A Writer of Our Time

The Life and Work of John Berger

Nonfiction, Art & Architecture, General Art, Criticism, Biography & Memoir, Philosophers, Artists, Architects & Photographers
Cover of the book A Writer of Our Time by Joshua Sperling, Verso Books
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Joshua Sperling ISBN: 9781786637413
Publisher: Verso Books Publication: November 20, 2018
Imprint: Verso Language: English
Author: Joshua Sperling
ISBN: 9781786637413
Publisher: Verso Books
Publication: November 20, 2018
Imprint: Verso
Language: English

The first intellectual biography of the life and work of John Berger

John Berger was one of the most influential thinkers and writers of postwar Europe. As a novelist, he won the Booker prize in 1972, donating half his prize money to the Black Panthers. As a TV presenter, he changed the way we looked at art with Ways of Seeing. As a storyteller and political activist, he defended the rights and dignity of workers, migrants, and the oppressed around the world. “Far from dragging politics into art,” he wrote in 1953, “art has dragged me into politics.” He remained a revolutionary up to his death in January 2017.

Built around a series of watersheds, at once personal and historical, A Writer of Our Time traces Berger’s development from his roots as a postwar art student and polemicist in the Cold War battles of 1950s London, through the heady days of the 1960s—when the revolutions were not only political but sexual and artistic—to Berger’s reinvention as a rural storyteller and the long hangover that followed the rise and fall of the New Left.

Drawing on first-hand, unpublished interviews and archival sources only recently made available, Joshua Sperling digs beneath the moments of controversy to reveal a figure of remarkable complexity and resilience. The portrait that emerges is of a cultural innovator as celebrated as he was often misunderstood, and a writer increasingly driven as much by what he loved as by what he opposed. A Writer of Our Time brings the many faces of John Berger together, repatriating one of our great minds to the intellectual dramas of his and our time.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

The first intellectual biography of the life and work of John Berger

John Berger was one of the most influential thinkers and writers of postwar Europe. As a novelist, he won the Booker prize in 1972, donating half his prize money to the Black Panthers. As a TV presenter, he changed the way we looked at art with Ways of Seeing. As a storyteller and political activist, he defended the rights and dignity of workers, migrants, and the oppressed around the world. “Far from dragging politics into art,” he wrote in 1953, “art has dragged me into politics.” He remained a revolutionary up to his death in January 2017.

Built around a series of watersheds, at once personal and historical, A Writer of Our Time traces Berger’s development from his roots as a postwar art student and polemicist in the Cold War battles of 1950s London, through the heady days of the 1960s—when the revolutions were not only political but sexual and artistic—to Berger’s reinvention as a rural storyteller and the long hangover that followed the rise and fall of the New Left.

Drawing on first-hand, unpublished interviews and archival sources only recently made available, Joshua Sperling digs beneath the moments of controversy to reveal a figure of remarkable complexity and resilience. The portrait that emerges is of a cultural innovator as celebrated as he was often misunderstood, and a writer increasingly driven as much by what he loved as by what he opposed. A Writer of Our Time brings the many faces of John Berger together, repatriating one of our great minds to the intellectual dramas of his and our time.

More books from Verso Books

Cover of the book American Homo by Joshua Sperling
Cover of the book Collected Works, Volume 3 by Joshua Sperling
Cover of the book 24/7 by Joshua Sperling
Cover of the book Film and the Anarchist Imagination by Joshua Sperling
Cover of the book The Actuality of Communism by Joshua Sperling
Cover of the book Hatred of Democracy by Joshua Sperling
Cover of the book The Complete Works of Rosa Luxemburg, Volume I by Joshua Sperling
Cover of the book What Does the Ruling Class Do When it Rules? by Joshua Sperling
Cover of the book Money by Joshua Sperling
Cover of the book Night Haunts by Joshua Sperling
Cover of the book Marxism and the Philosophy of Science by Joshua Sperling
Cover of the book The Hegel Variations by Joshua Sperling
Cover of the book Metaphilosophy by Joshua Sperling
Cover of the book Capital is Dead by Joshua Sperling
Cover of the book The Darkest Days by Joshua Sperling
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy