Back to index of Nerve 9 - Autumn 2006

Round-up of Radical Reads

By Mandy Vere

Easter Rising 1916, General Strike 1926, Spain 1936, Hungary 1956, Soweto Uprising 1976 - this has got to be the Year of the Anniversary and it does us all no harm to check out how the struggles of the past can inform the present. So here’s a few pointers.

The Spanish Civil War would never have happened without the previous 70 years of anarchist organizing and the best history of that movement is Murray Bookchin’s The Spanish Anarchists: The Heroic Years 1868-1936 (AK Press £13.95). The General Strike and the Irish Easter Rising are of course well documented, likewise Hungary ’56, but we do have to recommend the new one by News From Nowhere’s founder, Bob Dent, Budapest 1956: Locations of Drama (Europa HB £25.99), which tells the story of one of the most momentous social explosions of European 20th century history through the places in Budapest where significant events took place.

A bit closer to home, and it’s 25 years since the Irish Hunger Strikes – try Ten Men Dead by David Beresford (Harper Collins £7.99) or One Day in My Life by Bobby Sands (Mercier £7.99) for an understanding of the tragic lengths Thatcher’s attempt to criminalize a political struggle forced young Irish men to go to. Twenty five years too since a more uplifting struggle – Greenham Common – and we have three new books to commemorate that fantastic time of women’s power in action. Walking to Greenham: How the Peace Camp Began and the Cold War Ended (Honno £8.99) is by Ann Pettitt, one of the founders of the camp; Greenham: Non-Violent Women v The Crown Prerogative (Greenham Publications £9.99) is by a long-time participant, Sarah Hipperson; while Common Ground: The Story of Greenham (I B Tauris HB £18.99) is an evocative & highly entertaining history by David Fairhall, the Guardian’s defence specialist (!) at the time. And we cannot forget the 25th anniversary of the Toxteth Uprising, commonly known as the riots. A history written by those who lived it is sorely needed – meanwhile Kevin Sampson’s new novel is at least set in Toxteth in July 1981 so has those events as a backdrop. It’s called Stars Are Stars (Jonathan Cape £11.99) and although it includes his usual mix of drug dependency, depression and doom, there may be a bit of redemption in there.

Women’s power – did you notice that reference? Don’t hear much about that these days unless it’s a media analysis of ladettes, but check out Witches, Midwives and Nurses: A History of Women Healers by Barbara Ehrenreich & Deirdre English (Feminist Press £5.99) – as they say “to know our history is to begin to see how to take up the struggle again.” And we welcome the reprint of One Hand Tied Behind Us: The Rise of the Women’s Suffrage Movement by Jill Liddington & Jill Norris (Rivers Oram £11.95) which tells the story of the more radical, Northern, working-class branch of the suffragists who envisaged freedoms for which we’re still fighting today.

Finally to bring us up to the present, and make the connection between culture and countries in the news, here’s a couple of lovely books: Hikayat: Short Stories by Lebanese Women (Telegram £9.99) – war, romance, family, emigration – it’s all here through the women’s eyes. While Don’t Shoot the Clowns: Taking a Circus to the Children of Iraq by Jo Wilding (New Internationalist £8.99) tells the story of daily life with the children, playing and performing. “I want to thank you for coming,” said one observer. “This is the first time since the war that I have seen the children laugh this way, from their insides.”

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