''Universities and Left Review'' was a

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

magazine that published seven issues between 1957 and 1959.

History

''Universities and Left Review'' was founded in 1957 by Oxford students

Raphael Samuel Raphael Elkan Samuel (26 December 19349 December 1996) was a British Marxist historian and author, described by Stuart Hall as "one of the most outstanding, original intellectuals of his generation". Samuel helped create the History Workshop m ...

, Gabriel Pearson, Charles Taylor, and Stuart Hall. The initial impetus behind the magazine came from the events of 1956, particularly the

Suez crisis The Suez Crisis, also known as the Second Arab–Israeli War, the Tripartite Aggression in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel, was a British–French–Israeli invasion of Egypt in 1956. Israel invaded on 29 October, having done so w ...

, the

Soviet invasion of Hungary The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 4 November 1956; ), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was an attempted countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the policies caused by ...

and Khrushchev's revelations about the Stalin's purges, that triggered shockwaves throughout the British left. As Hall was later to write, these events were "as significant to us as 1968 was to become to a later generation." The magazine's first issue was produced in spring of 1957, and contained essays by three of the founding editors, Pearson, Hall and Taylor, as well as contributions from the artist

Peter de Francia Peter Laurent de Francia (25 January 1921 – 19 January 2012) was an Italian-British artist, who was Professor of Painting at the Royal College of Art (RCA), London, from 1972 to 1986. His paintings and drawing are included in art collections ...

Lindsay Anderson Lindsay Gordon Anderson (17 April 1923 – 30 August 1994) was a British feature-film, theatre and documentary director, film critic, and leading light of the Free Cinema movement and of the British New Wave. He is most widely remembered fo ...

the noted British New Wave filmmaker, the economist

Joan Robinson Joan Violet Robinson ( Maurice; 31 October 1903 – 5 August 1983) was a British economist known for her wide-ranging contributions to economic theory. One of the most prominent economists of the century, Robinson incarnated the "Cambridge Sc ...

, historians

E.P. Thompson Edward Palmer Thompson (3 February 1924 – 28 August 1993) was an English historian, writer, socialist and peace campaigner. He is best known for his historical work on the radical movements in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, in partic ...

Eric Hobsbawm Eric John Ernest Hobsbawm (; 9 June 1917 – 1 October 2012) was a British historian of the rise of industrial capitalism, socialism and nationalism. His best-known works include his tetralogy about what he called the "long 19th century" (''Th ...

and

Isaac Deutscher Isaac Deutscher (; 3 April 1907 – 19 August 1967) was a Polish Marxist writer, journalist and political activist who moved to the United Kingdom before the outbreak of World War II. He is best known as a biographer of Leon Trotsky and Joseph S ...

, and the town planner

Graeme Shankland Graeme Shankland, (1917–1984), was an English town planner active in the 1960s. With Oliver Cox he established the partnership Shankland, Cox and Associates which under took commissions from Harold Wilson's Labour government. He played a prin ...

. Later issues would include essays by

Samuel Samuel is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the biblical judges to the United Kingdom of Israel under Saul, and again in the monarchy's transition from Saul to David. He is venera ...

Raymond Williams Raymond Henry Williams (31 August 1921 – 26 January 1988) was a Welsh socialist writer, academic, novelist and critic influential within the New Left and in wider culture. His writings on politics, culture, the media and literature contribu ...

Richard Hoggart Herbert Richard Hoggart (24 September 1918 – 10 April 2014) was an English academic whose career covered the fields of sociology, English literature and cultural studies, with emphasis on British popular culture. Early life Hoggart was bor ...

, John Strachey,

Peter Sedgwick Peter Harold Sedgwick (9 March 1934 – c. 8 September 1983) was a translator of Victor Serge, author of a number of books including ''PsychoPolitics'' and a revolutionary socialist activist. Life Peter Sedgwick grew up in Liverpool and won a sc ...

Ralph Miliband Ralph Miliband (born Adolphe Miliband; 7 January 1924 – 21 May 1994) was a British sociologist. He has been described as "one of the best known academic Marxists of his generation", in this manner being compared with E. P. Thompson, Eric Ho ...

Karel Reisz Karel Reisz (21 July 1926 – 25 November 2002) was a Czech-born British filmmaker and film critic, one of the pioneers of the new realist strain in British cinema during the 1950s and 1960s. Two of the best-known films he directed are '' Satur ...

, Margot Jefferys,

John Berger John Peter Berger ( ; 5 November 1926 – 2 January 2017) was an English art critic, novelist, painter and poet. His novel '' G.'' won the 1972 Booker Prize, and his essay on art criticism '' Ways of Seeing'', written as an accompaniment to t ...

and others, and feature design by future design director of Penguin Books,

Germano Facetti Germano Facetti (5 May 1928 – 8 April 2006) was an Italian graphic designer who headed design at Penguin Books from 1962 to 1971. Biography Born in Milan, Facetti was arrested in 1943, age 17, for putting up anti-Fascist posters. He was ...

. The photographer

Roger Mayne Roger Mayne (5 May 1929 – 7 June 2014) was an English photographer, best known for his documentation of the children of Southam Street, London. Life and work Born in Cambridge, Mayne studied Chemistry at Balliol College, Oxford University. Her ...

contributed images for the covers of issues 4, 5, 6, and 7. The magazine was self-consciously inspired by ''

Left Review ''Left Review'' was a journal set up by the British section of the Comintern-sponsored International Union of Revolutionary Writers (previously known as the International Bureau for Revolutionary Literature; also known as the Writers' Internationa ...

'', the literary and cultural magazine of the

Communist Party of Great Britain The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPGB ...

that developed a sophisticated modernist cultural politics in the 1930s. It was equally inspired by the socialist humanist magazine '' The New Reasoner'', founded by E.P. Thompson in 1956, whose aim was to espouse a form of Marxist humanism against Communist Party orthodoxy. ''ULR'' would, however, be marked from its predecessors by its openness to debate, as well the influence of the burgeoning youth culture of late 1950s Britain. Notable was the debate on "classlessness," inaugurated by Hall's essay "A Sense of Classlessness" from ''ULR'' 5, that sparked responses from both Samuel and E.P. Thompson in later issues. In late 1959, ''ULR'' merged with fellow socialist magazine ''

New Reasoner ''The New Reasoner'' was a British journal of dissident Communism published from 1957 to 1959 by John Saville and E. P. Thompson. The publication is best remembered as an antecedent of the long-running journal ''New Left Review''. ''The Rea ...

'' to produce the ''

New Left Review The ''New Left Review'' is a British bimonthly journal, established in 1960, which analyses international politics, the global economy, social theory, and cultural topics from a leftist perspective. History Background As part of the emergin ...

.''

External links

Barry Amiel and Norman Melburn Trust website
All the issues of the journal are available in digital format copyright free (CC copyright).

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * {{Use British English, date=September 2024 Magazines published in London 1957 establishments in the United Kingdom Magazines established in 1957 Political magazines published in the United Kingdom Socialist magazines New Left Defunct political magazines published in the United Kingdom Magazines disestablished in 1960

History

See also

External links

References

Bibliography