Sects and ‘new left’ disillusionment. Mike Macnair reviews P Blackledge, N Davidson (eds) Alasdair MacIntyre’s engagement with Marxism: selected writings 1953-1974, Brill (Historical materialism series),... »
Culture
A beginner’s guide to acting English – Shappi Khorsandi
Wiping away a tear. Charlie Pottins reviews Shappi Khorsandi’s A beginner’s guide to acting English, Ebury Press, London 2009, pp330 £11.99. They say your old time Yiddish music hall audience expected a laugh, a cry and a catchy song. Melodious as her giggle might be, however, Shappi Khorsandi did not give us a song when she... »
Red planets: Marxism and science fiction – Mark Bould and China Miéville (eds)
Blind, dumb logic of capitalism. James Turley reviews Mark Bould and China Miéville (eds) Red planets: Marxism and science fiction Pluto, 2009, pp293, £19.99. When English literature departments first arose in Anglo-Saxon academia, their purpose was in some ways relatively well defined. The bourgeoisie, so its political allies in the aristocracy and flunkies among the intelligentsia... »
Common words and the wandering star – Keith Armstrong
A northern giant David Douglass reviews Keith Armstrong’s Common words and the wandering star University of Sunderland Press. pp296, £7.95 There have been few British socialist writers of note, even less working class ones and still less those of the northern working class. In this respect, Jack Common occupies a unique position, almost in the category... »
Red star over Russia – David King
A revolution portrayed Sarah McDonald reviews David King’s Red star over Russia Tate Publishing, 2009, pp352, £25 David King’s book is subtitled A visual history of the Soviet Union from 1917 to the death of Stalin, and it is exactly that – a truly impressive visual account of the period. This book was published to coincide with... »
Saving culture from capitalism
The dispute over cuts in Arts Council funding demonstrates the baleful influence of capitalism on culture, argues James Turley You know the establishment has got something vastly wrong when Joanna Lumley comes perilously close to advocating workers’ control – but there she was, in an Observer spread (January 13), quoted as saying “We in the... »
Guardians of power: the myth of the liberal media- David Edwards & David Cromwell
Authors David Edwards and David Cromwell have done a great service in encapsulating the ways and wiles of mainstream journalists and media in this book. While the topics and some of the discourse may be familiar... »
John Coltrane And The Jazz Revolution- Frank Kofsky
This book by Frank Kofsky is an examination of black nationalism and the revolution in music. Although this work is highly readable, its navigations around the subject matter prove to be unrewarding and, at times, exasperating reading, ... »
Political film: the dialectics of third cinema- Mike Wayne
Film-making committed to social and cultural emancipation, of course, did not start in the 1960s, when ‘third cinema’ announced itself. Mike Wayne’s welcome study traces the relevance of earlier “critics and cultural producers” – Eisenstein, ... »