Steven Woodhams
\-
History in the Making
Raymond Williams, Edward Thompson and Radical Intellectuals, 1936-1956
For a generation of political activists growing up in the 1930s opposing fascism was a priority. The policy of appeasing Hitler and the non-partisan stance of the Labour Party in the face of the Spanish Civil War made the Communist Party an attractive alternative. From this generation emerged key figures in academia and publishing: Eric Hobsbawm, Ralph Miliband, John Saville, Martin Eve, Dorothy and Edward Thompson and Raymond Williams. Woodhams studies the experiences of this generation, the motives which attracted them to the CPGB, and their reactions to and experiences in the Second World War. It challenges conventional periodization separating pre- and post-war history and questions the sources of continuity and change in Britain.