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Bishopsgate Institute

New Left Archive


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0372 RS1

Held at: Bishopsgate Institute

Title: New Left Archive

Date(s): 1899-1993

Level of description: Collection

Extent: 116 Files

Name of creator(s): Samuel | Raphael Elkan | 1934-1996 | historian

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

As a result of Nikita Khrushchev's Secret Speech denouncing Joseph Stalin and the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956, many abandoned the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and began to rethink its orthodox Marxism. Some joined various Trotskyist groupings or the Labour Party.

The Marxist historians E. P. Thompson and Ralph Miliband established the Communist Party Historians Group and a dissenting journal within the CPGB called Reasoner. Once expelled from the party, they began the New Reasoner from 1957. In 1960, this journal merged with the Universities and Left Review to form the New Left Review. These journals attempted to synthesise a theoretical position of a revisionist, humanist, socialist Marxism, departing from orthodox Marxist theory. This publishing effort made the ideas of culturally oriented theorists available to an undergraduate reading audience. In this early period, many on the New Left were involved in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, formed in 1957.

Under the long-standing editorial leadership of Perry Anderson, the New Left Review popularised the Frankfurt School, Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser and other forms of Marxism. Other periodicals like Socialist Register, started in 1964, and Radical Philosophy, started in 1972, have also been associated with the New Left, and published a range of important writings in this field.

As the campus orientation of the American New Left became clear in the mid to late 1960s, the student sections of the British New Left began taking action. The London School of Economics became a key site of British student militancy. The influence of protests against the Vietnam War and of the May 1968 events in France were also felt strongly throughout the British New Left. Some within the British New Left joined the International Socialists, which later became Socialist Workers Party while others became involved with groups such as the International Marxist Group.The politics of the British New Left can be contrasted with Solidarity, UK, which continued to focus primarily on industrial issues.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers and correspondence of the New Left Archive (1947-1993), compiled by Raphael Samuel, including: correspondence, editorial minutes, press cuttings, drafts and publicity material concerning the founding and administration of Universities and Left Review, 1956-1993; correspondence, financial papers, plans and other material regarding the Universities and Left Review Club and the Partisan Coffee House, 1957-1961; papers, correspondence, notes, minutes and publicity material concerning the student movement and other organisations, 1957-1976; interviews transcripts, notes and other material from Raphael Samuel's work with the Institute of Community Studies, 1957-1962; minutes, papers, teaching papers and reports gathered by Samuel regarding Ruskin College, Oxford, 1899-1993.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English.

System of arrangement:

The material is arranged in a roughly chronological sequence.

Conditions governing access:

Open.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Photocopying and scanning facilities are available for a charge and will be completed by archival staff if condition and copyright permits. Digital photography (without flash) is permitted for research purposes on completion of the Library's Copyright Declaration form and with respect to current UK copyright law.

Finding aids:

Hard copy handlist available; ADLIB Online Catalogue.

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Transferred to Bishopsgate Institute from Ruskin College, 2011.

ALLIED MATERIALS

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Archivist's note: Entry compiled by Stefan Dickers.

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: 3 December 2011.


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Protest movements | Political movements
Student movements | Student sociology | Educational sociology | Educational sciences

Personal names
Samuel | Raphael Elkan | 1934-1996 | historian

Corporate names
Institute of Community Studies
New Left Archive
Partisan Coffee House
Ruskin College, Oxford
Universities and Left Review Club

Places