George Orwell dedicated his career to exposing social injustice and political duplicity, urging his readers to face hard truths about Western society and politics. Now, the uncanny parallels between the interwar era and our own–rising inequality, censorship, and challenges to traditional social hierarchies–make his writing even more of the moment. In Orwell’s Ghosts, historian Laura Beers considers Orwell’s full body of work–his six novels, three nonfiction works, and brilliant essays on politics, language, and the class system–to examine what “Orwellian” truly means and reveal the misconstrued thinker in all his complexity. Timely, wide-ranging, and thought-provoking, Orwell’s Ghosts investigates how the writings of a lionized champion of truth and freedom can help us face the crises of modernity. Laura Beers is a professor of British history at American University and is also the author of Your Britain and Red Ellen.

Source: CNN August 03, 2024 08:36 UTC