THE MAKING OF THE ENGLISH WORKING CLASS Along with Hoggart's The Uses of Literacy, this book represents a view of the working class and "progress" being about their struggles that died as the 50s turned into the 60s. From the perspective of today, both books are prescient of a

https://t.co/530B8xbJ0h

A calypso about the Notting Hill riot... https://t.co/HV7abi9OrI

OK, Lwow, when Danny Finkelstein's grandfather was there, there was a "Scottish Cafe" that served cake. Makes you wonder what part of Scottish cuisine had made it over to Poland? Dundee cake, probably, from exotic, sophisticated Scotland. Somehow, this was achieved without

Finkelstein moves on to describing his father's family's origins in Lwow at the beginning of the 20th century. I don't intend to question the historical claims here. What jumped out to me, though, is that structurally, you have the exact same argument being used to dismiss claims

So, this seems very relevant to today. Finkelstein's grandfather dealing with the question of whether Jews could be fully German. You have the four answers amongst his fellow, Finklestein's that they could, another that they couldn't and should assimilate, another that they

Apparently, these were the things flying around Germany that Finkelstein's grandfather was getting in debates about. On the one hand, you have sub-Candace Owens conspiracy nonsense... but the thing that jumps out at me is the idea of having played a pivotal role in the creation

BRITISH POLLING & PUBLIC OPINION Even though in 1948 public reported happiness was high, 37% of the public would have left Britain if they could. #BritishHistory #PublicOpinion

This is kind of funny. Lawfare was used to try to shut down antisemitic speech, but Finkelstein's father warned that Jewish groups needed to be selective and not prosecute every single antisemite to avoid creating the impression that there was a Jewish conspiracy against

So, it seems like Finkelstein's maternal grandfather was involved in trials involved in enforcing Weimar speech restrictions on antisemitic claims about the Talmud. This sounds a lot like modern hate speech laws. By the sound of it, the claim is that real quotes were being

This maternal grandfather of Finkelstein's also had a view that Germany's true nature was liberal, just as I believe Finkelstein sees the true British nature as being liberal... even though in both cases it was rejected by the majority of the population and had to be mandated. It

Apparently, in 1920, with Germany still in chaos, Finkelstein's maternal grandfather went to personally confront the leader of a conservative putsch, which obviously failed, about his antisemitic view of Germany's situation. Perhaps Finklestein's own recent turn at debating

ROSEBUD IN JUNE https://t.co/7nelJaeG1C

Finkelstein talking about his mother, who apparently played down her experiences in a concentration camp because "it's not a competition". Supposedly, she had seen Ann Frank in Belsen. In many ways, his early life seems pretty normal for a north London Jew in the period. Living

A little joke from Punch in 1968.

And that's the paper. It's quite unusual in modern times in how much of that actual history it deals with directly, hence my drawing attention to it. The repeated rhetorical move where they half acknowledges the actual basis for the complaints and violence, and then

Again here, just the profound dismissal of what was being complained of. Is a community, who is being intentionally displaced by newcomers who use intimidation and antisocial behaviour to displace them, so they can gain from making space of more of themselves, while prostituting

Understandably, people are more comfortable talking about Powell's warning than Mosley's but 9 years before Powell, this was the vision of the future Mosley was selling. Certainly in terms of his 5x figure, we are vastly beyond that today.🧵

The paper then goes into a bit about Mosely trying to organise in the area to some success after the riots. One thing about this that jumps out is the 43 Group. I have some books about the group, one by a member. They were a violent Jewish group started by Jewish soldiers from

Here is the paper's author's explanation of the riots. The attempt by working class whites to assert a 'traditional', white community. This while immigrants where organising to displace them with intimidation and antisocial behaviour, to bring in other immigrants for profit while

I find this very funny in the context of today. The idea that in 1958 working class communities discovered a racial identity that had always existed, but was manifested when challenged. A lot of potential for equivocation is packed into the meaning of the word "racial" in this.