An incisive demonstration of how Orwell's body of work was defined by the four major conflicts that punctuated his life: World War I, the Spanish Civil War, World War II, and the Cold War. Few English writers wielded a pen so sharply as George Orwell, the quintessential political writer of the twentieth century. His literary output at once responded to and sought to influence the tumultuous times in which he lived-decades during which Europe and eventually the entire world would be torn apart by war, while ideologies like fascism, socialism, and communism changed the stakes of global politics. In this study, Stanford historian and lifelong Orwell scholar Peter Stansky incisively demonstrates how Orwell's body of work was defined by the four major conflicts that punctuated his life: World War I, the Spanish Civil War, World War II, and the Cold War. Young Orwell came of age against the backdrop of the First World War, and published his final book, Nineteen Eighty-Four, nearly half a century later, at the outset of the Cold War. The intervening three decades of Orwell's life were marked by radical shifts in his personal politics: briefly a staunch pacifist, he was finally a fully committed socialist following his involvement in the Spanish Civil War. But just before the outbreak of World War II, he had adopted a strong anti-pacifist position, stating that to be a pacifist was equivalent to being pro-Fascist. By carefully combing through Orwell's published works, notably "My Country Right or Left," The Lion and the Unicorn, Animal Farm, and his most dystopian and prescient novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, Stansky teases apart Orwell's often paradoxical views on patriotism and socialism. The Socialist Patriot is ultimately an attempt to reconcile the apparent contradictions between Orwell's commitment to socialist ideals and his sharp critique of totalitarianism by demonstrating the centrality of his wartime experiences, giving twenty-first century readers greater insight into the inner world of one of the most influential writers of the modern age.

For the first time, these two essential books on George Orwell have been brought together under one cover. "The Unknown Orwell

describes the first thirty years of Orwell's life--his childhood, the years at Eton and in Burma, and the struggles to become a writer. "Orwell: The Transformation

carries us forward into the crucial years 1933 to 1937 in which Eric Blair, minor novelist, became George Orwell, a powerful writer with a view, a mission, and a message.

Leonard Woolf: Bloomsbury Socialist is an invaluable biography of an important if somewhat neglected figure in British cultural and political life,whose significance has been overshadowed by that of his wife, Virginia Woolf. His vital role in her life and career is a central aspect of this incisive study. Born to a prosperous middle-class Jewish family, he was profoundly affected by the early death of his father, a prominent barrister and QC, which left his family in reduced economic circumstances. Fred Leventhal and Peter Stansky expertly reveal that, despite his youthful loss of religious faith, being Jewish was as crucial in shaping Woolf's ideas as the Hellenism he imbibed at St Paul's and Trinity College, Cambridge. As an undergraduate member of the celebrated elite Apostles-along with his close friends, Lytton Strachey and John Maynard Keynes-he played a formative role in what later became the Bloomsbury Group. He subsequently spent seven years as a colonial servant in Ceylon, the background to his powerful novel, The Village in the Jungle. Within a year of his return to England in 1911 he married Virginia Stephen, and in 1917 they founded the Hogarth Press, an innovative and commercially successful publishing house. In the course of his long life he wrote prolifically on international relations, notably on the creation of the League of Nations, on socialism, and on imperial policy, particularly in Africa. Throughout this authoritative study,Leventhal and Stansky illuminate the life, scope, and thought of this seminal figure in twentieth-century British society.

"Julian Bell" explores the life of a younger member, and sole poet, of the Bloomsbury Group, the most important community of British writers and intellectuals in the twentieth century, which includes Virginia Woolf (Julian's aunt), E. M. Forster, the economist John Maynard Keynes, and the art critic Roger Fry. This biography draws upon the expanding archives on Bloomsbury to present Julian's life more completely and more personally than has been done previously. It is an intense and profound exploration of personal, sexual, intellectual, political, and literary life in England between the two world wars. Through Julian, the book provides important insights on Virginia Woolf, his mother Vanessa Bell, and other members of the Bloomsbury Group. Taking us from London to China to Spain during its civil war, the book is also the ultimately heartbreaking story of one young man's life.

The novelist and short story writer Edward Upward (1903-2009) is famous for being the unknown member of the W. H. Auden circle, though was revered by his peers -- Auden, Day Lewis, Isherwood and Spender -- for his intellect, high literary gifts and unswerving political commitment. His lifelong friendship with Christopher Isherwood was forged at school and university, with each regarding the other as the first reader of his work. At Cambridge they invented the bizarre village of Mortmere, which with its combination of reality and fantasy had an important role in shaping the dominant British literary culture of the 1930s. Upward, immortalised as 'Allen Chalmers' in Isherwood's Lions and Shadows, was an early influence on W. H. Auden and author of the influential political novel Journey to the Border, published in 1938 by Leonard and Virginia Woolf. But his writing career faltered while he was devout member of the Communist Party. After leaving the party in 1948 he again wrote novels and short stories until shortly before his death at the age of 105. In this illuminating, meticulously researched biography Peter Stansky tells the fascinating story of Upward's conflict between art and life. At the same time he colourfully provides significant insight into English society during the twentieth century and explores the special nature of English radicalism.

In the first terrifying hours of the London Blitz, when the skies rained bombs from hundreds of German planes, the British people were galvanized and the nation's future was changed On September 7, 1940, the long-feared and anticipated attack by the German Luftwaffe plunged London into a cauldron of fire and devastation. This compelling book recreates that day in all its horror, using rich archival sources and first-hand accounts, many never before published. Eminent historian Peter Stansky weaves together the stories of people who recorded their experiences of the opening hours of the Blitz. Then, exploring more deeply, the author examines what that critical day meant to the nation at the time, and what it came to mean in following years. Much of the future of Britain was determined in the first twelve hours of bombing, Stansky contends. The Blitz set in motion a range of responses that contributed to ultimate victory over Germany and to a transformation of British society. The wave of terror, though designed to quash morale, instead inspired stoicism, courage, and a new camaraderie. The tragic London bombing can reveal much of relevance to our own violent times, Stansky concludes: both the effectiveness of modern terror and its ultimate failure are made powerfully clear by the events of September 7, 1940.

Sir Philip Sassoon (1888-1939), a glamorous and well-known figure in Britain for the first four decades of the twentieth century, was the most eligible bachelor and the greatest host of his time. He attained prominence in the art world, high society and politics. In contrast, his sister Sybil (1894-1989) lived a more private life. Yet she was fascinating in her own right, marrying into the grandest level of the English aristocracy, restoring Houghton - formerly the house of Sir Robert Walpole - to magnificence and serving in the high command of the Women's Royal Naval Service during both world wars. In this book, distinguished historian Peter Stansky offers the intriguing findings of new archival research and a generous collection of photographs to bring the Sassoons and their period into sharp focus. He provides a full account of Philip's election as the youngest Member of Parliament and his service as military secretary to Douglas Haig during the First World War and as parliamentary private secretary to Lloyd George after the war. He follows Philip as he undertakes the building and renovation of town and country houses, cultivates friendships in a wide circle that includes the Royal Family, stages influential art exhibitons and serves as patron to John Singer Sargent and other artists. At the same time Philip was Under-Secretary of State for Air and later First Commissioner of Works. The author also considers Sybil's development from wealthy debutante to the Marchioness of Cholmondeley, and her less celebrated but nonetheless important patronage and conservation work. Using the lives of the Sassoon siblings as a lens through which to view English life, particularly in its highest reaches, Stansky offers new insights into British attitudes toward power, old versus new money, homosexuality, war, Jews, taste and style. Peter Stansky is Frances and Charles Field Professor of History, Emeritus, Stanford University, and is the author of many books on British cultural history.

"On or about December 1910" human character changed, Virginia Woolf remarked, and well she might have. The company she kept, the Bloomsbury circle, took shape before the coming of World War I, and would have a lasting impact on English society and culture after the war. This book captures the dazzling world of Bloomsbury at the end of an era, and on the eve of modernism. Peter Stansky depicts the vanguard of a rising generation seizing its moment. He shows us Woolf in that fateful year, in the midst of an emotional breakdown, reaching a turning point with her first novel, The Voyage Out, and E. M. Forster, already a success, offering Howards End and acknowledging his passion for another man. Here are Roger Fry, prominent art critic and connoisseur, remaking tradition with the epochal exhibition "Manet and the Post-Impressionists"; Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant beginning their most interesting phase as artists; Lytton Strachey signing the contract for his first book; and John Maynard Keynes entering a significant new stage in his illustrious career. Amid the glittering opulence and dismal poverty, the swirl of Suffragists, anarchists, agitators, and organizers, Stansky--drawing upon his historical and literary skills--brings the intimate world of the Bloomsbury group to life. Their lives, relationships, writings, and ideas entwine, casting one member after another in sharp relief. Even their Dreadnought Hoax, a trick played on the sacred institution of the navy, reveals their boldness and esprit. The picture Stansky presents, with all its drama and detail, encompasses the conflicts and sureties of a changing world of politics, aesthetics, and character.