Britain on the brink of revolution: 1919

by Chanie Rosenberg

Drawing on Cabinet records, many of them published here for the first time, this slim volume tells of the year Britain stood on the brink - mutiny, strikes and unrest.

Genres: History, Politics

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 6, 1995

Reviews

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice short overview, highlighting a year seriously overlooked by the revolutionary left in Britain. It is more an overview of various other writings on the period, and if you go through the bibliography, overwhelmingly of texts by fellow SWP authors. However, the short chapter on the relationship between alcohol controls, sobriety and the rise of mass working-class struggles was an novel and interesting contribution I really appreciated.

Sadly, this book suffers from often found post-1977 Cliffite party-headbanging. Almost every single political argument made throughout the text is hamfisted into the argument "and that is why we need a revolutionary party to organise the working-class", the implicit argument being that the SWP is that party. However, never does it in any depth explain what specific role a party would play now or have played in 1919 (although, in fairness, Rosenberg briefly does go over why they saw the existing revolutionary organisations at the time being unable to play a significant role in cohering these struggles).

It's a shame as some of the broader basic political arguments made in the text are useful and fairly well explained, but are not dug into much below the surface. This is particularly the case for the analysis of the rank-and-file and trade union bureacracy, which a very short chapter is given to that expresses ideas I agree with, but doesn't ever truly delve into what that means in terms of political strategy. Perhaps if these questions had been given more space to be explored seriously, the SWP would have actually continued to engage in political strategies that expressed rather than negated them.

Whilst this review may sound overly negative, this is worth reading, is a good overview particularly for those not familiar with the period, and offered a couple of new bibliographic sources I hadn't encountered before on this topic.

Book 1/5 in my 2026 BOOKS calendar reading challenge for January (books 150 pages or less).

[Martin Empson · Rating 4 out of 5]

In late 1918 and early 1919 a mass rebellion took place which, as Chanie Rosenberg argues in this 1987 book brought the country to the brink of revolution. The mood was certainly high. In November 1918, 300,000 Clydesiders applauded the German Revolution at a mass protest and there were around 34 million days of strike action. Eric Geddes, First Lord of the Admiralty, said on the 5th of February, "there was no doubt that we were up against a Bolshevist movement in London, Glasgow and elsewhere."

Full review: http://resolutereader.blogspot.com/20...

[Tom Ferguson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ideal introduction to what was going on in post WWI Britain.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I especially liked its brevity and how to the point it was.