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Radical Ambitions for Left-Wing Social Change and the Widespread Public Relevance of Sociology Remain Unfulfilled
Chapter 6 Worldly Ambitions The Emergence of a Global New Left For American left student activists of the early 1960s aiming to prac- tice their own politics of truth, Mills’s “Letter to the New Left” of 1960 provided inspiration. Attacking the liberal notion of an “end of ideology,” Mills suggested that radical ideals could once again affect the course of history by stirring the masses out of their apathy. Defending “utopian” thinking, he showed the necessity of a New Left that would break through the limits of the cold war consensus politics of the 1950s. Most important, Mills proclaimed to the emerging white student movement that “new generations of intellectuals” could be “real live agencies of social change.”1 To readers who already revered Mills for his trenchant social analysis, “Letter to the New Left” legiti- mated the notion that relatively privileged university students could be pivotal agents of social transformation. Shortly after its publication, Mills’s “Letter” was reprinted in the foremost intellectual journal of the American New Left, Studies on the Left. It was also published in pamphlet form by its most prominent organization, the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), whose 1962 manifesto “The Port Huron Statement” heralded a New Left social movement of those “bred in at least modest comfort, housed now in the universities, looking uncom- fortably to the world we inherit.”2 Though “Letter to the New Left” is best known for its influence on the American student movement, Mills conceived of the New Left in international terms. In fact, his “Letter” was originally published in the 179 UC-Geary-1stpages.indd 179 10/8/2008 2:20:59 PM 180 Worldly Ambitions British journal New Left Review. -
Culture and Materialism : Raymond Williams and the Marxist Debate
CULTURE AND MATERIALISM: RAYMOND WILLIAMS AND THE MARXIST DEBATE by David C. Robinson B.A. (Honours1, Queen's University, 1988 THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS (COMMUNICATIONS) in the ,Department of Communication @ David C. Robinson 1991 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY July, 1991 All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. APPROVAL NAME: David Robinson DEGREE: Master of Arts (Communication) TITLE OF THESIS: Culture and Materialism: Raymond Williams and the Marxist Debate EXAMINING COMMITTEE: CHAIR: Dr. Linda Harasim Dr. Richard S. Gruneau Professor Senior Supervisor Dr. Alison C. M. Beale Assistant Professor Supervisor " - Dr. Jerald Zaslove Associate Professor Department of English Examiner DATE APPROVED: PARTIAL COPYRIGHT LICENCE I hereby grant to Simon Fraser University the right to lend my thesis or dissertation (the title of which is shown below) to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users. I further agree that permission for multiple copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by me or the Dean of Graduate Studies. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Title of Thesis/Dissertation: Culture and Materialism: Raymond Williams and the Marxist Debate Author : signature David C. -
The Problem of Social Class Under Socialism Author(S): Sharon Zukin Source: Theory and Society, Vol
The Problem of Social Class under Socialism Author(s): Sharon Zukin Source: Theory and Society, Vol. 6, No. 3 (Nov., 1978), pp. 391-427 Published by: Springer Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/656759 Accessed: 24-06-2015 21:55 UTC REFERENCES Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article: http://www.jstor.org/stable/656759?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/ info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Springer is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Theory and Society. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 132.236.27.111 on Wed, 24 Jun 2015 21:55:45 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 391 THE PROBLEM OF SOCIAL CLASS UNDER SOCIALISM SHARON ZUKIN Posing the problem of social class under socialismimplies that the concept of class can be removed from the historical context of capitalist society and applied to societies which either do not know or do not claim to know the classicalcapitalist mode of production. Overthe past fifty years, the obstacles to such an analysis have often led to political recriminationsand termino- logical culs-de-sac. -
How It All Began: a Footnote to History
