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zacktheguy's review against another edition
4.0
This reminded me a lot of The Machine in the Garden. The key difference being that this book was engaging and spoke, at least to an extent, of pressing socio-economic concerns.
alex2teeuw's review against another edition
5.0
Pathbreaking. Written about ordinary people for ordinary people
julesthebookgoblin's review against another edition
4.0
Used it for my Masters research, honestly contained everything I needed and more
xanderlaser's review against another edition
4.0
A particularly relevant book in the era of the Trump presidency. Williams argues effectively that "country" and "city" are not fixed archetypes so much as social constructs whose development is directly related to the growth of capitalism as a dominant economic mode. Cities are seen today as the bastions of capitalism. But Williams argues that capitalism was first developed and mastered in the country beginning among the aristocratic landowning class of the 16th century. The city was inextricably linked to this process as the center of trade and banking which these landowners depended on to consolidate wealth. As populations exploded as a result and necessity to fuel industrialized labor, the city transformed from a place of "civilized social transitions" of the wealthy to a den of overcrowded squalor in the popular and literary mindset. Consequently, the shrinking country became a nostalgic retreat of the bourgeois class and a location of travel to be enjoyed and observed by the wealthy.
In other words, the division that we are used to today (country = backwards but beautiful/city = progressive but ugly) is not actually a permanent reality but a constructed reality of the dominant landowning class. The meanings of both have shifted to serve the dominant narratives most useful to the ruling class at the time.
Why this seems particularly relevant to me in the Trump era is due to the exploitation of this division yet again by the Republicans and most shamefully by Trump. The Republicans have convinced rural populations that reality is black and white. They've flattered rural populations with an image of their own superior and unadulterated moral simplicity compared to the corruption of the city folk. They've cast the cities as dens of filth both moral and physical, dominated by elite intellectuals who disregard the opinions of so-called bumpkins. And are they wrong? Or have America's intellectual elites not long disregarded and ignored the plight of the rural poor for decades, looking only to the plight of the urban proletariat as in need of redemption.
Trump's stroke of genius (if you can call it genius or just his usual "idiot savant" happenstance) is to have aligned the interests of the rural populace with those of the coal miners and dispossessed factory workers. In other words, Trump has exploited a commonality between the country and the city which has always existed but which most liberal elites have regrettably ignored. Williams proves that in fact the woes of country and city have always been the same. The process of the exploitation of the farmer is no different from the exploitation of the factory worker from the exploitation of the urban service industry worker. Trump erased the division between the country and the city and created a powerful coalition that voted against their own self-interests. Liberals if they decry this as stupidity of simple country folk and blue collar America will continue to fuel their own demise. What they need to do instead is to see the commonality of the poor across the country and the city. Exploitation is no different regardless of geographical location. Williams shows that liberals calling for a socialist revolution will continue to be deluded if they couch it in the traditional socialist terms of industrialization and development. Rather than seeking equality for the sake of making everyone a suburban/urban bourgeois citizen, we need to seriously reevaluate our relationship to the very land itself. Development and militarization are quickly spiraling out of control, and our global self-destruction is assuredly soon if we don't halt it quickly. What we need instead is a society without "progress" in the sense of continued exploitation of people and resources. We need a society of community. A society of genuine connection to nature and to each other.
The wonderful thing is that Williams shows that hope is possible. At each successive economic development that has propagated more division between country and city, there has been also an opportunity for genuine human collectivization and empathy. It's evident in writers like Dickens who saw the novel as an opportunity to remove the veil of separation that urban life had lowered over people's eyes. It's evident in writers like DH Lawrence who saw in natural and urban settings alike a chance to surrender oneself to deep emotive experiences and childlike return to wonder and awe (experiences which capitalism abhors). It's evidence in post-colonial writers like Achebe, who have reminded us that colonialism has turned third world nations into the new rural (with none of the nostalgia we apply to our own domestic country side - another division which has been gainfully exploited through anti-globalist xenophobic rhetoric).
Williams offers hope by reminding us that each development of capitalism offers choices. There's no inevitability. Rapid urbanization in the 19th century fostered artistic developments that radicalized our ability to empathize with our fellow man (novel being one of the best examples). The same urbanization fostered the unionization and collectivization (that is is now so dangerous under attack). Capitalism is a maze of successive doors. At each turn in the maze we encounter one door wide open and one door seemingly locked. If we bother to search, the key to the locked door is usually hidden in plain sight. We have to choose to see it. Perhaps the internet will be the new key to fostering empathy and collectivism (or perhaps we'll allow Facebook tribalism to continue to drag us down into petty reality show style infighting).
