Episode 595 – Laura Beers

Virtual Memories Show

Virtual Memories Show 595:
Laura Beers

“I came to Orwell interested in him as a political historian and how he can help us understand our modern politics.”

Historian, professor & author Laura Beers joins the show as we celebrate her important new book, ORWELL’S GHOSTS: Wisdom and Warnings for the Twenty-First Century (Norton). We talk about her course on Orwell and the making of the early twentieth century, how the post-Jan. 6 misuse of “Orwellian” inspired her to write this book, and her own path into Orwell. We get into Orwell’s balancing act between freedom of speech and obligation to truth, what he meant when he wrote that he was “for democratic socialism, as I understand it,” his family’s history with Empire and his hatred of inequality, why my favorite of his essays, Inside The Whale, may be the most misunderstood Orwell piece of all (!), and why The Road To Wigan Pier might have the most influence on her. We also discuss the ways to reckon with Orwell’s prejudices and especially his misogyny, why students are still coming into college with Animal Farm under their belt, Laura’s trip to Barcelona to follow Orwell’s steps in the Spanish Civil War, how her chapter on gender involved some deep, critical reading and writing, how we should look at the “blacklist” Orwell provided to the Information Research Dept., how Laura’s next book on the politics of infertility sort of dovetails with Orwell’s Ghosts, and more! Give it a listen! And go read ORWELL’S GHOSTS!

“There’s a lot of value in using an Orwellian lens: not just ‘censorship bad, free speech good,’ but to actually look at the writing and the more nuanced things that it says about national identity and patriotism in modern life, about the role of class, about the role of group-affinities. There’s a lot more to his writing than the knee-jerk caricatures that most people go to when they hear the word ‘Orwellian.'”

“I give the caveat that I’m not seeking to psychoanalyze Orwell, and I’m interested less in his personal life than in how that manifests in the way he writes about women and writes about gender.”

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“Orwell’s early awakening to the corrupting influence of arbitrary power comes not from his experience in the Spanish Civil War, but his experience in Empire.”

Enjoy the conversation! Then check out the archives for more great episodes!

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About our Guest

Laura Beers is a professor of British history at American University and the author of Orwell’s Ghosts, Your Britain, and Red Ellen, which received the Stansky Award. Her writing has appeared in the New Republic and Washington Post, among other publications, and on CNN.com. She is also a co-host on the Progressive Britain Podcast. She lives in Washington, DC.

Follow Laura on Twitter and BlueSky.

Credits: This episode’s music is Fella by Hal Mayforth, used with permission from the artist. The conversation was recorded remotely via Zencastr. I used a Heil PR-40 Dynamic Studio Recording Microphone feeding into a Zoom PodTrak P4. All processing and editing done in Adobe Audition CC. Photo of Laura by someone else. It’s on my instagram.