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Bury the Chains: The British Struggle to Abolish Slavery |
In 1787 twelve men met in a printing shop in London and set in motion a grass roots movement that changed the world. Slavery and serfdom were the norm for the greater portion of humanity. However despite it being against the interests [the financial loss being huge] of the most powerful in the land it took just 50 years to abolish slavery from the British Empire. Hochschild's in-depth research brings the past alive with quotes and meticulous detail - impossible to put down or to forget.
(Lynda Johnson - bwl 90 Autumn 2018) |
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Lessons from a Dark Time and other Essays |
These updated articles from his long career as a journalist/author is a reflection of his fear that the world - 'awash in a bitter stew of revived nationalism, anti-Semitism and hostility towards Muslims and refugees.' is slipping backwards. A passionate activist each essay grips you as though you were there. One to pick up read and re-read; who wouldn't want to read a man who states 'Donald Trump has bent and twisted the truth like pretzel dough'?
(Lynda Johnson - bwl 102 Autumn 2021) |
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Spain in our Hearts: Americans in the Spanish Civil War |
In these turbulent political times, Hochschild is right to remind us and touch our souls with this state of the art account of the Spanish Civil War, which as he demonstrates was the real beginning of WW II. A requiem for the past and a warning for the future, this relatively short book evokes a feeling of deep sadness and even a feeling of shame and guilt, as one considers the callousness, complacency and greed contributed by other democracies to the fate of Spain.
(Kathie Somerwil Ayrton - bwl 84 Spring 2017) |
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To End all Wars: A Story of Protest and Patriotism in the First World War |
This story of protest and patriotism, of conscientious objectors and their ilk and what happened to them is not only an unusual focus, but Hochschild uses this as a tool to describe and analyse the war from its ecstatic beginnings to its tragic and callous end and aftermath. Indeed, he comes nearer than most specialists to explain why it ever happened, and this in an objective, fair yet compassionate manner. A tour de force.
(Kathie Somerwil Ayrton - bwl 82 Autumn 2016) |
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