Raymond Williams
@raymondkeywords.bsky.social
Assorted words from 'the last of the great European male revolutionary socialist intellectuals' (Cornel West):
Raymond Henry Williams (1921-1988)
Raymond Henry Williams (1921-1988)
Pinned
I come from Pandy
- Politics and Letters: Interviews with New Left Review, 1979
- Politics and Letters: Interviews with New Left Review, 1979
The old cheapjack is still there in the market, with the country boys' half-crowns on his reputed packets of gold rings or watches. He thinks of his victims as a slow, ignorant crowd, but they live, and farm, while he coughs behind his portable stall
- Culture is Ordinary, 1958
- Culture is Ordinary, 1958
December 15, 2025 at 9:35 AM
The old cheapjack is still there in the market, with the country boys' half-crowns on his reputed packets of gold rings or watches. He thinks of his victims as a slow, ignorant crowd, but they live, and farm, while he coughs behind his portable stall
- Culture is Ordinary, 1958
- Culture is Ordinary, 1958
Some of [English literature's] fundamental meanings and values have belonged to the cultural achievements of long-past societies
- Base and Superstructure in Marxist Cultural Theory,
@newleftreview.bsky.social, 1973
- Base and Superstructure in Marxist Cultural Theory,
@newleftreview.bsky.social, 1973
December 12, 2025 at 11:03 AM
Some of [English literature's] fundamental meanings and values have belonged to the cultural achievements of long-past societies
- Base and Superstructure in Marxist Cultural Theory,
@newleftreview.bsky.social, 1973
- Base and Superstructure in Marxist Cultural Theory,
@newleftreview.bsky.social, 1973
We must, then, retain the right to judge a civilization by its culture. For #culture is the embodiment of the quality of living of a society; it is this `standard of living' with which the critic is concerned
- Soviet Literary Controversy in Retrospect, 1947
- Soviet Literary Controversy in Retrospect, 1947
December 11, 2025 at 9:13 AM
We must, then, retain the right to judge a civilization by its culture. For #culture is the embodiment of the quality of living of a society; it is this `standard of living' with which the critic is concerned
- Soviet Literary Controversy in Retrospect, 1947
- Soviet Literary Controversy in Retrospect, 1947
Looking back on life in a working-class family and neighbourhood, what most of us see is a compulsive conformity, which we both value and fear
- Working Class Culture, in 'Universities & Left Review, 1957 Vol.1 No 2
- Working Class Culture, in 'Universities & Left Review, 1957 Vol.1 No 2
December 10, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Looking back on life in a working-class family and neighbourhood, what most of us see is a compulsive conformity, which we both value and fear
- Working Class Culture, in 'Universities & Left Review, 1957 Vol.1 No 2
- Working Class Culture, in 'Universities & Left Review, 1957 Vol.1 No 2
'Putting Mandela in gaol is no kind of a joke' Lewis said, aggressively
'But you are not Mandela and this is not a gaol' Forrester said sharply. 'This is a college chapel, which you have defaced like any hooligan'
- The Writing On the Wall, 1990
'But you are not Mandela and this is not a gaol' Forrester said sharply. 'This is a college chapel, which you have defaced like any hooligan'
- The Writing On the Wall, 1990
December 9, 2025 at 2:00 PM
'Putting Mandela in gaol is no kind of a joke' Lewis said, aggressively
'But you are not Mandela and this is not a gaol' Forrester said sharply. 'This is a college chapel, which you have defaced like any hooligan'
- The Writing On the Wall, 1990
'But you are not Mandela and this is not a gaol' Forrester said sharply. 'This is a college chapel, which you have defaced like any hooligan'
- The Writing On the Wall, 1990
I came down this morning from a village above Abergavenny: travelling the quite short distance to this centre of the mining valleys, and travelling also, in memories, the connections and the distance between one kind of country and another
- The Social Significance of 1926, 1976
- The Social Significance of 1926, 1976
December 8, 2025 at 9:08 AM
I came down this morning from a village above Abergavenny: travelling the quite short distance to this centre of the mining valleys, and travelling also, in memories, the connections and the distance between one kind of country and another
- The Social Significance of 1926, 1976
- The Social Significance of 1926, 1976
Irish history had broken into revolution, a war of liberation and civil war by the time [Sean] O'Casey began to write for the Abbey Theatre. His first acted play, The Shadow of a Gunman (1923), is a response to this experience of violence
- Drama From Ibsen to Brecht, 1973
- Drama From Ibsen to Brecht, 1973
December 4, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Irish history had broken into revolution, a war of liberation and civil war by the time [Sean] O'Casey began to write for the Abbey Theatre. His first acted play, The Shadow of a Gunman (1923), is a response to this experience of violence
- Drama From Ibsen to Brecht, 1973
- Drama From Ibsen to Brecht, 1973
