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All Propaganda is Lies: 1941-1942
On August 18, 1941, Orwell joined the BBC’s Overseas Service as Talks Producer for features, talks and commentaries on the war. He wrote at least 220 items for broadcast to India and to occupied Malaya and Indonesia.
592 pages, Paperback
First published February 9, 2015
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About the author
George Orwell
1,281 books50.7k followersEric Arthur Blair was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to all totalitarianism (both fascism and stalinism), and support of democratic socialism.
Orwell is best known for his allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945) and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), although his works also encompass literary criticism, poetry, fiction and polemical journalism. His non-fiction works, including The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), documenting his experience of working-class life in the industrial north of England, and Homage to Catalonia (1938), an account of his experiences soldiering for the Republican faction of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), are as critically respected as his essays on politics, literature, language and culture.
Orwell's work remains influential in popular culture and in political culture, and the adjective "Orwellian"—describing totalitarian and authoritarian social practices—is part of the English language, like many of his neologisms, such as "Big Brother", "Thought Police", "Room 101", "Newspeak", "memory hole", "doublethink", and "thoughtcrime". In 2008, The Times named Orwell the second-greatest British writer since 1945.
Orwell is best known for his allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945) and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), although his works also encompass literary criticism, poetry, fiction and polemical journalism. His non-fiction works, including The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), documenting his experience of working-class life in the industrial north of England, and Homage to Catalonia (1938), an account of his experiences soldiering for the Republican faction of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), are as critically respected as his essays on politics, literature, language and culture.
Orwell's work remains influential in popular culture and in political culture, and the adjective "Orwellian"—describing totalitarian and authoritarian social practices—is part of the English language, like many of his neologisms, such as "Big Brother", "Thought Police", "Room 101", "Newspeak", "memory hole", "doublethink", and "thoughtcrime". In 2008, The Times named Orwell the second-greatest British writer since 1945.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 16, 2021
This is an amazing feat of publication. Pretty much everything Orwell ever wrote is included and annotated in these twenty volumes. His letters, essays, diaries, memos, and articles are collected chronologically.
This volume covers his time working at the BBC to produce radio shows for India. It is slower going then many of the other volumes because a large part of it is office memos, business letters and summaries of news reports which Orwell wrote for his job. They are pretty dry.
He did manage to write the "London Letter" for the Partisan Review in America on social, political and intellectual life in wartime England. He also wrote several major essays, a significant memoir of his time fighting in the Spanish Civil War and a good amount of book reviews.
He never romanticized Communist Russia, even as they it Hitler. He agrees in a book review with an author who "is left with the conclusion that Stalin is a disgusting tyrant who is nevertheless objectively on our side and who must be supported--not a comforting conclusion, perhaps, but more realistic...," That is a good summary of the anti-authoritarian socialism which Orwell epitomized.
His political analysis was not always sound. In May of 1942 he tells his American audience, "I wouldn't give Churchill many more months of power." To be fair, Churchill in his memoir says he was concerned about the vote of confidence called at the time.
The most interesting piece in the book is his article "Looking Back on the Spanish War". In 13 pages he covers huge territory. He describes war at the front and his odd role as an upper class Englishman in a anarchist/socialist army. He personalizes it with a story about a working class soldier who he wrongly suspected of theft.
Orwell also discusses the larger political lessons of the war. He foreshadows the truths that powered "Animal Farm" and "1984" and that are still important seventy years later.
"I know it is fashion to say that most recorded history is lies anyway. I am willing to believe that history is for the most part inaccurate and biased, but what is peculiar to our own age is the abandonment of the idea that history could be truthfully written."
This volume covers his time working at the BBC to produce radio shows for India. It is slower going then many of the other volumes because a large part of it is office memos, business letters and summaries of news reports which Orwell wrote for his job. They are pretty dry.
He did manage to write the "London Letter" for the Partisan Review in America on social, political and intellectual life in wartime England. He also wrote several major essays, a significant memoir of his time fighting in the Spanish Civil War and a good amount of book reviews.
He never romanticized Communist Russia, even as they it Hitler. He agrees in a book review with an author who "is left with the conclusion that Stalin is a disgusting tyrant who is nevertheless objectively on our side and who must be supported--not a comforting conclusion, perhaps, but more realistic...," That is a good summary of the anti-authoritarian socialism which Orwell epitomized.
His political analysis was not always sound. In May of 1942 he tells his American audience, "I wouldn't give Churchill many more months of power." To be fair, Churchill in his memoir says he was concerned about the vote of confidence called at the time.
The most interesting piece in the book is his article "Looking Back on the Spanish War". In 13 pages he covers huge territory. He describes war at the front and his odd role as an upper class Englishman in a anarchist/socialist army. He personalizes it with a story about a working class soldier who he wrongly suspected of theft.
Orwell also discusses the larger political lessons of the war. He foreshadows the truths that powered "Animal Farm" and "1984" and that are still important seventy years later.
"I know it is fashion to say that most recorded history is lies anyway. I am willing to believe that history is for the most part inaccurate and biased, but what is peculiar to our own age is the abandonment of the idea that history could be truthfully written."
July 10, 2017
Harder going than the Vols X-XII. The BBC letters are a great record but not of huge amounts of interest (other than seeing who he managed to get for 'talks').
July 14, 2014
This again takes a lot of thinking, and somewhat shows a dirtier side to Orwell - it's a book with mostly his propaganda writings (the news report for the BBC Indian section, etc, which had to pass through censors), contrasted with the short war-time diary he kept.
There are also some interesting letters with Basil Liddel Hart, and some essays worth reading, but the journal is probably the best part of the book.
There are also some interesting letters with Basil Liddel Hart, and some essays worth reading, but the journal is probably the best part of the book.
June 16, 2010
This is on-going. Almost a work of reference.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews