The new edition of Raymond Williams’ seminal work The Long Revolution will be celebrated at the Raymond Williams Society Annual Lecture in November of this year. Anthony Barnett, writer and founder of openDemocracy, will be giving the annual lecture, and will be speaking on “The Long and Quick of Revolutions: Can the Left regain the future from Market Fundamentalism?”

 

Anthony Barnett, who has provided the foreword for the new edition, has published extensively on British and International politics and regularly writes for the New Statesman. He is also a former member of the editorial board of the New Left Review. In 2001 he founded the website openDemocracy and was its Editor in-Chief until 2007. He now edits the openDemocracy blog OurKingdom.

 

Taking off from his introduction to The Long Revolution, he will discuss its relevance today in a time of widespread revolutions for democracy and the start of the 'Occupy' movement.  

 

In The Long Revolution, Raymond Williams examines the gradual change which came over the political, economic, and cultural life of the late 21st Century, laying special emphasis on the 'creative mind' in relation to social and cultural thinking. He turns to a fascinating historical study of education and the press, tracing the development of a common language, and revealing the links between ideas, literary forms, and social history. Although many readers are already aware of much praised, famous works - most notably Border Country (available from The Library of Wales), his series the People of the Black Mountains as well as The Country and The City which has long been the staple of literary criticism reading lists - The Long Revolution offers readers an opportunity to rediscover another gem of Williams’ non-fiction.

 

Following Anthony Barnett’s lecture, there will be a wine reception marking the launch of The Long Revolution organised by Parthian. The lecture will take place at The New Seminar Room, St John’s College, Oxford on 3pm, Saturday, 26 November 2011 and everyone is welcome.