HOW IT ALL BEGAN: A FOOTNOTE TO HISTORY Marion Kozak The Socialist Register was conceived on an exceptionally sunlit Sunday, April 7 1963, over lunch. Sitting round the table were John Saville, Lawrence Daly, Edward Thompson, Ralph and I. To an outsider it was evident that Lawrence Daly in some ways dominated the group. Daly, who had once been a working miner in Fife and later became a trade union leader, had been part of John and Edward’s circle in the course of their break with the Communist Party in 1956-57 and after, and they considered him a most remarkable working class intellectual. He had attracted consid erable attention in the 1959 general election campaign when he had beaten the official Communist candidate into third place in Willie Gallagher’s old constituency - a traditional stronghold of Communism. But what sticks out in my memory is not the politics but that Edward wanted to talk to him about poetry and that the afternoon concluded with a discussion about Shakespeare’s sonnets which Lawrence had been reading. In their different ways, all the individuals at our little meeting were among the first wave members of the British New Left, and represented various aspects of a revived Marxist culture whose immediate antecedents were the revelations of the 20th Party Congress. On the one hand, Khrushchev’s speech to the Congress of the CPSU had exposed the crimes of Stalinism as well as the fallibility of the Communist project as exemplified in the Soviet suppression of the Hungarian revolution. On the other hand, the broad Left and even the centre of the political spectrum in Britain had demonstrated widespread disillusion with Cold War politics, in the protest against the colonialism of the Suez invasions and in the growing movement against nuclear weapons. -
Eurocommunism: a Discussion of Carrillo's "Eurocommunism and the State" Sam Aaronovitch 1
222 MARXISM TODAY, JULY, 1978 Eurocommunism: a discussion of Carrillo's "Eurocommunism and the State" Sam Aaronovitch 1. Introduction contents" but basing myself on his book and on Santiago Carrillo took the chance to write this other documents by communist parties and individ book in 1976 after entering Spain "illegally" in order, ual communists let me propose this as reasonably as he says, to tackle "one of the most confused and summarising this view. difficult questions confronting a communist today." First: the Soviet model of 1917 is an inappropriate It is not a major and original contribution to Marxist one for advanced capitalist societies which have theory but it is, nevertheless, an important and powerful and extensive state structures, developed liberating book written in a simple and direct way. civil society (i.e. a dense network of social, cultural Part of its importance rests in the fact that the and political groupings based on voluntary commit general secretary of an important communist ment), and considerable democratic traditions and party has written a book which begins to break with practices. past traditions and reflexes in the international Second, in such societies, the road to socialism communist movement and which gives reasons for a involves the working class, through its organisations, strategy which has attracted to itself the name of actually developing its own unity and building a Eurocommunism. Of course, that title is not strictly series of alliances which put it in a leading (hege accurate. It is applied to communist parties such as monic) position in all spheres of economic, social and the Japanese which are not European and would be political life thus enabling it to speak for the people rejected by some communist parties in European as a whole. -
King's Research Portal
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by King's Research Portal King’s Research Portal Document Version Peer reviewed version Link to publication record in King's Research Portal Citation for published version (APA): Hutton, A. N. (2016). Literature, Criticism, and Politics in the Early New Left, 1956–62. Twentieth Century British History, 27(1), 51-75. Citing this paper Please note that where the full-text provided on King's Research Portal is the Author Accepted Manuscript or Post-Print version this may differ from the final Published version. If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination, volume/issue, and date of publication details. And where the final published version is provided on the Research Portal, if citing you are again advised to check the publisher's website for any subsequent corrections. General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the Research Portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognize and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. •Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the Research Portal for the purpose of private study or research. •You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain •You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the Research Portal Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. -
The Sociological Imagination of the British New Left: ‘Culture’ and the ‘Managerial Society’, C
