Book review: Laura Beers ‘Orwell’s Ghosts’
*
*
Orwell’s Ghosts is subtitled ‘Wisdom and Warnings for the 21st Century.
The book explores and interrogates the term ‘Orwellian’. Laura Beers identifies many modern instances of its application to political acts.
She recaps Orwell’s life and writings, homing in on specific topics. For example Chapter 2 is headed The Thought Police : Censorship, Cancel Culture, and “Fake News”.
There are numerous contemporary examples of ‘Orwellian’ practice in Trump’s America, Russia, China, Hungary and other countries with authoritarian leaders. The book asks both how Orwell might have responded to some current crises and what we can learn from his ideas.
Chapter 5, headed Patriarchy, examines Orwell’s chauvinism and misogyny in a much more considered way than Anna Funder does in Wifedom, and though this may disquiet some readers, it does need to be acknowledged.
Laura Beers captures the essential Orwell: ‘Orwell wanted a better, more equal, and socially just world. At the same time, he wanted a world in which personal liberties and individual freedom that he valued so highly were safeguarded. He believed it was necessary for the state to protect its citizens from poverty and want, but that it should also secure their freedom of thought and action.’
Orwell’s Ghosts is endorsed by, among others, D J Taylor, Peter Stansky, Nicola Sturgeon and Jason Cowley (former editor The New Statesman) who writes, ‘Essential reading for anyone who wants to know why Orwell is the ideal guide to our own age of upheaval.’
The book emphasises the importance to us of Orwell’s clear thinking and humanity. His commentaries on political truth and lies, his insights into imperialism, and especially his exposure of the reality of authoritarianism, are invaluable and as relevant today as they were in the 1930s and 1940s.
As I write this review, The Guardian is reporting on how the Kennedy Centre in Washington, which Trump put himself in charge of, is now busily ‘eradicating [its] “woke” programming’ with those associated with the centre either needing to be Maga loyalists or keep schtum.
Orwell’s Ghosts by Laura Beers (Hurst Publishers in the UK)
Couldn’t put it down!
As you observe in your review, Orwell’s mysogyny and chauvinism is fully appraised with scholarly candour: a welcome transparency that we need to acknowlege as an Orwellian reflection of the truth.