The Lion and the Unicorn

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Summary: Orwell at his most radical.
Review: The Lion and the Unicorn

George Orwell's The Lion and the Unicorn I believe shows him at his best,not afraid to call out for revolution in the middle of the Blitz.In the third part of the book (The English Revolution) Orwell describes his belief that if the war is to go on there must be a Socialist revolution in England and "The Gutters of the streets will flow with blood",if neccesary. This is one of his most differential pieces of work contradicting to an extent almost everthing else he has written .He still calls for the destruction the class system and a fair electoral system but now he comes out in favour of the revolution and putting across (and I believe rightfully so) the true Socialistic principles as told by Karl Marx. His most provocative work.

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Summary: What?
Review: This book is an endorsement of Marx like the Irish are an endorsement of Pat Buchanan.

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Summary: England's greatest democratic-socialist
Review: When people think of Orwell, they remember him as an anti-Communist and a defender of liberal democracy. This is most certainly correct, but it should also be remembered that he was also a socialist, and a socialist of the old school. In The Lion & The Unicorn, originally published as a pamphlet in the style of Paine or Cobbett, he attacks both the class system of England and its capitalist economic system. He thought that the "inefficiency of private capitalism has been proved all over Europe" and that World War II has "turned Socialism from a text-book word into a realisable policy." As a socialist, he thought that socialists had to make "our words take physical shape." He advocated a 6 point plan that would transform England into a socialist country, which included "Nationalisation of land, mines, railways, banks and major industries" and the "Limitation of incomes, on such a scale that the highest tax-free income in Britain does not exceed the lowest by more than ten to one." One gets the impression that Orwell and Castro would have found a broad area of agreement. For Orwell, freedom, democracy, and socialism, were not incompatible, but were tightly bound together. He went to fight in the Spanish Civil War for the democratic republic, but fought alongside Marxists, Trotskiests, and Anarchists. Calling himself a "democratic socialist" was no contradiction to Orwell.

However, it should be remembered that this book was written in the 1940s. The world was a different place then. The political landscape has changed. If Orwell were alive now, what would his political opinions be? Who knows? You might as well ask what would Thomas Paine's political beliefs be if he were alive today. Anyone who hazards a guess, and there have been many, usually transposes their own political beliefs onto Orwell. Only one thing is certain: Orwell was a man of his time. This book, as do his other writings, reflect this. This is why he will be remembered. To read Orwell is to capture a moment in history, articulated by a man who was deeply involved in the political life of his time, in much the same way as Paine, Hazlett, or Cobbett was. One comes to Orwell and breaths the political atmosphere of the age, and takes from him what is relevant to one's own self. What that will be will vary from one person to another. For my own part, it is satisfying to read someone who believes as passionately in socialism as he does in democracy, and argues for both with the same conviction; who believes in physical courage in fighting against injustice, -"manliness", if you will; who saw through the myth of British Imperialism; and who saw through the horrible snobbishness of the English class system.