Black power in the United States, civil rights in Ulster, the language in Wales, are experiences comparable in this respect to the student movement and to women’s liberation
- review of Ned Thomas's The Welsh Extremist, 1971
- review of Ned Thomas's The Welsh Extremist, 1971
December 3, 2025 at 8:47 AM
Black power in the United States, civil rights in Ulster, the language in Wales, are experiences comparable in this respect to the student movement and to women’s liberation
- review of Ned Thomas's The Welsh Extremist, 1971
- review of Ned Thomas's The Welsh Extremist, 1971
Perhaps it is that [Parry] pays insufficient attention to his game, and has developed other interests that are less sporting, interests which places like Cardiff know well enough to provide
- Parry, R., c.1939
- Parry, R., c.1939
December 2, 2025 at 8:52 AM
Perhaps it is that [Parry] pays insufficient attention to his game, and has developed other interests that are less sporting, interests which places like Cardiff know well enough to provide
- Parry, R., c.1939
- Parry, R., c.1939
It isn't my business to pry into private affairs. But let me put it this way. I'm saying, on what I know, that Mark Evans changed, when he was elected and went to London
- The Volunteers, 1978
- The Volunteers, 1978
December 1, 2025 at 10:22 AM
It isn't my business to pry into private affairs. But let me put it this way. I'm saying, on what I know, that Mark Evans changed, when he was elected and went to London
- The Volunteers, 1978
- The Volunteers, 1978
Our comrades in Eastern Europe are not, like us, confronting an entrenched and still powerful capitalist order. It means that they can look, already, along a different road. Yet in practice, like us, only look
- Beyond Actually Existing Socialism, @newleftreview.bsky.social, 1980
- Beyond Actually Existing Socialism, @newleftreview.bsky.social, 1980
November 28, 2025 at 10:34 AM
Our comrades in Eastern Europe are not, like us, confronting an entrenched and still powerful capitalist order. It means that they can look, already, along a different road. Yet in practice, like us, only look
- Beyond Actually Existing Socialism, @newleftreview.bsky.social, 1980
- Beyond Actually Existing Socialism, @newleftreview.bsky.social, 1980
People, including Richard Hoggart, refer to "working-class speech". There is of course no such thing: the only class speech in Britain is that of the middle and upper classes; the remaining variations are regional
- Working Class Culture, Universities & Left Review, 1957
- Working Class Culture, Universities & Left Review, 1957
November 27, 2025 at 11:34 AM
People, including Richard Hoggart, refer to "working-class speech". There is of course no such thing: the only class speech in Britain is that of the middle and upper classes; the remaining variations are regional
- Working Class Culture, Universities & Left Review, 1957
- Working Class Culture, Universities & Left Review, 1957
Reposted by Raymond Williams
I come from Pandy
- Politics and Letters: Interviews with New Left Review, 1979
- Politics and Letters: Interviews with New Left Review, 1979
April 8, 2025 at 8:06 AM
I come from Pandy
- Politics and Letters: Interviews with New Left Review, 1979
- Politics and Letters: Interviews with New Left Review, 1979
Instead of the static Utopias of pre-C19th writing when men would find an ideal condition, an island or some point in the future where their social problems would have been solved, Utopias now, as [HG} Wells observed must be dynamic [and] not stand still
- Social Darwinism, 1973
- Social Darwinism, 1973
November 26, 2025 at 8:32 AM
Instead of the static Utopias of pre-C19th writing when men would find an ideal condition, an island or some point in the future where their social problems would have been solved, Utopias now, as [HG} Wells observed must be dynamic [and] not stand still
- Social Darwinism, 1973
- Social Darwinism, 1973
Stuart Hall on Williams:
His books have no comparison among contemporary writing for range and stubbornness of critical intelligence
- New Statesman, 2008
His books have no comparison among contemporary writing for range and stubbornness of critical intelligence
- New Statesman, 2008
November 25, 2025 at 11:45 AM
Stuart Hall on Williams:
His books have no comparison among contemporary writing for range and stubbornness of critical intelligence
- New Statesman, 2008
His books have no comparison among contemporary writing for range and stubbornness of critical intelligence
- New Statesman, 2008
It was a steady pattern: Mrs Praager in London, Mrs Evans in Wales. Parliamentary and Ministerial duties; the long sessions; the shortening constituency visits and vacations
- The Volunteers, 1978
- The Volunteers, 1978
November 24, 2025 at 9:22 AM
It was a steady pattern: Mrs Praager in London, Mrs Evans in Wales. Parliamentary and Ministerial duties; the long sessions; the shortening constituency visits and vacations
- The Volunteers, 1978
- The Volunteers, 1978
The term [British] was not used much, except by people one distrusted. ‘British’ was hardly ever used without ‘Empire’ following and for that nobody had any use at all
