Book Round-Up

I'm a little behind on book reviews at the moment so the perfunctory short reviews to "catch me up" are posted below -

Richard J Evans, Telling Lies About Hitler: The Holocaust, History and the David Irving Trial, Verso, 2002. This is the first of my Christmas book presents to have read - overall quite an enjoyable book to read although one with more than a hint of self-congratulation in the text. The book revolves around a libel action brought by David Irving the controversial revisionist 'historian' David Irving over claims made by Deborah Lipstadt that Irving was a holocaust denier, anti-semite and had falsified evidence in his book Hitler's War. Richard Evans,  a Professor of Modern History at Cambridge was one of the key defence witnesses and produced over a couple of years a 750+ page report on Irving's work and found it wanting and evidence of Lipstadt's charge. This book represents a condensed version of this work together with reflection on the trial itself. In the process Evans does a decent job of discussing the role of integrity on academia (i.e, the requirement not to just make things up) and also the state of UK libel law. Verso, Abe, Amazon (UK), Amazon (US)

Raymond Williams, Culture and Materialism: Selected Essays, Verso, 2005.

Prior to reading this book I was only aware of Williams by reputation and, even then, not particularly forcefully. As with so many of the most interesting political writers Williams' academic specialism appears to be in English literature. This collection of fourteen essays which spans over twenty year (1958 to 1980) is, according to the publisher's note that prefaces  the collection intended to serve as a "compact and representative" guide to his longer works. I cannot comment on whether the entirety of Williams' oeuvre is consistent with the wide-ranging and provocative character of this collection, but if it is then Williams deserves to be read a lot more widely. Some essays, and often the one's one least expects, are an absolute delight to read. Highly recommended. were a key moment in the history of English democracy; whereas so often where the army is the tool of repression of debate and demonstration here the Levellers, in large part an movement with the (New Model) Army, were its main protagonists. The Putney debates in 1647 come during the hiatus after the arrest of Charles I and before his escape and renewal of hostilities and therefore come at a time when the political settlement was very much in flux.

Verso, Abe, Better World Books, Amazon (UK), Amazon (US)

Slavoj Zizek, Violence: Six Sideways Reflections, Picador, 2008. This is the first Zizek I have read where I actually feel confident in stating I understand his argument. As I have stated before I am not sure this is just that I am getting more accustomed to his style - Violence is also a better written book. Moreover, although I am not convinced by the argument to inactivity, or rather, the call to mere cerebral activity, I do think the objective/subjective distinction that runs through the book is an important one. A book I think I am likely to refer to again. Interestingly this book and the subject of the first, David Irving, coalesce in this post by Nigel Warburton. Abe, Better World Books, Amazon (UK), Amazon (US)

Ian Williams, The Alms Trade: Charities, Past, Present and Future, Unwin, 1989. I picked up this book on a whim in a second hand bookstore, it has turned out to be one of the most interesting books I have read this year even if it is now a little dated. Williams offers an ideologically driven (I don't take that as a bad thing) account of UK Charity Law - it may not sound lije the stuff of political debate but as Williams shows at its heart there lies in the subject the question of what charity, or rather the public recognition of a work as 'charitable' confers. As I intimated a couple of weeks ago this is of consequence to contemporary political debates. Charity, which was once concerned with the alleviation of poverty, has now 'developed' into a system of intstitutionalised privilege (see, for example, debates over the charitable status of public (fee-paying) schools which still persist albeit slightly curbed after the 2006 Charities Act. As Ian kindly notified me in a comment to my earlier post this book has been republished so should be in print although I don't know the extent of the revision. Recommended. Cosimo, Better World Books, Amazon (UK), Amazon (US)

Geoffrey Robertson (Introduction / Editor), The Levellers: The Putney Debates, Verso, 2007. The Putney DebatesGeoffrey Robertson better known as a QC before offering some of the key documents around the debate, including tracts by John Lilburne. An enjoyable read. Verso, Abe, Better World Books, Amazon (UK), Amazon (US).