SPOKESMAN BOOKS
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Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation
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Catalogue
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Unity - Belfast, Northern Ireland
22nd September 1984
Book review by Denis Smyth
A Radical Reader
Edited by Christopher Hampton
The book has just over 600 pages
and is full of rich and memorable quotations and readings, stretching from the
Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 through the revolt in Norfolk in 1549, the Levellers,
the Diggers and the agitators of the English Civil War to the Luddites, the
Tolpuddle Martyrs and the Chartists of the 19th century, right up to
the Great Dock Strikes of London and Liverpool and ending with the anti-war
upsurges of 1914.
It is a great anthology covering
500 years of radial protest, giving a first class alternative of people’s
history.
This is a wonderful book
depicting over 500 years of struggle in England from 1381-1914.
These pages contain the many varied episodes of protest, rebellion and
uprising throughout the 500 odd years the book covers.
Edited by Christopher Hampton,
the book contains a variety of forceful action and the best of England’s
protestors and advocates for social change, including Hobbes, Tom Paine, Tom
Mann, Robert Tressell, Dickens, Blake, Shelley – with each section linked with
commentary and bibliography – Christopher Hampton lets them act as
spokespersons for the down-trodden and disposed.
The pages are alive with such
vibrant and passionate fervour, each line crying out for social justice, liberty
and freedom that this book deserves a pride of place in any socialist library.
The author has produced a
wonderful tome of radical reading which, even by dipping into at random, the
reader will be provided with inspiration and a great sense of belonging and
loyalty to the greatest cause in the world, the emancipation of the working
classes.
The book also provides a marvellous lesson of the continuous war of attrition carried out against the labouring classes by the ruling order and their minions, which is still relevant to the present day. It gives credence to the important lessons of the past, so that we can learn in the present, to provide a better future for all our people – so we can reach to the ultimate prize.
Price: £18.00
ISBN: 978 085124 7250
600 pages
