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The Lost World of British Communism by Raphael Samuel Pdf
The Lost World of British Communism is a vivid account of the Communist Party of Great Britain. Raphael Samuel, one of post-war Britain's most notable historians, draws on novels of the period and childhood recollections of London's East End, as well as memoirs and Party archives, to evoke the world of British Communism in the 1940s. Samuel conjures up the era when the movement was at the height of its political and theoretical power, brilliantly bringing to life an age in which the Communist Party enjoyed huge prestige as a bulwark for the struggles against fascism and colonialism.
The Lost World of British Communism by Raphael Samuel Pdf
A fascinating account of life as a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain The Lost World of British Communism is a vivid account of the Communist Party of Great Britain. Raphael Samuel, one of post-war Britain’s most notable historians, draws on novels of the period and childhood recollections of London’s East End, as well as memoirs and Party archives, to evoke the world of British Communism in the 1940s. Samuel conjures up the era when the movement was at the height of its political and theoretical power, brilliantly bringing to life an age in which the Communist Party enjoyed huge prestige as a bulwark for the struggles against fascism and colonialism.
1989 was a year of revolution: it marked the collapse of communism in Eastern and Central Europe and and an end to an entire way of life for millions of people behind the Iron Curtain. Beginning in Hungary, the retreat from communism picked up speed over the summer when the Poles won an overwhelming victory in free elections over their pro-Soviet rulers. In the fall, East Germany and Czechoslovakia achieved freedom with surprisingly little violence. Only Romania, at the end of the year, witnessed a savage battle in the capital and the summary execution of the most notorious of Eastern Europe's dictators, Nicolae Ceausescu. In The Lost World of Communism, Peter Molloy, producer of the accompanying BBC series, collects first hand testimony of the people who lived in East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Romania during the Cold War era, and reveals an astonishingly rich tapestry of experience that goes beyond the headlines of spies and surveillance, secret police and political corruption - in fact, many of the people remember their lives under communism as 'perfectly ordinary' and even hanker for the 'security' that it offered. From international figures like Vaclav Havel and Lech Walesa, via the shadowy figures of Eastern Europe's intelligence and security services to its 'ordinary' citizens, the voices collected on Peter Molloy's book evoke the moods, preoccupations and experiences of a world of that vanished almost overnight.
The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) has been seen by many as a microcosm of the Communist-Capitalist struggle in the early twentieth century. Its size belied its influence and so, despite never being a mainstream political movement, it had a powerful presence in British society. Neil Redfern re-examines the movement and its relationship to imperialism, tracing the history of British communism from its revolutionary roots, forged during the turmoil of 1917-1921. He finds that the CPGB never made a clean break with the reformism, nationalism and Euro-centrism, despite World War I, the 1917 revolution and] mass movements in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Redfern argues that this led most of the left to support the First World War and so, by extension, found itself supporting the Second World War and Britain's reconquest of its colonial possessions. This is essential reading for scholars of British Political and Social History, as well as Imperialism, Communism and left-wing ideology.
This book is a study of working-class politics, particularly in terms of British labour history. It explores the history of the British Left, the history of British Socialism, the history of British Communism, the ideas of Karl Marx, and the historical development of Socialism as the ideology of the working class.
There was life before the fall. 1989 was a year of astonishing and rapid change: the fall of the Berlin Wall marked the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and an end to an entire way of life for millions of people behind the Iron Curtain. Bloc Life collects first hand testimony of the people who lived in East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Romania during the Cold War era, and reveals a rich tapestry of experience that goes beyond the headlines of spies and surveillance, secret police and political corruption. In fact, many of the people remember their lives under communism as 'perfectly ordinary' and even hanker for the 'security' that it offered. From political leaders, athletes and pop stars, to cooks, miners and cosmonauts, the stories collected in Bloc Life evoke the moods, preoccupations and experiences of a world that vanished almost overnight.
From Coldwar Communism to the Global Emancipatory Movement by Peter Waterman Pdf
Boaventura de Sousa Santos says: 'This is an admirable memoir of an intellectual activist who has lived most intensely the progressive struggles of the last sixty years of world history, because despite being born in Europe, Peter, in the best tradition of communist internationalism, participated in struggles and movements, not only in Central and Eastern Europe, but also in Africa and most recently in Latin America. But this is much more than a memoir. It is so well documented that in this personal experience there are reflected some of the most decisive events of contemporary history. It is a living history book. But even more than this, this book is so clearly and vividly written that at times it reads like the script for an imaginary documentary of our times. This book should be read by all concerned with our recent history in order to get a much more complex inside view of what happened while it was happening. In particular it should be read by the youth in order to get a close-up of the difficulties and possibilities in building another possible world at a time where there existed a vibrant international communist movement. It is up to such youth to evaluate whether difficulties are now or more daunting, the possibilities less of more luminous.'
