Reviews for Offbeat Radicals A History of the British Revolution That Never Happened

The average rating for Offbeat Radicals A History of the British Revolution That Never Happened based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-03-07 00:00:00 Jean-pierre Lord I’ve read quite a stack of books about the French Revolution and sometimes feel vaguely guilty that I know nothing about Britain's concurrent radical tendencies. Not very guilty, though, as this book reminded me of why: Britain had no political radicalism remotely comparable to that of France. A major reason for this was in fact the French Revolution; Britain saw that model of revolution as tainted with Frenchness and was repulsed. I overgeneralise, but this is a key point. It was not the ideals of the revolution, nor merely the violence of the Terror, that put off radically minded Britons. France was Britain’s historic enemy and the execution of Louis XVI precipitated further hostilities between the two. Napoleon’s imperialism then massively reinforced this antipathy. It seems pretty extraordinary to me with more than two centuries of hindsight, but the gulf between Britain and France is considerably wider than the Channel. Anyway, this book reads as a chain of biographies, each demonstrating an idiosyncratic contribution to ‘Offbeat Radicalism’. As Ashe concludes, this is by no means a coherent philosophy, or even a vague set of ideas. All that can really connect the figures he picks from the late 18th to early 20th century is reaction against the Church of England. What struck me powerfully was that not one of figures was a politician. The French Revolution’s key figures were lawyers and other bourgeois who became professional politicians. In the UK, those making speeches about a better world were novelists, poets, industrialists, etc. Their radical politics were a sideline. The strongest link to actual government was through the Fabian Society, which shaped the ethos of the emergent Labour party. Moreover, they all seem to have had a certain distance from events on the ground, such as labour strikes. Although their poems, novels, and non-fiction seem to have inspired events, activism seems to have been limited. ‘The Offbeat Radicals’ begins somewhat oddly with a detailed introduction to the Medieval abbot and writer Joachim of Fiore. Ashe seeks to link his very early form of utopian thinking to much later visions of a better world, which still sought to confront religion somehow. Once past this section, I found the book readable and compelling. Still, it wasn’t quite what I wanted - the concentration on each figure was interesting but obscured the wider picture. I’d have liked a little more on the Tolpuddle Martyrs, for example. Material changes in the balance of power did occur in Victorian Britain, as well as the writing of utopian novels and radical poetry. I was pleased by the inclusion of important female figures, though. My favourite chapter concerned Robert Owen, a figure I knew from the Model Industrial Town movement of the 19th century. I’d known of the built environment and broad ethos of New Lanark, so it was good to learn of his other attempts at utopian communities. Ultimately, selecting a heterogenous group of this nature and giving them a collective label is always going to look somewhat arbitrary. Ashe makes an intriguing argument, but if anything makes it seem that Britain was depressingly lacking a ‘tradition of alternative dissent’. I’m not convinced either way. In any event, this book was appealing and widened my knowledge, albeit not as much as I’d hoped. I would like to know more about the impact of Marxism in Britain during the 19th century, for example. In a way, the book disappointed me by not revealing any British visionary idealism that even approached the writings of the French Revolution. Back to francophilia I go.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-02-04 00:00:00 Sebastian Solarez Super cute book about what our pets are really thinking.