Williams is honest that the fight isn't easy. It's easy to be paralyzed by the apparent intransigence of humanity to reform itself. However, he reminds us that with the environmental destruction and another impending world war on the horizon, we have little choice but to try.
Literary criticism that not only changes your view of the books you read but the world around you is literary criticism of the highest caliber. Raymond Williams does not disappoint.
In other words, the division that we are used to today (country = backwards but beautiful/city = progressive but ugly) is not actually a permanent reality but a constructed reality of the dominant landowning class. The meanings of both have shifted to serve the dominant narratives most useful to the ruling class at the time.
Why this seems particularly relevant to me in the Trump era is due to the exploitation of this division yet again by the Republicans and most shamefully by Trump. The Republicans have convinced rural populations that reality is black and white. They've flattered rural populations with an image of their own superior and unadulterated moral simplicity compared to the corruption of the city folk. They've cast the cities as dens of filth both moral and physical, dominated by elite intellectuals who disregard the opinions of so-called bumpkins. And are they wrong? Or have America's intellectual elites not long disregarded and ignored the plight of the rural poor for decades, looking only to the plight of the urban proletariat as in need of redemption.
Trump's stroke of genius (if you can call it genius or just his usual "idiot savant" happenstance) is to have aligned the interests of the rural populace with those of the coal miners and dispossessed factory workers. In other words, Trump has exploited a commonality between the country and the city which has always existed but which most liberal elites have regrettably ignored. Williams proves that in fact the woes of country and city have always been the same. The process of the exploitation of the farmer is no different from the exploitation of the factory worker from the exploitation of the urban service industry worker. Trump erased the division between the country and the city and created a powerful coalition that voted against their own self-interests. Liberals if they decry this as stupidity of simple country folk and blue collar America will continue to fuel their own demise. What they need to do instead is to see the commonality of the poor across the country and the city. Exploitation is no different regardless of geographical location. Williams shows that liberals calling for a socialist revolution will continue to be deluded if they couch it in the traditional socialist terms of industrialization and development. Rather than seeking equality for the sake of making everyone a suburban/urban bourgeois citizen, we need to seriously reevaluate our relationship to the very land itself. Development and militarization are quickly spiraling out of control, and our global self-destruction is assuredly soon if we don't halt it quickly. What we need instead is a society without "progress" in the sense of continued exploitation of people and resources. We need a society of community. A society of genuine connection to nature and to each other.
The wonderful thing is that Williams shows that hope is possible. At each successive economic development that has propagated more division between country and city, there has been also an opportunity for genuine human collectivization and empathy. It's evident in writers like Dickens who saw the novel as an opportunity to remove the veil of separation that urban life had lowered over people's eyes. It's evident in writers like DH Lawrence who saw in natural and urban settings alike a chance to surrender oneself to deep emotive experiences and childlike return to wonder and awe (experiences which capitalism abhors). It's evidence in post-colonial writers like Achebe, who have reminded us that colonialism has turned third world nations into the new rural (with none of the nostalgia we apply to our own domestic country side - another division which has been gainfully exploited through anti-globalist xenophobic rhetoric).
Williams offers hope by reminding us that each development of capitalism offers choices. There's no inevitability. Rapid urbanization in the 19th century fostered artistic developments that radicalized our ability to empathize with our fellow man (novel being one of the best examples). The same urbanization fostered the unionization and collectivization (that is is now so dangerous under attack). Capitalism is a maze of successive doors. At each turn in the maze we encounter one door wide open and one door seemingly locked. If we bother to search, the key to the locked door is usually hidden in plain sight. We have to choose to see it. Perhaps the internet will be the new key to fostering empathy and collectivism (or perhaps we'll allow Facebook tribalism to continue to drag us down into petty reality show style infighting).
Williams is honest that the fight isn't easy. It's easy to be paralyzed by the apparent intransigence of humanity to reform itself. However, he reminds us that with the environmental destruction and another impending world war on the horizon, we have little choice but to try.
Literary criticism that not only changes your view of the books you read but the world around you is literary criticism of the highest caliber. Raymond Williams does not disappoint.
ashction's review against another edition
2.0
Not badly written, offers good information - I just didn't care and would have never chosen to read this if not for school.
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