Since the Second World War, Marxism in Britain has declined almost to the point of oblivion. The Communist Party of Great Britain had more than 50,000 members in the early 1940s, but less than 5,000 when it disbanded in 1991. Dissenting and Trotskyist organisations experienced a very similar decline, although there has been a late flowering of Marxism in Scotland. Based on the Communist Party archives at Manchester, this text examines the decline over the last sixty years. Dealing with the impact of the Cold War upon British Marxism, the book looks at how international events such as the Soviet invasions of Hungary and Czechslovakia affected the Communist Party of Great Britain. The issues of Marxism and Britain’s withdrawal from the Empire are also addressed, as are the Marxist influence upon British industrial relations and its involvement in the feminist movement. Focusing on the current debate in British Marxist history over the influence of Moscow and Stalinism on the Communist Party, Keith Laybourn explores the ways in which this issue, which divides historians, undermined Marxism in Britain.
International Communism and the Communist International, 1919-43 by Tim Rees,Andrew Thorpe Pdf
The Communist International was formed in Moscow in 1919 as a factory of world revolution, but was dissolved in 1943 without having led a single successful working-class uprising. This book offers a reappraisal of the body.
The Spanish Civil War and the British Labour Movement by Tom Buchanan Pdf
This book draws on a mass of documentary material to provide a major reinterpretation of British labour's response to the Spanish Civil War. It challenges the view that the labour leadership ' betrayed' the Spanish Republic, and that this polarised the movement along `left' versus 'right' lines. Instead, it argues that the overriding concern of the major leaders was to defend labour's institutional interests against the political destabilisation caused by the conflict, rather than to defend Spanish democracy. Although the main advocates of this position were trade union leaders associated with the labour right such as Walter Citrine and Ernest Bevin, the book argues that their dominance reflected the centrality of the trade unions to labour movement decision-making rather than the abuse of union power to achieve political goals.
Dark Times, Dire Decisions by Jonathan Frankel Pdf
The newest volume of the annual Studies in Contemporary Jewry series features essays on the varied and often controversial ways Communism and Jewish history interacted during the 20th century. The volume's contents examine the relationship between Jews and the Communist movement in Poland, Russia, America, Britain, France, the Islamic world, and Germany.
The Communist Party of Great Britain Since 1920 by J. Eaden,D. Renton Pdf
A new single volume history of the Communist Party of Great Britain examining the party from its foundations in 1920 to its demise in the early 1990s. Drawing on original research and a reading of specialist texts, the authors analyze the rise and fall of the party and evaluate its role on the left of British politics. Whilst sympathetic to the ideals and commitment of many British communist activists, the book is sharply critical of much of the actual practice of the party.
Author : S. A. Smith Publisher : Oxford University Press Page : 674 pages File Size : 40,6 Mb Release : 2014 Category : Business & Economics ISBN : 9780199602056
The Kick Inside - Revolutionary Opposition in the CPGB, 1945-1991 by Lawrence Parker Pdf
The inner-party struggle in the Communist Party of Great Britain after the Second World War has rarely been given proper consideration. When historians have stumbled upon the fractures of the party's latter years, such events have often been boiled down to misleading stereotypes such as 'tankies versus Euros'. The reality was considerably more varied.
Democracy in Europe has been a recent phenomenon. Only in the wake of World War II were democratic frameworks secured, and, even then, it was decades before democracy truly blanketed the continent. Neither given nor granted, democracy requires conflict, often violent confrontations, and challenges to the established political order. In Europe, Geoff Eley convincingly shows, democracy did not evolve organically out of a natural consensus, the achievement of prosperity, or the negative cement of the Cold War. Rather, it was painstakingly crafted, continually expanded, and doggedly defended by varying constellations of socialist, feminist, Communist, and other radical movements that originally blossomed in the later nineteenth century. Parties of the Left championed democracy in the revolutionary crisis after World War I, salvaged it against the threat of fascism, and renewed its growth after 1945. They organized civil societies rooted in egalitarian ideals which came to form the very fiber of Europe's current democratic traditions. The trajectories of European democracy and the history of the European Left are thus inextricably bound together. Geoff Eley has given us the first truly comprehensive history of the European Left--its successes and failures; its high watermarks and its low tides; its accomplishments, insufficiencies, and excesses; and, most importantly, its formative, lasting influence on the European political landscape. At a time when the Left's influence and legitimacy are frequently called into question, Forging Democracy passionately upholds its vital contribution.
