Tressell: The Real Story of 'The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists' - Couverture rigide

Harker, Dave

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 1842773844 ISBN 13 : 9781842773840

Editeur : Zed Books Ltd, 2003

Synopsis

Not many novels about working-class life have been reprinted over a hundred times in the UK, the USA, Canada, Australia, Germany, Russia, Holland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Japan. Even fewer have sold over a million copies. Hardly any have been so often adapted for the stage, or featured on TV and radio. Above all, none have been passed from hand to hand as often by workers, and taken to their hearts. Robert Tressell‘s novel The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists is straightforward and highly readable, but it is also a very odd book. After all, novels don‘t usually explain key points of Marxist theory. True, it has humour, parody, pathos, irony, rage, little victories, defeats, arguments and ideas, and it is brim full of contempt for the ruling class. But what practical political appeal can a tale of isolated Socialists, fighting for a Co-operative Commonwealth, possibly have today? Dave Harker describes Tressell‘s life, puts his book in its historical context, and traces its success over the past ninety-odd years. This is the story of the left in Britain, from the Socialist Federation in the late 19th century, through to the trade union movement and New Labour today.

A propos du livre

À propos de l?auteur

Dave Harker has been a trade union and socialist activist for over thirty years. He co-edited The Big Red Song Book (Pluto Press, 1977 & 1981), which sold fifteen thousand copies, and wrote One for the Money: politics and popular song (Hutchinson, 1980). His Fakesong: the manufacture of British "folksong", 1700 to the present day (Open University Press, 1985) was one of eleven volumes in the Popular Music in Britain series, which he co-edited. He also edited two books of workers' songs and verse, Songs from the Manuscript Collection of John Bell (1985), and Songs and Verse of the North East Pitmen, c.1780-1844 (1999), for the Surtees Society at Durham University. Dave was a university teacher until 2000, when he retired in order to get more involved with education. He is a member of the Socialist Alliance.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Zed Books Ltd
• Date d'édition: 2003
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1842773844
• ISBN 13: 9781842773840
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 304
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible