surprisingly good 'may day' reading list on the verso site

[ed miliband]

http://www.versobooks.com/blogs/1002-the-working-class-in-the-saddle-a-reading-list-for-may-day

"surprisingly" because verso and new left review seem to have generally terrible politics but this list gives props to some good and unexpected stuff

[Vyacheslav Brolotov]

It is a very nice list of reading material on the history of the labour movement, but it is obviously not a list meant for people of my tendency:


Homage to Catalonia - George Orwell
With its lyrical descriptions of revolutionary Barcelona, gripped by proletarian revolution in the midst of civil war, Orwell's autobiographical account of his time in the POUM militia continues to inspire workers across the world. Its most interesting pages tell of the Barcelona May Days, when anarchist militias clashed with pro-Soviet forces attempting to suppress the revolution.


Yeah, that suggestion turned me off a little. Yet, the rest of the suggestions look interesting and I might even read some of them, particularly this one:


Making of the English Working Class—E.P. Thompson
A massively influential study of the English working class as a self-constructing consciousness, Thompson's masterwork of social history traces radical political and social organization in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It describes the landscapes of riots, sabotage and solidarity from which the early worker's movement emerged in England.


I want to learn more about the working class history from the first nation to industrialize.

[Rooster]

It is a very nice list of reading material on the history of the labour movement, but it is obviously not a list meant for people of my tendency:



Yeah, that suggestion turned me off a little. Yet, the rest of the suggestions look interesting and I might even read some of them, particularly this one:



I want to learn more about the working class history from the first nation to industrialize.

So you disapprove of Orwell but don't mind E.P. Thompson?

I believe there's also a new printing run of The Making of the English Working Class so I think everyone should grab a copy before it goes out of print again. It's a good book.

[blake 3:17]

The Making of the English Working Class is a phenomenal book.

The Hobsbawm book is a curious choice. It's a good book, but odd to be on this list.

I've only heard good things about The Lost World of British Communism.

I'm curious about the book by Ching Kwan Lee.

Anybody here ever read the Cleaver book?

[ed miliband]

So you disapprove of Orwell but don't mind E.P. Thompson?

I believe there's also a new printing run of The Making of the English Working Class so I think everyone should grab a copy before it goes out of print again. It's a good book.

is it out of print? i have the last penguin edition and it set me back £25 - but i believe that is the rrp anyway?

[Rooster]

is it out of print? i have the last penguin edition and it set me back £25 - but i believe that is the rrp anyway?

I think it was for a long time. At least, I wasn't able to find a new copy for about 10 years. I saw it recently in a big chain book store.