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“OUT OF APATHY”: THE BRITISH NEW LEFT
This paper traces the intellectual genealogies of the British New Left. Unlike many accounts which link the British New Left directly with processes of political liberalisation and the emergence of affluent and permissive societies, this paper highlights the rather ambiguous character of New Left ideas by locating them in British communist and socialist traditions. Hence, rather than seeing the British New Left as part of a transnational movement, this paper will draw out the ways in which New Left activists endowed British national identity with a transnational mission to lead the world towards "socialism".
Holger Nehring teaches contemporary European history at the University of Sheffield. He is currently preparing his PhD thesis "The Politics of Security. The British and West German anti-nuclear-weapons movements, 1957-1964" for publication and has published widely on the history of social movements in post-1945 Western Europe. He is also interested in the history of political violence and the history of "generations".
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