The 1950s are usually portrayed as conservative, conformist, and apathetic, but was there more to this much-maligned decade than that? In Britain, the convergence of conflicting political moments-the Cold War, the Bomb, the rise of America, the decline of the empire, welfare, and affluence- compelled a rapid rethinking of what it meant to 'be political' along with a series of experiments in democracy and democracy education. The Radical Fifties examines the distinctive 'activist politics' emerging from this by focusing on the entwined histories of its main protagonists: the Freedom Press anarchists, the New Left Club socialists, and the Direct Action Committee pacifists. Instead of gaining or influencing power in a traditional sense, these groups wanted to dispense with it all together and transform democracy into a whole way of life, a quality of interaction between people. While this upturned conventional political thinking, it also posed a dilemma: conceding the practice of democracy also meant conceding the ability to determine its ends and direct it activities. In contrast to the assertive radicalism of the sixties, this appeared dismally unambitious, yet it confronted more directly and seriously the defining questions of the times: could democratic means produce democratic ends? If not, was it still democracy?

The Radical Fifties: Activist Politics in Cold War Britain

History

Scott-Brown, Sophie

Europe

Oxford University Press

Colin Ward and the Art of Everyday Anarchy (Routledge Studies in Radical History and Politics)

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

Routledge

Colin Ward and the Art of Everyday Anarchy is the first full account of Ward’s life and work. Drawing on unseen archival sources, as well as oral interviews, it excavates the worlds and words of his anarchist thought, illuminating his methods and charting the legacies of his enduring influence. 
Colin Ward (1924–2010) was the most prominent British writer on anarchism in the 20th century. As a radical journalist, later author, he applied his distinctive anarchist principles to all aspects of community life including the built environment, education, and public policy. His thought was subtle, universal in aspiration, international in implication, but, at the same time, deeply rooted in the local and the everyday. Underlying the breadth of his interests was one simple principle: freedom was always a social activity. 
This book will be of interest to students, scholars, and general readers with an interest in anarchism, social movements, and the history of radical ideas in contemporary Britain.

The Histories of Raphael Samuel: A portrait of a people's historian (ANU Lives Series in Biography)

ANU Press

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Books by Scott-Brown, Sophie