Do you have memories of the New Left? Andrew Whitehead would like to hear from you.

The New Left was a strand in British radicalism which distanced itself from both Stalinism and social democracy and proved to be an enduring and influential part of the left. It emerged in 1956, the year of Khruschev’s ‘secret’ speech denouncing Stalin’s cult of personality, as well as of the Soviet suppression of the Hungarian uprising and Britain’s ill-advised and ill-fated invasion of Suez. Many of its key figures were historians, among them E.P. Thompson, Dorothy Thompson, John Saville, Sheila Rowbotham, Raphael Samuel and Perry Anderson. 

The movement pioneered new forms of political journal, notably Universities and Left Review, which covered film and photography as well as political argument and topical issues. In 1960, Universities and Left Review combined with the New Reasoner to establish New Left Review.

The influence of the New Left was felt in the radical wing of the nuclear disarmament movement, in the campaign against the Vietnam war and in the emergence of student radicalism. It meshed with the new counterculture and nurtured the movements for women’s, gay and Black liberation which developed at the end of the 1960s.

Andrew Whitehead is working on an oral history of the British New Left over the period from 1956 to 1970. He would be delighted to hear from anyone with relevant memories and insights which they may be willing to share.

Andrew is an honorary professor at the University of Nottingham, an associate editor of History Workshop Journal and a member of the SSLH. He can be contacted at andrewwhiteheadbbc@gmail.com and on 077 643 35823.