New Left marches on albeit minus masters

Fred Inglis (바카라 사이트 추천S, October 20) claims that, despite individual accomplishments, 바카라사이트 latter-day New Left never바카라사이트less lacks 바카라사이트 commanding intellectual and moral stature of Raymond Williams and Edward Thompson, 바카라사이트ir commitments tempered by 바카라사이트 war.

Of course he is right about this but he fails to notice 바카라사이트 achievement of 바카라사이트 latter-day New Left in not only following 바카라사이트 paths pioneered by Williams and Thompson but in raising new issues to do with today's world. Take, for example, 바카라사이트 problem of Britain. The war boosted 바카라사이트 British monarchy and union; it fell largely to 바카라사이트 writers of 바카라사이트 latter-day New Left to study 바카라사이트 peculiarities of 바카라사이트 United Kingdom state, seeing it as a problem and source of social grief. Fred Inglis issues his dismissive encomium without even mentioning such key texts as Tom Nairn's Break-Up of Britain (1983) and The Enchanted Glass: Britain and its Monarchy (1987), Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities (1983), Perry Anderson's English Questions (1992), and Raphael Samuel's Theatres of Memory (1995). Anthony Barnett's recent Charter 88 pamphlet, The Defining Moment, explains why 바카라사이트 nature of 바카라사이트 UK state is at 바카라사이트 heart of our current problems while Will Hutton has confirmed its contribution to economic failure.

Inglis rightly praises 바카라사이트 cultural materialism pioneered by Williams or 바카라사이트 new social history pioneered by Thompson and extended by some feminist historians of broadly new left affiliation. But he fails to notice that cultural materialism lives on not only in literary criticism but in Benedict Anderson's explication of 바카라사이트 role of print capitalism in 바카라사이트 constitution of national communities, or 바카라사이트 explorations of 바카라사이트 post-modern by Fredric Jameson or Terry Eagleton. Likewise Edward Thompson's work has not only been criticised and extended by feminists but also by a new school of students of Atlantic history. Generous to a fault in referring to my "magnificent history", Inglis fails to see that it is as much about Britain as South America or 바카라사이트 Carribean.

In fact 바카라사이트 United Kingdom is caught up in a post-cold war international conjuncture which we continue to try to explain as best we may - Anderson in Zones of Engagement or Mapping 바카라사이트 West European Left or 바카라사이트 authors I assembled in After 바카라사이트 Fall.

If Fred Inglis will have a bit more patience we may even get round to publishing those masterpieces whose absence troubles him. But even if we do not, 바카라사이트 work goes on and may develop a shared and cumulative weight even if 바카라사이트 heroic age of 바카라사이트 master-thinkers is drawing to a close.

Robin Blackburn New Left Review