth century saw a rise in the school book market in Britain due to the rise of formal schooling and public examinations. Although the 1870 Education and 1872 (Scotland) Education Acts made elementary education compulsory for childern between 5-13 years old, it was not until the end of the First World War that some sort form of secondary education became compulsory for all children

Re-evaluating syndicalist opposition to the First World War

It has been argued that support for the First World War by the important French syndicalist organisation, the Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT) has tended to obscure the fact that other national syndicalist organisations remained faithful to their professed workers’ internationalism: on this basis syndicalists beyond France, more than any other ideological persuasion within the organised trade union movement in immediate pre-war and wartime Europe, can be seen to have constituted an authentic movement of opposition to the war in their refusal to subordinate class interests to those of the state, to endorse policies of ‘defencism’ of the ‘national interest’ and to abandon the rhetoric of class conflict. This article, which attempts to contribute to a much neglected comparative historiography of the international syndicalist movement, re-evaluates the syndicalist response across a broad geographical field of canvas (embracing France, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Britain and America) to reveal a rather more nuanced, ambiguous and uneven picture. While it highlights the distinctive nature of the syndicalist response compared with other labour movement trends, it also explores the important strategic and tactical limitations involved, including the dilemma of attempting to translate formal syndicalist ideological commitments against the war into practical measures of intervention, and the consequences of the syndicalists’ subordination of the political question of the war to the industrial struggle

"The gangrene in one limb" : British political memoirs and the troubles

Since the beginning of the 'Troubles' in Northern Ireland, a number of British politicians have written their memoirs. From James Callaghan to Margaret Thatcher, they have tried to clarify and justify their role. This article examines those memoirs. It attempts to assess their accuracy and their contribution to our apprehension of developments in Northern Ireland as well as what they tell us about the attitudes of the politicians concerned. Those memoirs afford an fascinating perspective on the 'Troubles'.Dès le début du conflit - les 'Troubles' - en Irlande du Nord, un certain nombre d'hommes politiques britanniques ont écrit leurs mémoires. De James Callaghan à Margaret Thatcher, ils ont essayé d'expliquer et de justifier le rôle qu'ils ont joué. Le présent article examine ces mémoires. Il tente d'évaluer leur exactitude, la connaissance des événements d'Irlande du Nord qu'ils apportent, et ce que ces mémoires nous disent de l'attitude des hommes politiques concernés. Ils jettent sur le conflit d'Irlande du Nord une lumière accrue.Newsinger John. "The gangrene in one limb" : British political memoirs and the troubles. In: Études irlandaises, n°22-1, 1997. pp. 187-207

The Priest in the Irish Novel : James Plunkett's « Strumpet City »

James Plunkett's novel, Strumpet City provides a panoramic view of the impact of the rise of militant Trade Unionism and of the great lock out of 1913-14 on the lives of the people of Dublin. This article examines one aspect of the novel that is often neglected : Its concern with the hostile response of the Catholic Church to the rise of « Larkinism ». As well as portraying the unsympathetic attitude of the clergy, Plunkett celebrates the Catholic religious beliefs of the Dublin working class. His novel can be seen, the article argues, as a powerful indictment of the church's attitude in this period.Le roman de James Plunkett, Strumpet City, nous fournit une vue panoramique du soulèvement du syndicalisme militant et du grand lock out de 1913-14 ainsi que de leur impact sur la vie des citoyens de Dublin. Cet article étudie un aspect du roman qui est souvent négligé : l'inquiétude devant la réponse hostile de l'Église Catholique envers la montée du « Larkinism ». Tout en décrivant l'attitude peu sympathique du clergé, Plunkett fait l'éloge des croyances religieuses catholiques de la classe ouvrière. Le roman peut être vu, c'est ce que veut montrer cet article, comme une accusation vigoureuse de l'attitude de l'église pendant cette période.Newsinger John. The Priest in the Irish Novel : James Plunkett's « Strumpet City ». In: Études irlandaises, n°14-2, 1989. pp. 65-76