Political and Cultural Perceptions of George Orwell British and American Views [Hardcover]

This book analyzes George Orwells politics and their reception across both sides of the Atlantic. It considers Orwells place in the politics of his native Britain and his reception in the USA, where he has had some of his most fervent emulators, exegetists, and detractors. Written by an ex teenage Maoist from Liverpool, UK, who now lives and writes in New York, the book points out how often the different strands of opinion derive from ancestral ideological struggles within the Communist/Trotskyist movement in the 30s, and how these often overlook or indeed consciously ignore the indigenous British politics and sociology that did so much to influence Orwells political and literary development. It examines in the modern era what Orwell did in histhe seductions of simplistic and absolutist ideologies for some intellectuals, especially in their reactions to Orwell himself.

Introduction: Orwell: Good or Ungood?.......................................................................................... 2

Section 1......................................................................................................................................... 9

Chapter I     In Defense of Comrade Psmith: the Orwellian treatment of Orwell............................... 9

Chapter II The Orwellian Method.................................................................................................. 21

Chapter III Orwell the Socialist...................................................................................................... 25

Chapter IV Tangential Criticisms................................................................................................... 34

Conclusion................................................................................................................................ 35&lc)