Red Threads: A History of the People's Flag

by Henry Bell

The red There is no symbol, perhaps other than the crucifix and the crescent moon, for which so many people have lived and died. A standard of hope and resistance to millions and of terror and tyranny to many. But why is the red flag red? How did it come to represent the workers against the propertied class? And how did it travel the world?

In Henry Bell’s lively account, we journey around the globe and back through history, tracing the lineage of the red flag as both a material object and a symbol. The book explores the triumphs and disasters of the flag’s history, its designers and makers, heroes and villains, and the utopias and wastelands that have kept the red flag flying.

From its martial beginnings in Rome and France to the raising of a blood-stained flag at the Merthyr Rising and the arrival of the red flag at the Paris Commune, from the jungles of north-eastern India to the factories of Cuba, Red Threads explores how this symbol of working-class power first came to be held aloft in the hands of revolutionaries; who raises it today; and its meaning for the future.

Genres: Nonfiction

368 pages, Hardcover

Published September 20, 2024

Reviews

[Titus Hjelm · Rating 2 out of 5]

In this book a great premise--a history of the global left through the prism of its most famous symbol, the red flag--is, unfortunately, ruined by the writing style. The beginning is the hardest part: For the chapters that have least historical evidence available, the author resorts to a strategy where they first describe events in the past tense and then 'interpret' the events in the present tense. This approach disappears in the later chapters, but there is an inordinate amount of repetition in all of them. Further, the text is often sentimental and moralistic. I don't mind politically positioned historical interpretation--hell, that's why I buy Pluto and Verso books--but done in this way, it makes for uncomfortable reading. This may have been a decent essay but, as said, unfortunately, as a book it simply does not work.

[Lily Gee Bee · Rating 3 out of 5]

enjoyed parts of this, whilst often struggling with others. I think it’s a difficult feat to cover so much world history through the lens of a symbol (the red flag), and in just 300 pages. It often felt a little jumpy or repetitive, and there were areas where I wished more factual or historical detail had been provided/explored, rather than jumping to making quite bold statements on something. Prose just didn’t always sit right with me

I particularly enjoyed the chapters on subversion and peasant movements. Bell clearly has an impressive eye over lots of parts of global history, but I think covering so much in a quite short space didn’t serve the book so well. Looking forward to reading his Maclean biography though