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The Social and Political Thought of George Orwell: A Reassessment
Stephen Ingle is Professor at the Politics Department, University of Stirling. His main academic interests are in the relationship between politics and literature and in adversarial (two party) politics, especially in the UK.
- GenresPolitics
240 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
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October 24, 2017
Strangely for a book written by an academic of politics this book does not come to the conclusion one would think about George Orwell.
To cut a long story short Ingle comes to the conclusion that Orwell was a moralist.
Everyone wants to pin Orwell down. Was he anarchist, was he a trot, was he renegade Tory? In a strange way because Ingle can't really pin him down he decides he was a moralist. A moralist in the sense of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, George Eliot or Dickens. True he is in good company but are there two more overtly books political books of the mid 20th Century than 'Animal Farm' or '1984'?
I am not convinced he was simply a moralist. Nor am I convinced that his politics, while not always consistent and changeable, is that hard to identify.
Orwell was political. He fought in the front lines of the Spanish Civil War. He changed his position as he experienced and analyzed events. To his credit he was never a "God that failed" convert from Stalinism. These people usually did a complete 180 degree turn. Orwell was a man that stayed with the left even though he felt bitterly disappointed by them for most of his life. Truth be said he was persnickety with every shade of left wing politics. He saw through them all but he was part of them. He did not disown them. He was a man of the left.
He was anti-Stalinist but dreamed of an English revolution in the war years. He was a political libertarian but not a social one (some rather appalling attitudes to women and homosexuals). The Labour party was too far to the right and a bit too cosy with the British establishment for his liking. But he was a member of the I.L.P.. This is fairly significant as he was not a memberless member of the left. Joining a party, any party of the left, separates you from the poseurs and dilettantes- and moralists.
To cut a long story short Ingle comes to the conclusion that Orwell was a moralist.
Everyone wants to pin Orwell down. Was he anarchist, was he a trot, was he renegade Tory? In a strange way because Ingle can't really pin him down he decides he was a moralist. A moralist in the sense of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, George Eliot or Dickens. True he is in good company but are there two more overtly books political books of the mid 20th Century than 'Animal Farm' or '1984'?
I am not convinced he was simply a moralist. Nor am I convinced that his politics, while not always consistent and changeable, is that hard to identify.
Orwell was political. He fought in the front lines of the Spanish Civil War. He changed his position as he experienced and analyzed events. To his credit he was never a "God that failed" convert from Stalinism. These people usually did a complete 180 degree turn. Orwell was a man that stayed with the left even though he felt bitterly disappointed by them for most of his life. Truth be said he was persnickety with every shade of left wing politics. He saw through them all but he was part of them. He did not disown them. He was a man of the left.
He was anti-Stalinist but dreamed of an English revolution in the war years. He was a political libertarian but not a social one (some rather appalling attitudes to women and homosexuals). The Labour party was too far to the right and a bit too cosy with the British establishment for his liking. But he was a member of the I.L.P.. This is fairly significant as he was not a memberless member of the left. Joining a party, any party of the left, separates you from the poseurs and dilettantes- and moralists.
Displaying 1 of 1 review