The Angry Brigade. The Cause and the Case.

by Gordon Carr, John Barker, Stuart Christie

Based on extensive research, this book remains the essential study of the Angry Brigade, a group of urban guerillas, who, between 1970 and 1972, used guns and bombs on embassies of repressive regimes, police stations and army barracks, boutiques and factories, government departments, and the homes of cabinet ministers as well the attorney general and the commissioner of the metropolitan police. An avalanche of police raids followed, culminating in the "Stoke Newington 8" conspiracy trial—the longest criminal trial in British legal history—which is throughly discussed in this volume. Updated with a comprehensive chronology of the "Angry Decade" and new illustrations, this new edition also adds introductions by Stuart Christie and John Barker, two of the defendants, who discuss the political and social context of the movement and its long-term significance.

Genres: History, Politics

Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Gordon Carr, was a newspaper and television journalist working for BBC Television News making investigative documentaries. Carr also directed and produced The Angry Brigade film documentary released by PM Press.

Reviews

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good and entertaining history of the Angry Brigades. Worth noting though that a lot of the book is related to the (long) trial of alleged members.

[Ipswichblade · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the book I hoped, far too long seemingly every word of the court case was reproduced. The kindle version not helped by appalling formatting.

[Marius Jaan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carr does a lot of things right with his history of the Angry Brigade. First, it’s readable. Not a book you slog through just because you really want to know about the revolutionary history and actions of a specific militant group or system. It’s actually pleasant to read. Second, there’s plenty of good contextualization without making it molasses to move through. Putting the Chronology at the end, with all the plentiful details, was a smart step. This allows anyone to access the larger context or specific actions as they will.

Image use: definitely a plus. Not too many, like some teen magazine or punk rock chic documentary, but enough to give a sense of who, what, where, and the documents involved. Big bonus here. Yes. Excerpts from court and documents were also well done: enough relevant detail to give depth and inform, but not so much you die of boredom or lost track of the forest for the trees.

Overall a solid presentation of a 20th century urban guerilla movement. Carr seems to understand the challenge of balancing the desire to present an archive or document collection with the need to tell a story and analyze relevant evidence.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carr's well-researched study of the activities of The Angry Brigade is ostensibly split into three parts: A short summation of the Situationist actions and riots in Europe which appear to have radicalised the future members of the Angry Brigade, their ensuing activities and the trial which followed. While a wider view of the community from which the Angry Brigade were formed, or the backgrounds of those involved may have been useful, it harms this book not one bit that only the bare facts are explored with very little conjecture or extrapolation. In fact, the only flight of fancy here is the suggestion that the Brixton prison riots were as a result of so many radical individuals entering the prison system.
The Brigade themselves certainly enjoyed mixed fortunes. With everyone involving themslves for diverse reasons, its difficult to pin down any real concrete aim of the group, other than to cause as much disruption as possible. Certainly, original motivations were altruistic and socially conscious such as supporting squatters and forming Benefit Claimants Unions, but ultimately the Angry Brigade were just that - angry young men and women who wanted the world to know just how cheesed off they were about the inequalities in society. It was this dichotomy between wanting to operate in secret while publicising their cause which represented one of the many reasons why they were doomed to failure.
The Angry Brigade were meant to operate in secret, but there seemed an almost total inability of those involved to keep their mouths shut when necessary. Their activites were meant to be funded by the proceeds of fraud, but time and again members were caught which quickly brought them to the attention of police. While there's something bleakly impressive about the fact that they may have planted as many as 109 bombs in three years, only a handful actually detonated. For all that however, they were exceptionally good at keeping the police guessing right up until their eventual trial and The First Of May anarchist group certainly took them seriously enough to provide them with arms and organise concerted attacks alongside them.
Where Carr's book really shines is in his summary of the trial. At that point it was to be the longest and most complex criminal trial in British history, but through pictures, illustrations, transcripts and commentary, Carr does not subject the reader to the same mind-numbing deluge of facts and histrionics that the jury had to endure for a period of six months. Unfortunately thats where it ends, leaving the reader to wonder if The Angry Brigade made any real dent in the consciousness of the Left in Britain - or the Right for that matter, or did their brief reign of terror exist in a bubble, a curiosity which remains inexplicable to the onlooker and necessarily sidelined by history?

[Michael Macdonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating history of Britain's far-left urban guerrillas with a significant number of incidents. An intriguing insight into a political culture where violence was romanticised but its goals remined vague, Appendices from both sides of the trail flesh out this strange tale.