- 'Boyhood', Politics and Letters, 1979
- 'Boyhood', Politics and Letters, 1979
November 21, 2025 at 9:06 AM
The term [British] was not used much, except by people one distrusted. ‘British’ was hardly ever used without ‘Empire’ following and for that nobody had any use at all
- 'Boyhood', Politics and Letters, 1979
- 'Boyhood', Politics and Letters, 1979
Of Georg Lukacs' 'History & Class-Consciousness':
In the scale of its contemporary influence it is joined only by the Prison Notebooks from the late 20s of Antonio Gramsci, and by the work of Sartre in the 50s and 60s
- Lucien Goldmann and Marxism’s Alternative Tradition, 1972
In the scale of its contemporary influence it is joined only by the Prison Notebooks from the late 20s of Antonio Gramsci, and by the work of Sartre in the 50s and 60s
- Lucien Goldmann and Marxism’s Alternative Tradition, 1972
November 20, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Of Georg Lukacs' 'History & Class-Consciousness':
In the scale of its contemporary influence it is joined only by the Prison Notebooks from the late 20s of Antonio Gramsci, and by the work of Sartre in the 50s and 60s
- Lucien Goldmann and Marxism’s Alternative Tradition, 1972
In the scale of its contemporary influence it is joined only by the Prison Notebooks from the late 20s of Antonio Gramsci, and by the work of Sartre in the 50s and 60s
- Lucien Goldmann and Marxism’s Alternative Tradition, 1972
[There] are political forms that now limit, subordinate and destroy people. We have to begin again with people and build new political forms
- Towards 2000, 1983
- Towards 2000, 1983
November 19, 2025 at 1:47 PM
[There] are political forms that now limit, subordinate and destroy people. We have to begin again with people and build new political forms
- Towards 2000, 1983
- Towards 2000, 1983
If you try to say what you feel and know, you have to fight off the mechanical hands trying to stick their own labels on you or get your voice on one of their recordings
- The Future of #Marxism, 1961 (republished in @newleftreview.bsky.social no.114, 2018)
- The Future of #Marxism, 1961 (republished in @newleftreview.bsky.social no.114, 2018)
November 18, 2025 at 4:24 PM
If you try to say what you feel and know, you have to fight off the mechanical hands trying to stick their own labels on you or get your voice on one of their recordings
- The Future of #Marxism, 1961 (republished in @newleftreview.bsky.social no.114, 2018)
- The Future of #Marxism, 1961 (republished in @newleftreview.bsky.social no.114, 2018)
I didn't realise until many years later that many of the ideas that I had absorbed in [Pandy on the Welsh-English border], and had later expressed, were in a sense common property throughout a very wide area of Welsh social thought
- The Importance of Community, 1977
- The Importance of Community, 1977
November 14, 2025 at 10:01 AM
I didn't realise until many years later that many of the ideas that I had absorbed in [Pandy on the Welsh-English border], and had later expressed, were in a sense common property throughout a very wide area of Welsh social thought
- The Importance of Community, 1977
- The Importance of Community, 1977
For a long time Labour in Parliament has had no intention of changing the social order, though it has made some important reforms inside it. And in the same period the trade union movement has not really been pressing them
- The Forward March of Labour Halted?, 1981
- The Forward March of Labour Halted?, 1981
November 14, 2025 at 10:01 AM
For a long time Labour in Parliament has had no intention of changing the social order, though it has made some important reforms inside it. And in the same period the trade union movement has not really been pressing them
- The Forward March of Labour Halted?, 1981
- The Forward March of Labour Halted?, 1981
A skilled theatrical craftsman might well remain satisfied with such a situation, and go on writing plays for stock. But [Henrik] #Ibsen was always an artist, for whom the communication of significant experience must be the primary concern
- Drama From Ibsen to Brecht, 1973
- Drama From Ibsen to Brecht, 1973
November 13, 2025 at 9:59 AM
A skilled theatrical craftsman might well remain satisfied with such a situation, and go on writing plays for stock. But [Henrik] #Ibsen was always an artist, for whom the communication of significant experience must be the primary concern
- Drama From Ibsen to Brecht, 1973
- Drama From Ibsen to Brecht, 1973
Some men will be satisfied [that] they are the individuals and others the masses, the excluded group. Yet by this extending process we are all converted to masses, for nowhere in a world so composed, can our individuality be fully recognised by others
- The Long Revolution, 1961
- The Long Revolution, 1961
November 12, 2025 at 9:11 PM
Some men will be satisfied [that] they are the individuals and others the masses, the excluded group. Yet by this extending process we are all converted to masses, for nowhere in a world so composed, can our individuality be fully recognised by others
- The Long Revolution, 1961
- The Long Revolution, 1961