Opresión y resistencia: Escritos contra el totalitarismo 1937-1949 / Oppression and Resistance

by George Orwell

«Se enfrentó a las distintas ortodoxias y despotismos de su época con poco más que una destartalada máquina de escribir y una personalidad tenaz.» -Christopher Hitchens

Escritos entre 1937 y 1949, los textos aquí reunidos analizan y denuncian los abusos políticos que acabaron identificándose con el nombre de totalitarismo. George Orwell pasa revista a asuntos tan diversos como la Guerra Civil española, el imperialismo, la obra de Arthur Koestler, los nacionalismos o la figura de Gandhi, pero siempre pone el acento en el pensamiento crítico, a fin de evaluar los hechos sin aceptar simplificaciones partidistas ni generalizaciones fáciles. Pocos escritores nos animan con igual firmeza a mantenernos alerta y pensar por cuenta propia, oponiendo resistencia al mal siempre latente de la opresión.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

“He stood up to different orthodoxies and despotisms of his time with little more than a beat-up typewriter and an unyielding personality.” —Christopher Hitchens

Written between 1937 and 1949, the collected works analyze and expose the kind of political abuse that was ultimately described as totalitarianism. George Orwell reviews matters as diverse as the Spanish Civil War, imperialism, Arthur Koestler’s work, nationalisms, and the figure of Gandhi, but always accentuating critical thinking in order to evaluate facts without accepting partisan simplifications or simple generalizations. Few writers encourage us so firmly to stay alert and think for ourselves, resisting the ever present evil of oppression.

416 pages, Paperback

Published November 21, 2023

About the author

Eric Arthur Blair was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to all totalitarianism (both fascism and stalinism), and support of democratic socialism.

Orwell is best known for his allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945) and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), although his works also encompass literary criticism, poetry, fiction and polemical journalism. His non-fiction works, including The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), documenting his experience of working-class life in the industrial north of England, and Homage to Catalonia (1938), an account of his experiences soldiering for the Republican faction of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), are as critically respected as his essays on politics, literature, language and culture.

Orwell's work remains influential in popular culture and in political culture, and the adjective "Orwellian"—describing totalitarian and authoritarian social practices—is part of the English language, like many of his neologisms, such as "Big Brother", "Thought Police", "Room 101", "Newspeak", "memory hole", "doublethink", and "thoughtcrime". In 2008, The Times named Orwell the second-greatest British writer since 1945.