Alex Callinicos reviews the life of liberal political philosopher John Rawls.
The American philosopher John Rawls, who died last November at the age of 82, was one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century. His reputation rests chiefly on 'A Theory of Justice', first published in 1971. This long and densely argued book singlehandedly rescued liberal political philosophy from the decay into which it had descended.
Jane Shallice pays tribute to Joan Littlewood whose recent death robs us of one of the greatest and most left wing architects of modern British theatre.
For many of us the death of Joan Littlewood was the death of the woman of theatre, one whose reputation still carried a resonance of the 1930s through to the present. We can still see that figure from photographs, cigarette in mouth or hand, short dark hair sometimes hidden under a hat, a rather puffy face, talking or listening with an immensely intense gaze. Why was it that this woman became so influential, was so revered?
Alex Callinicos examines the extraordinary life of Duncan Hallas.
Duncan Hallas, who died on 19 September, was one of the outstanding figures of British Trotskyism. In him the best traditions of the British working class movement fused with the revolutionary Marxist heritage. As a leading member of the Socialist Workers Party he played a crucial role in transmitting this heritage to the new generations who emerged from the movements of the past 35 years.
Brian Manning looks back at the life of the distinguished historian Rodney Hilton.
This is an occasion to mourn the passing of Rodney Hilton on 7 June 2002, but it is also an occasion to celebrate a life devoted to Marxist history.
Rodney Hilton was concerned that Marxist theories of English feudalism were based on a few secondary authorities which were written by non-Marxists. His aim was to base a Marxist interpretation of English feudalism on research in the archives on the primary sources. This he did with great success.
Steven Rose pays tribute to the life and work of Stephen Jay Gould.
Professor Stephen Jay Gould, who has died of cancer aged 60, was an unlikely figure to have been canonised by the US congress, which named him as one of America's 'living legends'. A palaeontologist, he was based for most of his life at the museum of comparative zoology (MCZ) at Harvard. But he was best known for his unbroken sequence of 300 monthly essays in 'Natural History' magazine and republished in a seemingly unending stream of books.
The life of Labour left winger Barbara Castle.
I first heard Barbara Castle speak at a Young Socialist rally in Skegness in 1963. She was 53, I was 25. She was magnificent. She sensed an iconoclasm in the hall, with which she immediately identified. She had a way of rolling her body round her more eloquent phrases that gave the infectious impression of movement, passion and change.
Jimmy Ross pays tribute to the Scottish radical Hamish Henderson.
The song, 'The Freedom Come All Ye', is a triumphant combination of internationalism, anti-imperialism and a call for world revolution. It has often been proposed as an alternative Scottish national anthem (although many Scots would struggle to understand the words) but its author, Hamish Henderson, who died last month at the age of 82, preferred to see it as an international anthem:
Alex Callinicos remembers the life and work of French radical Pierre Bourdieu.
The great French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu died of cancer in a Paris hospital on 23 January. Born to a peasant background in southern France in 1930, Bourdieu reached the pinnacle of the French university system, becoming a professor at the Collège de France. But he never forgot what in a famous book he called 'The Weight of the World'--the suffering experienced by ordinary people. In the last decade of his life Bourdieu threw himself into political activity, becoming one of the champions of the movement against capitalist globalisation.
