History of SPGB

[J Surman]

Many thanks for this (The Monument)

[steve colborn]

Ages since I read the monument and looking forward to reading it again. The trumpeters the star!!

[rodshaw]

I'll have to fish out my dad's copy and give it another read too.It makes me hark back to the 70s and to the then newly formed West Yorkshire branch. I had just become a socialist and Robert Barltrop came to Bradford to speak at one of our first meetings. Harry Young, who we are told is the chap on the cover, also came up north on a separate occasion and stayed over at our house.

[Anonymous]

I was at Hyde Park with Harry around 1980 and while he was on the platform a guy kept shouting 'shit', 'shit'. After a while Harry pointed his finger directly at him and said: "Ladies and gentlemen, here we have Hyde Park's expert on 'shit' "       

[Anonymous]

What are the chances of making a digital copy in epub format so it can go up on Amazon?  

[jondwhite]

For free distribution to those already interested? This could just as easily be done on libcom. Or to interest those new to the party? Cause in the case of the latter there's 2 used copies for £20 on Amazon and for more new reprinted copies one might as well do print-on-demand as much as epub.

[ALB]

The Monument is an entertaining read but it's not really a history of the SPGB, more a series of anecdotes (some of them rather dubious) about events and members. It probably doesn't do us any harm though, even if the title was deliberately chosen from an opponent's jibe that the "SPGB is more a monument than a movement".  Baltrop was not a member of the party when he first drafted it.  As we said in his obituary:

Quote:

He was best known though for his work The Monument (1975), which remains a fascinating and entertaining introduction to the history of the SPGB. The book was largely written in the 1960s while he was out of contact with the Party, which explains the contentiousness of some of its many stories, anecdotes and perceptions.

So enjoy it but don't take what it says as gospel.

[jondwhite]

I think describing it as more a series of anecdotes than a history does it an injustice. Some members appreciate it more than others. In any case, readers can now judge for themselves at no cost.

[alanjjohnstone]

Dave Perrin's history of the SPGB is much better, imho. I think the attraction of the Monument was that it was the first book on the party published (Pluto Press)

[norm_burns]

imposs1904 wrote:

A Party member from yesteryear – Steve Coleman – wrote his PhD on the early history of the SPGB back in the 80s. There was an epub of this doing the rounds a few months back but I don't have a download link immediately to hand.

A zip file containing the PhD in a variety of formats should be available from the link below:-http://1drv.ms/1obtut3

[Author]

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