History in the Making: Raymond Williams, Edward Thompson and Radical Intellectuals, 1936-1956
Merlin, London, (2001)Abstract
For a generation of political activists growing up in the 1930's opposing Fascism was a priority. The policy of appeasing Hitler and the non-partisan stance of the Labour Party in the face of the Spanish Civil War made the Communist Party an attractive alternative. From this generation emerged key figures in academia and publishing: Eric Hobsbawm, Ralph Miliband, John Saville, Martin Eve, Dorothy and Edward Thompson, and Raymond Williams. Woodhams studies the experiences of this generation, the motives which attracted them towards the CPGB, and their reactions to and experiences in the Second World War. He examines what opportunities were open to them in the post-war years and their influence particularly in the field of adult education. He argues that Raymond Williams anticipated some of the thinking of the new left, especially in the field of cultural studies. But in the shadow of the1956 events in Hungary another new left emerged drawing on post-war experiences and circumstances. This collective biography throws a new light on the continuities and breaks in British political and intellectual history. It challenges conventional periodization separating pre- and post-war history and questions the sources of continuity and change in Britain.