Raphael’s Picture
A review by me of Raphael Samuel’s book The Lost World of British Communism appears in the new issue of Red Pepper (though sadly not, as ever, in the online version.) The book is an excellently written slice of social history about the people who made up the CPGB in the pre and post war period. Lapsed member Samuel writes from a perspective of semi-disillusionment, and vividly describes with both affection and detachment the serious, studious auto-didacts that made up the tribe. God knows they got a hell of a lot wrong, but there’s a definite heroism in the party’s tale too. As I say in the review though, for the modern left, the story of the CPGB is more a warning of what to avoid in a movement than an example to follow.
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