The latest paperback releases reviewed
The Lost Revolution: The Story of the Official IRA and the Workers’ Party
Brian Hanley Scott Millar
Penguin , £9.99
In the 1960s, the IRA leadership adopted a left-wing analysis of republicanism that called for political engagement with some of the most pressing social problems north and south of the border. The tension between traditional physical-force militarism and the socialist republicanism espoused by Cathal Goulding, Seán Garland and Tomás MacGiolla and intellectualised by others such as Roy Johnston, Anthony Coughlan and a young Eoghan Harris led to the IRA split over abstentionism and the emergence of the Provisionals in 1969. Many of those who remained in the Official IRA and its party political manifestations are among the pillars of today's media, political and trade union circles, having travelled a long way from the Marxist revolutionary politics of their youth. From the internecine conflict in the early days of the Troubles to organised crime and deals with unsavoury Communist regimes, this account has the pace of a spy thriller. Tim Fanning
The Frock-Coated Communist
Tristram Hunt
Penguin, £10.99
The subtitle of this stimulating and well-written biography of Friedrich Engels describes him as "the original champagne socialist". The frock-coated Manchester cotton magnate was "a raffish, high-living, heavy-drinking devotee of the good things in life" who became "one of the central architects of global communism" along with Karl Marx. Hunt brings Engels out from under Marx's shadow and presents him as his intellectual equal. He was also Marx's patient benefactor, funding the mental toil that produced Das Kapitalby his own toils in the cotton trade. Hunt is not inclined to see any link between Engels's Hegelian belief that history was progressive and ready acceptance of the extermination of "non-historic peoples" and the Leninist-Stalinist preparedness to eliminate entire social classes – a questionable stance on Hunt's part, surely? Brian Maye
Keynes: The Twentieth Century’s Most Influential Economist
Peter Clarke
Bloomsbury, £8.99
Peter Clarke here narrates the life and analyses the influence of John Maynard Keynes, whose iconoclastic theories – and colourfully rhetorical explanations of them – absorbed the minds of politicians, economists and the public alike from the 1920s until his death in 1946. His polarising influence was vitally important for decades after his death, and, Clarke argues, is still important today. Keynes was a proponent of government economic stimulus at a time when the British Treasury's function was to keep a balanced budget, rather than affect a growth in the economy. He was a persuasive debater, even leaving Bertrand Russell "feeling something of a fool", and, through his regular newspaper articles, was adept at harnessing public opinion. Clarke's book lacks the colour and detail that make a good biography but it explains Keynes's theories and his significance well, and it does succeed in linking the development of Keynes's thought to the circumstances of his life. Colm Farren
Conspirator: Lenin in Exile – The Making of a Revolutionary
Helen Rappaport
Windmill Books, £8.99
In this impressively researched, engaging account of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin's 17 years in exile, Helen Rappaport shifts focus from the dusty old Bolshevik of the massive, waving Soviet statues, to the dogged political émigré criss-crossing Europe in poverty with his revolving coterie of other "illegals". Conspiratorevokes Lenin and the atmosphere in which he moved in striking detail, often with a rather dramatic flourish. Rappaport strikes a fine balance, depicting both a uniquely determined man who was kind to children and loved ice-skating and one of unrivalled intellectual and political aggression, who could be ruthless and very controlling – traits which lost both him and his ideology more than a few friends and allies (as did his apparent willingness to engage in violent character assassinations). Ever-present is his fiercely dedicated wife, Nadya, which may leave one asking what Lenin would – or could – have achieved without her. Daniel Bolger
God Is Back
John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge
Penguin, £9.99
China's whirlwind economic growth "is boosting the demand for the consolations of religion". By 2050, China may be the biggest Muslim nation in the world as well as its biggest Christian one. A 2006 poll showed 84 per cent of Russians believed in God. In the US, 92 per cent of adults believe in some sort of universal spirit, 70 per cent are "absolutely" certain of God's existence and the country has had a succession of "born again" presidents. Even Europe, where the Enlightenment gave birth to secularisation, is beginning to follow suit. Globalisation, the authors argue, is behind this religious revival, "the same two things that have driven the success of market capitalism: competition and choice". The book travels widely, reporting on a huge hidden world most outsiders don't know exists, though it focuses more on America. The marketing jargon grates a little but this is a fascinating read. Brian Maye
