From a major British political thinker and activist, a passionate
case that both the left and right have lost their faith in ordinary
people and must learn to find it again. This is an age of
polarization. It’s us vs. them. The battle lines are clear, and
compromise is surrender. As Out of the Ordinary reminds us, we have
been here before. From the 1920s to the 1950s, in a world
transformed by revolution and war, extreme ideologies of left and
right fueled utopian hopes and dystopian fears. In response, Marc
Stears writes, a group of British writers, artists, photographers,
and filmmakers showed a way out. These men and women, including J.
B. Priestley, George Orwell, Barbara Jones, Dylan Thomas, Laurie
Lee, and Bill Brandt, had no formal connection to one another. But
they each worked to forge a politics that resisted the empty
idealisms and totalizing abstractions of their time. Instead they
were convinced that people going about their daily lives possess
all the insight, virtue, and determination required to build a good
society. In poems, novels, essays, films, paintings, and
photographs, they gave witness to everyday people’s ability to
overcome the supposedly insoluble contradictions between tradition
and progress, patriotism and diversity, rights and duties,
nationalism and internationalism, conservatism and radicalism. It
was this humble vision that animated the great Festival of Britain
in 1951 and put everyday citizens at the heart of a new vision of
national regeneration. A leading political theorist and a veteran
of British politics, Stears writes with unusual passion and clarity
about the achievements of these apostles of the ordinary. They
helped Britain through an age of crisis. Their ideas might do so
again, in the United Kingdom and beyond.
General
Imprint: |
Harvard University Press
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
2021 |
Authors: |
Marc Stears
|
Dimensions: |
210 x 140 x 25mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Hardcover - Cloth over boards
|
Pages: |
248 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-674-74387-8 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
0-674-74387-3 |
Barcode: |
9780674743878 |
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