Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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25 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Guardianista speaks, 26 May 2007
The great thing about Billy Bragg's attempt to piece together a progressive narrative for how the people who call Britain their home today came to be here, is that he isn't nearly as impressed with his erudition or cognitive powers as Amazon reviewer Mr Neil Saunders.
In his review Saunders is so pre-ocupied with grandstanding and giving people ample chance to enjoy his self-important opinions on the "sociocultural" left and right, postmodernism and Mrs Thatcher's intellectual limitations that he pays scant regard to what was actually written. When he does turn to the book itself, for instance the section on the Venerable Bede and the "myth" of our Anglo-Saxon ancestry he utterly fails to grasp the point Bragg makes. It's as if his intellectual narcissism has left him too dazzled to see clearly.
That's not the only part where Mr Saunder's rabid point-scoring leaves him exposed. At no time does Bragg present a "Celticist interpretation of English history". At the broadest level his book is a "bottom-up" response to the traditional Whig interpretation of history where the inexorable march of "liberty" has been facilitated by a generous patrician elite. At the lowest level, and this is where the book is so engaging, it's a deeply personal family history, firmly rooted in Barking, that humanises the great events of British constitutional development. Bragg clearly feels that Magna Carta, the Civil War, the Glorious Revolution, the Chartists, the social changes of WW2 and the post-war settlement affect his life and shape the nature of living in Britain today. His interpretation may be optimistic and at time naive but it is honest and clearly stated in a way that is worthy of our consideration.
You'll also never read another book that slides from Joe Strummer and the Clash, to Churchill and the Blitz, to Charles I and the Petition of Right so easily. Rather than evidence of Bragg's "endemic ignorance" of his history, it's the work of someone who is passionately engaged with our island story. As a history graduate who loves punk I was in hog heaven!
Billy Bragg's book is a timely call to rexamine our history and a kick in the shins to those trendy lefties who can't stand to see the flag of St George flying from car windows. The left's refusal to discuss questions of identity and nationality has ceded the field to the likes of the BNP and the Daily Mail to determine who does and who doesn't belong here. The Progressive Patriot does not present all the answers: it merely asks it's readers to consider these question anew, all with the passion and self-deprecating wit that fans of Billy Bragg's music would expect.
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19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Socialism and the English genius, 5 Nov 2006
Billy Bragg is not so much a national treasure as a national hero in my eyes. This semi-autobiographical work is flawed but is deeply charming (like the man himself). It's certainly no sex, drugs, rock 'n'roll and football affair (which is a shame as I'd have liked to hear Billy's take on that) but a history lesson and a polemic from the radical tradition. The self-styled Big-nosed Bard of Barking has swapped lyric writing for prose writing and as he admits in the introduction it's a totally different discipline. The Progressive Patriot is part of his ongoing attempt to reclaim English patriotism from the neo-nazis. Woody Guthrie might have said 'this guitar kils fascists' but Billy is hoping this book will kill fascists ideals on patriotism. I must confess I found the the history of Barking a tad tedious (despite knowing the area well as a long-time West Ham fan)and the Charles 1 material about the declaration of rights felt like a school history lesson (and urgently needed some of Billy's extremely dry humour), but his idolisation of Simon and Garfunkel is immensely entertaining and the book comes alive when he's writing about the rise of Rock Against Racism.
This is an absolutely essential read for any Billy Bragg fan and has moments, that like his song 'Between The Wars', are a thing of beauty and a joy forever.
Paul Wellings, author of 'I'm a journalist...get me out of here', 'Spend It Like Beckham' and 'Sex,Lines and Videotape'(Progressive Press)
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Nicely written, but an uneven mixture, 17 Aug 2007
I only know Billy Bragg from a few of his songs (the terrific "A New England", of course, plus his lesser-known third album "Talking To The Taxman About Poetry"), and a vague idea about his political activism. So I had a few preconceptions about what this book (lent to me by a friend) would be about - the usual musician's story, supplemented by a side order of polemic. He'd thrown me off the scent by the end of the first chapter, which is a careful - even scholarly - account of the history of Barking (his birthplace). He follows that with a discussion about the Anglo-Saxons, the story of his ancestors' involvement in the London Docks strikes of 1889 and 1911 and the history of his family. It's not until the fourth chapter that he starts telling - in a very roundabout fashion - how he got interested in music.
So this isn't your standard musician's book, although he gives a very good account of the relationships between British and American folk music in the 60's (an early influence was Paul Simon, and BB makes the fascinating suggestion that "The Boxer" was inspired by a Essex fighter named Billy Walker) and the way he got swept along with the arrival of punk in 1976. In addition, he writes very well (he memorably describes the difference between writing a song and a book, comparing taking a photograph to "painting in oils on a twelve-by-twenty foot canvas"). He's clearly put a lot of work into this book (though I think the first name of the historian he calls Charles Babington MacCaulay was really Thomas), but the overall point he's trying to make remains obscure.
First, as others have pointed out, there seems to be a confusion about nationalism, patriotism and xenophobia, which get used interchangably. More crucially, he doesn't appear to draw a distinction between Britain, Great Britain, the United Kingdom and England, which is both a standard source of bewilderment for foreigners and a touchy subject for many inhabitants of these islands, although it should be handled carefully in a book which is supposed to be about national identity.
His proposals for how to go about setting up a Declaration Of Rights seem a little naive - indeed, his argument for why such a thing is needed (which includes the contention that it would be a great way to celebrate the anniversary of the 1707 Acts Of Union) is unconvincing. But, leaving his call to action aside, this is still a good book - well written, wide-ranging and (for the most part) stimulating.
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