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Book Reviews

The Political Quarterly

In case you're not familiar with it, The Political Quarterly was founded in 1930 by Leonard Woolf (husband of Virginia Woolf).

The journal is broadly centre-left or social democratic
in outlook, but has published articles by thinkers across the whole spectrum, including William Beveridge, Samuel Brittan, Ernest Gellner, Richard Hoggart, John Maynard Keynes, Arthur Koestler, Harold Laski, Benito Mussolini, Bertrand Russell, Leon Trotsky and Raymond Williams. The statement of purpose in its first issue said:

"The function of The Political Quarterly will be to discuss social and political questions from a progressive point of view. It will act as a clearing-house of ideas and a medium of constructive thought. It will not be tied to any party and will publish contributions from persons of various political affiliations. It will be a journal of opinion, not of propaganda. But it has been planned by a group of writers who hold certain general political ideas in common and it will not be a mere collection of unrelated articles..."

Its current editors are Andrew Gamble and Tony Wright MP, and its literary editor is Donald Sassoon. Former editors include Leonard Woolf, Kingsley Martin, Sir Bernard Crick and David Marquand. The journal is currently published by Blackwell and is one of the sponsors of the prestigious annual Orwell Prize for political writing. 

I've been contributing book reviews to the journal The Political Quarterly for around nine years now, and since it's only available by subscription I'm uploading my older reviews here for anyone who is interested but doesn't have easy access. These are my original unedited versions of the reviews, and in each case the definitive version is available from the Blackwell website at http://www.blackwell-synergy.com 

I've also contributed two reading guides to the website of the Barry Amiel and Norman Melburn Trust, a non-profit foundation which preserves documents related to the British labour movement. My contributions are on Genetic Engineering (at http://www.amielandmelburn.org.uk/readingguides/genetic.htm) and Global Warming (at http://www.amielandmelburn.org.uk/readingguides/globalwarming.htm).

afflictedpowers.pdf
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  22k v. 1 27 Nov 2009 10:55 Dick Pountain
breakingthespell.pdf
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  20k v. 1 27 Nov 2009 10:55 Dick Pountain
breaking_the_spell.txt
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  6k v. 1 25 Apr 2012 01:07 Dick Pountain
collapse.pdf
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  35k v. 1 27 Nov 2009 10:54 Dick Pountain
cyberselfish.pdf
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  35k v. 1 27 Nov 2009 10:51 Dick Pountain
global catastrophes and trends.doc
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  104k v. 1 25 Apr 2012 01:09 Dick Pountain
goodintentions.pdf
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  21k v. 1 28 Nov 2009 05:11 Dick Pountain
good intentions.txt
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  6k v. 1 25 Apr 2012 01:10 Dick Pountain
OnDeepHistoryandtheBrainreview.pdf
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  20k v. 1 27 Nov 2009 10:56 Dick Pountain
onemarketundergod.pdf
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  19k v. 1 27 Nov 2009 10:52 Dick Pountain
predator state.txt
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  8k v. 1 25 Apr 2012 01:08 Dick Pountain
whatsthematterwithkansas.pdf
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  25k v. 1 27 Nov 2009 10:54 Dick Pountain
worldonfire.pdf
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  28k v. 1 27 Nov 2009 10:54 Dick Pountain