Brian Brivati
From the Battle of Ideas biography:[1]
- Professor Brian Brivati is Professor of Contemporary History at Kingston University and runs the Human Rights degrees at BA and MA level. He has published extensive work on contemporary British politics, with an emphasis on the political history of the British Labour party. His research and teaching has recently extended to comparative work on genocide and human rights. He speaks regularly for the Holocaust Education Trust and is a member of the Board of the Wiener Library. His articles have appeared in The Times, Financial Times, Independent on Sunday, Observer, New Statesman, Progress, Fabian Review, Contemporary Record, History Today and Parliamentary Brief, and he maintains a blog in the Guardian. He is a regular broadcaster on politics for radio and television. In 2007 he was a member of the Foreign Policy Centre/Channel 4 Iraq Commission.
Contents
Gaitskell biography
Brivati's biography of Hugh Gaitskell was criticised by Tom Easton for under-playing Gaitskell's covert American links.
- in a footnote on Gaitskell's efforts to expel Aneurin Bevan from the party in 1955, Williams records Gaitskell's apparent concern that Godson was becoming too deeply involved in the party's internal affairs.
- This unsourced observation has intrigued many since it appeared in 1983, but it has failed to stir the curiosity of Gaitskell's latest biographer, Brian Brivati. Not only does the footnote not rate a mention, but the anti-Bevan plotting at the Hotel Russell to which it relates is described without Godson's participation.
- This is not an isolated omission. In the context of his times - highly organised, well-resourced 'anti-communism' by the British and American states - we should expect something substantial on the network of which Gaitskell was the leading British public figure and the activities of the circle around the CIA-funded Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF) in which he was a prominent participant. On the former, on which there is now a good deal of published material, we find scarcely anything in Brivati.[2]
Affiliations
- Foreign Policy Centre
- Engage
- Euston Manifesto
- Democratiya
- Holocaust Education Trust
- Unite Against Terror[3]
- European Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism - Advisory Board
References, Resources and Contact
Contact
- Email: B.Brivati@kingston.ac.uk
- Website: fass.kingston.ac.uk/staff/cv.php?staffnum=115
- Comment is Free listing: commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/brian_brivati
