Victorian Agitator
George Jacob Holyoake (1817-1906): Co-operation as 'This New Order of Life.'
By (author) Stephen Yeo
Publication date:
31 May 2017Length of book:
260 pagesPublisher
Edward Everett RootDimensions:
216x140mm6x9"
ISBN-13: 9781911204572
Holyoake was a classic example of Gramsci's working-class 'organic intellectual'. An Owenite 'social missionary', he became a Radical Liberal, Secularist and Co-operator, responsible for the legend of 'the Rochdale Pioneers'. A journalist, thinker, multiple 'joiner' and promoter of freedom in many settings, Holyoake was also a highly-readable stylist. An influential 19th century public figure, his life and work have recently been neglected among co-operators as by well historians. The case for reviving work on his ideas is powerful.
"A fabulous document: rich and full of diverse angles of Holyoake's life phases and different work foci, plus highlighting successes and real set backs. The thematic and mission of being in the business of making wrong and poverty impossible is so well set out... How little do co-operators really discuss this economic democracy question today! It is so fundamental for transition and transformation to revive this understanding and focus. Such fragments can become a new anti-politics. ..The way democracy has been niggardly allocated by the state and how this was spotted in the 1870s by Holyoake is so completely undiscussed today. Back again to economic democracy as a mission or what I like to call daily democracy like daily bread and part of everyone's life."- Dr. Pat Connaty, Executive Director Rebuilding Society Network Ltd; Research Fellow New Economics Foundation; Research Associate Co-ops.UK.
"A great read. The Holyoake that emerges is a revelation!" - Nick Matthews, Chair Co-ops. UK.
"A classic study of one of the co-operative movement's most successful nineteenth-century proselytisers." Professor Tony Webster, Professor of History Northumbria University.