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Apollo The Sociological Imagination of the British New Left: ‘Culture’ and the ‘Managerial Society’, c. 1956-621 The Labour Party kept losing elections in the 1950s. In 1951 they lost by sixteen seats, in 1955 by sixty, and the Conservatives won by a one hundred-seat margin in the 1959 general election. In the face of these defeats, the Party increasingly divided between ‘revisionists’ and ‘fundamentalists’: Anthony Crosland and Hugh Gaitskell on one side and Anuerin Bevan on the other. International politics seemed only to add to the despair. After suggestions that Stalin’s death in 1953 might help to dissipate Cold War tensions, the crushing of the Hungarian uprising three years later dashed any hopes that Khrushchev would loosen Russia’s grip on its East European satellites. For those on the Labour left, the decade presented a period of dismal political losses, while the events of 1956 were remembered by those in the communist camp, like Eric Hobsbawm, as “the political equivalent of a nervous breakdown”.2 Confronting these domestic and international crises, an anti-Stalinist and anti- revisionist left wing movement grew up around the journals New Reasoner (edited by E.P. Thompson and John Saville) and Universities and Left Review (edited by Charles Taylor, Raphael Samuel, Gabriel Pearson and Stuart Hall). Their editorial boards united to form New 1 The author wishes to thank Stefan Dickers for pointing out the existence of the Ruskin Papers at the Bishopsgate Institute and gratefully acknowledges the estate of Raphael Samuel for permission to quote from them. -
In Spite of History? New Leftism in Britain 1956 - 1979
In Spite of History? New Leftism in Britain 1956 - 1979 Thomas Marriott Dowling Thesis Presented for the Degree of PhD Department of History University of Sheffield August 2015 ii iii Contents Title page p. i Contents p. iii Abstract p. vi Introduction p. 1 On the Trail of the New Left p. 5 Rethinking New Leftism p. 12 Methodology and Structure p. 18 Chapter One Left Over? The Lost World of British New Leftism p. 24 ‘A Mood rather than a Movement’ p. 30 A Permanent Aspiration p. 33 The Antinomies of British New Leftism p. 36 Between Aspiration and Actuality p. 39 The Aetiology of British New Leftism p. 41 Being Communist p. 44 Reasoning Rebellion p. 51 Universities and Left Review p. 55 Forging a Movement p. 58 CND p. 63 Conclusion p. 67 iv Chapter Two Sound and Fury? New Leftism and the British ‘Cultural Revolt’ of the 1950s p. 69 British New Leftism’s ‘Moment of Culture’? p. 76 Principles behind New Leftism’s Cultural Turn p. 78 A British Cultural Revolt? p. 87 A New Left Culture? p. 91 Signifying Nothing? p. 96 Conclusion p. 99 Chapter Three Laureate of New Leftism? Dennis Potter’s ‘Sense of Vocation’ p. 102 A New Left ‘Mood’ p. 108 The Glittering Coffin p. 113 A New Left Politician p. 116 The Uses of Television p. 119 History and Sovereignty p. 127 Common Culture and ‘Occupying Powers’ p. 129 Conclusion p. 133 Chapter Four Imagined Revolutionaries? The Politics and Postures of 1968 p. 135 A Break in the New Left? p. -
From Citizens to Consumers: the Countercultural Roots of Green Consumerism
From Citizens to Consumers: The Countercultural Roots of Green Consumerism A thesis presented to the faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts Philip A. Wight August 2013 ©2013 Philip A. Wight. All Rights Reserved. 2 This thesis titled From Citizens to Consumers: The Countercultural Roots of Green Consumerism by PHILIP A. WIGHT has been approved for the Department of History and the College of Arts and Sciences by Kevin Mattson Connor Study Professor of Contemporary History Robert Frank Dean, College of Arts and Sciences 3 ABSTRACT WIGHT, PHILIP A., M.A. August 2013, History From Citizens to Consumers: The Countercultural Roots of Green Consumerism Director of thesis: Kevin Mattson When did American environmentalism shift from a focus on collective political action to an obsession with personal lifestyles? This thesis investigates three distinct bodies of environmental thought spanning the 1950s and the mid-1970s to answer this question. The three eco-political philosophies studied here are liberal, eco-socialist, and countercultural environmentalism. The heart of this thesis is the debate among key environmental thinkers—John Kenneth Galbraith, Stewart Brand, and Barry Commoner—concerning the role of individual consumers and the importance of public policy. This debate can be viewed as supply-side (producers) versus demand-side (consumers) environmentalism. This thesis argues America’s modern paradigm of libertarian, demand-side environmentalism and green consumerism stems from specific values, ideas, lifestyles, and worldviews representative of American counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s. In championing individual consumer choice, contemporary environmentalism has largely rejected liberal and eco-socialist prescriptions of collective political action and social democratic governance. -
Border Country: Raymond Williams in Adult Education
