I've left another long gap in my blog. This is regrettable on a number of counts. Viewing the matter cynically, one keeps up one's readership by regular posting. When one does not post, reader drift away and are lost. More to the point, perhaps, there is so much to write about, or to be angry about. Christopher Hitchens used to say that being angry was what got him out of bed in the morning - that was in the Better Old Days, before Hitchens himself became one of the expanding number of things to be angry about. But he had a point - the only antidote to Trumpism, Brexitism, Zionism, Varadkarism and Fine Gaelism generally, the dump that is the mainstream Irish media - the only antidote to these things is 'a ruthless criticism of everything', as the young and hopeful Marx once wrote. I've been slack in my contribution to this criticism, due to a variety of personal and work-related problems. But, for now at least, I am back.
I've been reading, all-too slowly, about the history of the Russian Revolution. I've whipped with great pleasure through A People's History of the Russian Revolution, by Neil Faulkner. I am reading, much more slowly, John Reed's Ten Days That Shook The World - reading it slowly is foolish, because the book moves at a breakneck pace, and one should read it breathlessly. I have a short history of the Revolution by Sheila Fitzpatrick waiting to go. We live, of course, in the centenary year of the great Revolution, but its commemoration is a mixed affair. Western historians are either blissfully hostile, or, if they are sympathetic to the Revolution, adopt a modest and qualified tone. Fitzpatrick is a distinguished liberal historian who negotiates very well towards the latter pole. Here in the LRB (March 30), she reviews the state of play:
Let no-one doubt that the Revolution was also a profoundly important moment for women and for feminism:
More to follow!
Conor
I've been reading, all-too slowly, about the history of the Russian Revolution. I've whipped with great pleasure through A People's History of the Russian Revolution, by Neil Faulkner. I am reading, much more slowly, John Reed's Ten Days That Shook The World - reading it slowly is foolish, because the book moves at a breakneck pace, and one should read it breathlessly. I have a short history of the Revolution by Sheila Fitzpatrick waiting to go. We live, of course, in the centenary year of the great Revolution, but its commemoration is a mixed affair. Western historians are either blissfully hostile, or, if they are sympathetic to the Revolution, adopt a modest and qualified tone. Fitzpatrick is a distinguished liberal historian who negotiates very well towards the latter pole. Here in the LRB (March 30), she reviews the state of play:
Sheila Fitzpatrick
No greater contemporary inheritor of the radical spirit of the Revolution than Tariq Ali. Here are two articles of his, one a list of further reading, the other his take on the legacy of Lenin (from Jacobin)
Let no-one doubt that the Revolution was also a profoundly important moment for women and for feminism:
More to follow!
Conor
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