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lavinia_speaks's review
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
lia_mills's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
An interesting historical text - a useful insight into English history and left-wing politics.
Some of the arguments and predictions hold up better than others (re the arguments, my understanding is that the Nazis were far less organised than Orwell seems to believe they are, and re the predictions, the assertion that if Britain wins the war, the left will win - that seems almost unbarely optimistic from a modern perspective), but a lot of it is highly relevant to the current day, and it's a political essay well worth reading.
Some of the arguments and predictions hold up better than others (re the arguments, my understanding is that the Nazis were far less organised than Orwell seems to believe they are, and re the predictions, the assertion that if Britain wins the war, the left will win - that seems almost unbarely optimistic from a modern perspective), but a lot of it is highly relevant to the current day, and it's a political essay well worth reading.
mattjamesod's review
medium-paced
2.0
What a weird little book - the most vague and unprescient of Orwell’s works
slaggyrat's review
informative
fast-paced
3.5
This book was written during World War 2 when the Blitzkreig was happening and was very evident in how the book was structured and written. It provides a useful introduction book for some of the broader leftist economic theories without it being too technical however did not go into as much detail on operation. To me what fascism was had always been a bit vague however this book does an excellent job at giving the basics using Nazi Germany as an example and gave context to his current predicament. Although the parts about English patriotism doesn't matter particularly much to me as an Australian in the 2020s, there's still some interesting tidbits in them and overall a fast read well worth your time.
Content Warnings
Minor: War and Antisemitism