Take a photo of a barcode or cover
cotaluck 's review for:
The Road to Wigan Pier
by George Orwell
First half contains Orwells memoirs of living among poverty in Wigan, which I really enjoyed. I grew interested in the characters and settings that he was involved with while staying in boarding houses in Wigan.
The middle section consists of a relatively precise description of the life of the miners and other working class men, inserting employment statistics, letters and other primary sources to illustrate his points.
Second half is his ramblings on ideology and politics, talking about how he is a socialist but struggles to leave his biases and opinions on the proletariat behind.
He is dubious about the concept of progress, however, from a mechanical and automated perspective. He wonders what people will do when machinery nullifies the need for many jobs, with humans resorting to a purely basic form, as the only absolute necessities are eating, drinking, breathing, sleeping and procreating.
He struggles to draw a line between work and play, making analogies of a pianist considering farming a pastime and playing the piano as a job, while a farmer would be the opposite.
He talks about how western men continue to innovate to make things easier for themselves as they always have done, making a socialist argument for innovation, claiming that big companies end up stifling competition and therefore innovation in a capitalist society.
The book is almost funny at times, as I struggled not to laugh at Orwell’s honest descriptions on the working class and how they often disgust him, despite his unwavering commitment to abolish the class system. I think he summarises this notion perfectly when he says that he will take up arms to fight alongside the working class for economic goals as he did in catalonia, but that socially he cannot bring himself to fully identify himself among them.
He interestingly notes that socialism has been decreasing in popularity in the last 10 years since he wrote this book. He also argues that socialism is necessary to fight and stop the spread of fascism in europe.
The middle section consists of a relatively precise description of the life of the miners and other working class men, inserting employment statistics, letters and other primary sources to illustrate his points.
Second half is his ramblings on ideology and politics, talking about how he is a socialist but struggles to leave his biases and opinions on the proletariat behind.
He is dubious about the concept of progress, however, from a mechanical and automated perspective. He wonders what people will do when machinery nullifies the need for many jobs, with humans resorting to a purely basic form, as the only absolute necessities are eating, drinking, breathing, sleeping and procreating.
He struggles to draw a line between work and play, making analogies of a pianist considering farming a pastime and playing the piano as a job, while a farmer would be the opposite.
He talks about how western men continue to innovate to make things easier for themselves as they always have done, making a socialist argument for innovation, claiming that big companies end up stifling competition and therefore innovation in a capitalist society.
The book is almost funny at times, as I struggled not to laugh at Orwell’s honest descriptions on the working class and how they often disgust him, despite his unwavering commitment to abolish the class system. I think he summarises this notion perfectly when he says that he will take up arms to fight alongside the working class for economic goals as he did in catalonia, but that socially he cannot bring himself to fully identify himself among them.
He interestingly notes that socialism has been decreasing in popularity in the last 10 years since he wrote this book. He also argues that socialism is necessary to fight and stop the spread of fascism in europe.