DOCUMENT RESUME ED 358 300 CE 063 833 AUTHOR Mcllroy, John, Ed.; Westwood, Sallie, Ed. TITLE Border Country: Raymond Williams in Adult Education. INSTITUTION National Inst. of Adult Continuing Education, Leicester (England). REPORT NO ISBN-1-872941-28-1 PUB DATE 93 NOTE 351p. AVAILABLE FROMNational Institute of Adult Continuing Education, 19B De Montfort Street, Leicester LE1 7GE, England, United Kingdom (12.99 British pounds). PUB TYPE Books (010) EDRS PRICE MFO1 /PC15 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Adult Education; Adult Educators; Adult Learning; Adult Literacy; Biographies; *Cultural Awareness; Cultural Education; Educational History; *Educational Philosophy; Foreign Countries; Higher Education; Interdisciplinary Approach; Literacy Education; Literary Criticism; Literature; *Popular Culture; Soeirl Change; Social Science Research IDENTIFIERS Great Britain; *Williams (Raymond) ABSTRACT This volume brings together a collection of writings from 1946-61 by Raymond Williams, a British university adult educator. Section 1is a brief account by Mcllroy of Williams' involvement in teaching adults, his intellectual influences, and the relationship of his educational and intellectual life to his personal experience and political concerns. Section 2 is a selection of Williams' published work that documents his chief intellectual concerns. It presents 14 writings ranging from pieces in the journals "Politics and Letters" and "The Critic" through early essayson the theme of culture and society to his review of "The Uses of Literacy," an extended dialogue with Richard Hoggart, and a contemporary evaluation of the New Left. Section 3 illustrates the changing curriculum and methods of literature teaching in university adult education and illuminates, in 12 articles on teaching culture and environment, public expression and film criticism, the beginnings of today's cultural studies. -
One Has to Put up with the Crude English Method of Development, of Course."—Marx on Darwin
THE PECULIARITIES OF THE ENGLISH E. P. Thompson "One has to put up with the crude English method of development, of course."—Marx on Darwin. I IN the last year or two, an ambitious work of analysis of British history and social structure has been set in train by Perry Anderson and Tom Nairn in New Left Review.1 This work also bears, though mainly by implication, on some major aspects of Marxist theory and analysis. The present essay is concerned to discuss some of the issues and themes which the two authors raise. These articles, taken together, represent a sustained attempt to develop a coherent historical account of British society. Undoubtedly the seminal article is Anderson's Origins of the Present Crisis. But, if Nairn's work is less inspired, nevertheless both writers clearly inhabit the same mental universe. Both feel themselves to be exiles from an "English ideology" which "in its drooling old age . gives rise to a kind of twilight, where 'empiricism' has become myopia and 'liberalism' a sort of blinking uncertainty."2 Nairn extends the indictment: "English separateness and provincialism; English backwardness and traditionalism; English religiosity and moralistic vapouring; paltry English 'empiricism,' or instinctive distrust of reason... ."3 There is "the nullity of native intellectual traditions," the "secular, insular stultification" of British culture, "the impenetrable blanket of complacency" of British social life, "the stony recesses of British trade union conservatism," and "the centuries of stale constipation and sedimentary -
Another Look at E. P. Thompson and British Communism, 1937-1955 John Mcilroy Middlesex University, London
CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Middlesex University Research Repository 1 Another Look at E. P. Thompson and British Communism, 1937-19551 John McIlroy2 Middlesex University, London, UK. Disclosure Statement No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author. Abstract Examination of E.P. Thompson’s activism in the Communist Party (CPGB) has been limited. Some historians, basing themselves on his memories and interpretations of his 1955 biography of William Morris, have portrayed him as a dissenter, at best a loyal critic of CPGB policy. Others have deduced political conformity from his fourteen years membership of a declining organisation. This article reappraises the literature and reassesses the making and unmaking of a Communist intellectual. It explores Thompson’s contemporary writings – rarely exposed to critical scrutiny – and employs recently-released security files to reconstruct the historian’s ideas and activity across the postwar decade. The article concludes that in these years Thompson remained a faithful supporter of the Soviet Union, the party line and ‘high Stalinism’. Khruschev’s ‘Secret Speech’ and the Russian invasion of Hungary did not validate pre-existing dissent. They were the pivotal factors provoking a rupture with the Stalinism Thompson had championed from 1942 to 1955. Keywords: E. P. Thompson; Communist Party of Great Britain; Soviet Union; Stalinism; Cold War; William Morris; Cultural Politics. Notes on contributor John McIlroy is a Professor of Employment Relations at Middlesex University Business School. He was formerly Professor of Industrial Relations at Keele University and Reader in Sociology at The University of Manchester. He co-edited 1956: John Saville, E.P.