The English Civil War Part II

by Jeremy Deller

On June 17, 2001, artist Jeremy Deller staged a partial reenactment of the violent confrontation that took place in Yorkshire, on June 18, 1984 between English Miners and mounted police.

160 pages, Paperback

First published June 15, 2002

Reviews

[Melody · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book mostly contains essays, articles, as images from the Battle of Orgreave that occurred on June 18, 1984. It acts as a sort of documentation of the notes and interviews that Jeremy Deller collected and conducted after receiving a commission from Artangel. It contains a lot of personal accounts reactions of Thatcher-era politics and violence, including one account from a former policeman that seemed to have noticed the militarization of police from the inside, but didn't realize the repercussions until he was using his shields and truncheon to beat the crap out of unarmed strikers who were doing nothing bad enough to warrant that kind of response. It was literally just Thatcher et. al. showing how much power they had. Somewhere, Deller says that he has always believed that the U.K. is about 20 years ahead of the curb when it comes to social movements, and this supports that; while police brutality wasn't unheard of in the rest of the world, showing up in riot gear to peaceful protests has definitely come into fashion in the last decade. This book ranged from making me laugh to making me shake my head in disgust at the tactics displayed, but it's also given me more appreciation for the work Deller put in to researching for his re-enactment that was stated in 2001.