The radical fifties : activist politics in Cold War Britain / Sophie Scott-Brown.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Scott-Brown, Sophie, author.

Series:

Oxford scholarship online.

Oxford scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Nineteen fifties--Social aspects--Great Britain.

Nineteen fifties.

Political activists--Great Britain--History--20th century.

Political activists.

Anarchism--Great Britain--History--20th century.

Anarchism.

Socialism--Great Britain--History--20th century.

Socialism.

Cold War.

Physical Description:

1 online resource.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, [2025]

Summary:

The 1950s are usually portrayed as conservative, conformist, and apathetic, but was there more to this much-maligned decade than that? In Britain, the convergence of conflicting political moments - the Cold War, the Bomb, the rise of America, the decline of the empire, welfare, and affluence - compelled a rapid rethinking of what it meant to 'be political' along with a series of experiments in democracy and democracy education. 'The Radical Fifties' examines the distinctive 'activist politics' emerging from this by focusing on the entwined histories of its main protagonists: the Freedom Press anarchists, the New Left Club socialists, and the Direct Action Committee pacifists. Instead of gaining or influencing power in a traditional sense, these groups wanted to dispense with it all together and transform democracy into a whole way of life, a quality of interaction between people.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource and publisher information; title from PDF title page (viewed on May 8, 2025).

ISBN:

0-19-891568-3

0-19-891566-7

9780198915683

OCLC:

1518930583