Red Britain

Reviews / Votes

Taunton boldly expands the realms of both historical periodization and interpretation in this examination of the impact of the Bolshevik Revolution on British literature. Dissatisfied with traditional views, Taunton advances into the long 1930s rather than remaining within the bookends of that decade; he pushes the origins back to the Russian Revolution itself and explores even earlier aspects of Russian culture that directly and indirectly impacted the thinkers and writers of Russia and Britain into the 1950s and beyond... Taunton mines Russian and British writers, cultures, and traditions in great depth, looking at a plethora of subjects, their origins, outgrowths, and apparent impacts in diverse fields, including language itself. Red Britain is ambitious, challenging, and rewarding... Highly Recommended * J. A. Young, CHOICE * The hundredth anniversary of the Russian Revolution of 1917 rekindled the question of the significance of that major event ... Matthew Taunton's Red Britain: The Russian Revolution in Mid-Century Culture makes a valuable contribution to the conversation ... Taunton's expert readings of Arthur Koestler and George Orwell provide solid foundations for several arguments throughout the book, and each chapter brings nuanced and thoroughly researched assessments of key debates in mid-century British culture ... The large scope of Taunton's research allows him to make connections between periods and topics rarely put side by side. * Olivier Jacques, The Comparatist * It is a truly massive topic handled with elan, and I believe it will repay further readings and additional study ... Red Britain does a wonderful job harkening to the wider world of its setting while never getting bogged down in minutiae, but it does give the reader, or at least this reader, the itch to read more around his monograph about the period. * Matthew Chambers, Modernist Review * engaging and thoughtful study of the cultural consequences of the Russian Revolution for British culture, a valuable transnational addition to Oxford's Mid-Century Studies series of monographs. * Guy Woodward, Textual Practice *