Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
 
The Future of Socialism
  
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.

The Future of Socialism [Abridged] (Hardcover)

by Anthony Crosland (Author)
3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Available from these sellers.


3 used from £9.95
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Hardcover (New edition) 4 used & new from £4.65
Paperback (50th anniversary ed) £9.99 £6.97 8 used & new from £5.74
Unknown Binding Order it used

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested in These Sponsored Links

  (What is this?)
   Future Of Capitalism opens new browser window
FT.com  -  Latest World News from the International source- FT.com 
  
 

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Socialism: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

Socialism: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

by Michael Newman
4.5 out of 5 stars (2)  £4.77
The Communist Manifesto (Penguin Classics)

The Communist Manifesto (Penguin Classics)

by Karl Marx
4.0 out of 5 stars (38)  £3.97
Anthony Crosland (Great Statesmen)

Anthony Crosland (Great Statesmen)

by Kevin Jefferys
4.0 out of 5 stars (1)  £12.74
The Hugo Young Papers: A Journalist's Notes from the Heart of Politics

The Hugo Young Papers: A Journalist's Notes from the Heart of Politics

by Hugo Young
5.0 out of 5 stars (4)  £9.07
Friends and Rivals: Crosland, Jenkins and Healey

Friends and Rivals: Crosland, Jenkins and Healey

by Giles Radice
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Hardcover: 368 pages
  • Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd; Abridged edition edition (15 Jan 1981)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0224018884
  • ISBN-13: 978-0224018883
  • Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1,349,444 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Product Description

Review

"'The key social democratic text remains Tony Crosland's The Future of Socialism...' --Will Hutton

'The most important post-War attempt to define a non Marxist socialism for the Labour Party.' --Financial Times

'Labour's greatest Revisionist intellectual' --The Independent --This text refers to the Paperback edition.


The Times

Provides the classic formula for relating the ideals of social
democracy to the realities of the modern world. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
See all Product Description

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
 
(3)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

The Future of Socialism
86% buy the item featured on this page:
The Future of Socialism 3.0 out of 5 stars (2)
Socialism: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
6% buy
Socialism: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) 4.5 out of 5 stars (2)
£4.77
Friends and Rivals: Crosland, Jenkins and Healey
3% buy
Friends and Rivals: Crosland, Jenkins and Healey
The Communist Manifesto (Penguin Classics)
3% buy
The Communist Manifesto (Penguin Classics) 4.0 out of 5 stars (38)
£3.97
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

2 Reviews
5 star:
 (1)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Masterpiece of British Political Writing, 31 Dec 2007
By Lark (Ireland) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   
This review is from: The Future of Socialism (Paperback)
This is an excellent book of British political writing, a worthly follow up to George Orwell's earlier socialist book The Lion and The Unicorn and deserving of a place alongside other UK or anglophile political writing like Hayek's The Constitution of Liberty.

Dismissed by the traditionalist labour left of his day as a dillettante Crosland wrote a book which examined the ways in which capitalism has been transformed from its early days into what exists today and reading it it is easy to forecast the shifts in public opinions which paved the way for the historic migration of the centre ground of politics to the right which took place with Thatcherism.

The is a foreword by Gordon Brown which is a nice piece of writing welcoming the return to print of The Future of Socialism and making some important points about the political imperative of credibility.

Brown appears to posit that British socialists need to take a long, long view upon economic and political development and change in Britain, this is inline with earlier books by British socialists, such as Bernard Crick which posit a change spanning generations during which much confidence building needs to be carried out by socialists and recognition in the mean time of how dated original goals and objectives can become.

Part One of the book looks at the transformation of capitalism and asks the important question of whether or not the status quo can really be considered capitalism. This chapter is important because, I feel wrongly, many supporters and opponents have understood socialism purely in contra distinction to capitalism itself.

Part Two outlines the aims of socialism, giving a brilliant synopsis of traditions and perspectives within British socialism and considering the very meaning of socialism itself. This chapter is important for how it outlines the extent to which socialism is a diverse, disparite and varied creedo, not bound to any of the examples from else where and in the UK organically developed from the liberal conventions, culture and institutions of the land.

Part Three considers the promotion of welfare and the purposes of social expenditure, this chapter I found very interesting as a great deal has been written decrying social expenditure per se as a waste, infact it is a tribute to Thatcherite cultural revolution the extent to which it considered commonsense to believe so.

Part Four, The Search For Equality, I consider to be the greatest chapter of all. Orwell considered equality to be the crux of socialism, the pursuit of a classless society and he was impressed by the example of socialist developments in The Spainish Civil war to this end. Crosland examines the determination of social class, opportunity, education, wealth, the structures of the economy and industry, it is a sweeping analysis and possibly one of the best accounts of class and class identity formation in the UK (Mind The Gap being a close second and less dated).

The final chapter considers the practical actioning of socialist ideas to date and in the future, considering regulation, nationalisation, public ownership and planning. This is a good chapter but I believe will be less interesting to some socialists, it can read as more prosaic than earlier chapters and more work-a-day.

There is a very personal and warm afterword by Susan Crosland which protrays Crosland as an interesting character, the sort of which is abscent from British politics these days, and as disliked by his own partisan wing of the political spectrum as his opponents.

I've always thought this was a great shame, this is an open and honest investigation of were the state of the nation was at the time of writing, there is no betrayal of radical values, policies or difficult choices here, neither is there a tacit cowardice in the face of international or national pressure or media hostility.

It could be a historical oddity to todays readership, if it receives a readership at all, what is certain is that it is a compelling political read which does not deserve to be sidelined and forgotten about.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
3 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Oxymoron, 13 Dec 2007
This review is from: The Future of Socialism (Paperback)
Socialism is a subject fit only for the history books, having ended in failure in the 1980s. Typical of Bottler Brown to associate himself with such an empty, vacuous text, all spin and no substance.
Comment Comments (6) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject








i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Ad

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.