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Raymond Henry Williams (31 August 1921 – 26 January 1988) was a Welsh
socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...
writer, academic, novelist and critic influential within the
New Left The New Left was a broad political movement mainly in the 1960s and 1970s consisting of activists in the Western world who campaigned for a broad range of social issues such as civil and political rights, environmentalism, feminism, gay rights, ...
and in wider culture. His writings on politics, culture, the media and literature contributed to the Marxist critique of culture and the arts. Some 750,000 copies of his books were sold in UK editions alone, and there are many translations available. His work laid foundations for the field of cultural studies and cultural materialism.


Life


Early life

Born in Pandy, just north of Llanfihangel Crucorney, near Abergavenny, Wales, Williams was the son of a railway worker in a village where all of the railwaymen voted Labour, while the local small farmers mostly voted Liberal. It was not a Welsh-speaking area: he described it as "Anglicised in the 1840s". There was, nevertheless, a strong Welsh identity. "There is the joke that someone says his family came over with the Normans and we reply: 'Are you liking it here?'" Williams attended
King Henry VIII Grammar School King Henry VIII Grammar School, Abergavenny, Monmouthshire was one of a series of schools founded during the Reformation in England and Wales in 1542 from property seized from monasteries and religious congregations. In this case, a school which ...
in Abergavenny. His teenage years were overshadowed by the rise of
Nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
and the threat of war. His father was secretary of the local Labour Party, but Raymond declined to join, although he did attend meetings around the 1935 general election. He was 14 when the
Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlism, Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebeli ...
broke out, and was conscious of what was happening through his membership of the local Left Book Club. He also mentions the Italian invasion of Abyssinia (
Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the Er ...
) and
Edgar Snow Edgar Parks Snow (19 July 1905 – 15 February 1972) was an American journalist known for his books and articles on Communism in China and the Chinese Communist revolution. He was the first Western journalist to give an account of the history o ...
's '' Red Star Over China'', originally published in Britain by the Left Book Club. At this time, he was supported the
League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide Intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by ...
, attending a League-organised youth conference in Geneva in 1937. On the way back, his group visited Paris and he went to the Soviet pavilion at the
International Exhibition A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specif ...
. There he bought a copy of '' The Communist Manifesto'' and read
Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
for the first time. In July 1939, he was involved in the Monmouth by-election, helping with an unsuccessful campaign by the Labour candidate, Frank Hancock, who was a pacifist. Williams was also a pacifist at this time, having distributed leaflets for the Peace Pledge Union.


University education

Williams won a state scholarship to read English at
Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...
, matriculating in 1939. While at Cambridge, he joined the
Communist Party of Great Britain The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPGB ...
. Along with Eric Hobsbawm, he was given the task of writing a Communist Party pamphlet about the
Russo-Finnish War The Winter War,, sv, Vinterkriget, rus, Зи́мняя война́, r=Zimnyaya voyna. The names Soviet–Finnish War 1939–1940 (russian: link=no, Сове́тско-финская война́ 1939–1940) and Soviet–Finland War 1 ...
. He says in (''Politics and Letters'') that they "were given the job as people who could write quickly, from historical materials supplied for us. You were often in there writing about topics you did not know very much about, as a professional with words". At the time, the British government was keen to support
Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bo ...
in its war against the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
, while still being at war with
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
. He took a second (division two) in part one of the
tripos At the University of Cambridge, a Tripos (, plural 'Triposes') is any of the examinations that qualify an undergraduate for a bachelor's degree or the courses taken by a student to prepare for these. For example, an undergraduate studying mathe ...
in 1941, and, after returning from war service, achieved first-class honours in part two in 1946. He graduated from the University of Cambridge with a BA degree in 1946: as per tradition, his BA was promoted to a
Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. ...
(MA Cantab) degree. He was later awarded a higher doctorate by Cambridge; the Doctor of Letters (LittD) degree in 1969.


World War II

Williams interrupted his education to serve in the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
. He enlisted in the
British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gur ...
in late 1940, but stayed at Cambridge to take his exams in June 1941, the month when Germany invaded Russia. Joining the military was against the Communist party line at the time. According to Williams, his Communist Party membership lapsed without him formally resigning. When Williams joined the army, he was assigned to the Royal Corps of Signals, which was a typical assignment for university undergraduates. He received initial training in military communications, but was reassigned to
artillery Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during sieg ...
and anti-tank weapons. He was chosen to serve as an officer in the Anti-Tank Regiment of the Guards Armoured Division in 1941–1945, being sent into early fighting in the Invasion of Normandy after the D-Day
Normandy Landings The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...
. He writes in ''Politics and Letters'', "I don't think the intricate chaos of that Normandy fighting has ever been recorded." He commanded a unit of four tanks and mentions losing touch with two of them while fighting against
Waffen-SS The (, "Armed SS") was the combat branch of the Nazi Party's ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with volunteers and conscripts from both occupied and unoccupied lands. The grew from th ...
Panzer This article deals with the tanks (german: panzer) serving in the German Army (''Deutsches Heer'') throughout history, such as the World War I tanks of the Imperial German Army, the interwar and World War II tanks of the Nazi German German Ar ...
forces in the
Bocage Bocage (, ) is a terrain of mixed woodland and pasture characteristic of parts of Northern France, Southern England, Ireland, the Netherlands and Northern Germany, in regions where pastoral farming is the dominant land use. ''Bocage'' may ...
. He never discovered what happened to them as a withdrawal of troops ensued. Williams took part in the fighting from Normandy in 1944 and through Belgium and the Netherlands to Germany in 1945. There he was involved in liberating a smaller Nazi concentration camp, which was afterwards used by the Allies to detain SS officers. He was shocked to find that
Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...
had suffered saturation bombing by the
Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...
, not just military targets and docks, as they had been told. He was expecting to be sent to Burma, but as his studies had been interrupted by the war, was instead granted Class B release, which meant immediate demobilisation. He returned to Cambridge, where he found that the student culture had changed from 1941, with the left-wing involvement much diminished.


Adult education and early publications

Williams received his BA from Cambridge in 1946, and then served as a tutor in
adult education Adult education, distinct from child education, is a practice in which adults engage in systematic and sustained self-educating activities in order to gain new forms of knowledge, skills, attitudes, or values.Merriam, Sharan B. & Brockett, Ralp ...
at
Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
's Delegacy for Extra-Mural Studies (1946-1961). Moving to
Seaford, Sussex Seaford is a town in East Sussex, England, east of Newhaven and west of Eastbourne.OS Explorer map Eastbourne and Beachy Head Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. In the Middle Ages, Se ...
, he gave Workers' Educational Association evening classes in East Sussex in English literature, drama, and later culture and environment. This allowed Williams to write in the mornings, beginning work on novels and what would become cultural studies. In 1946, he founded the review ''Politics and Letters'', a journal which he edited with Clifford Collins and Wolf Mankowitz until 1948. Williams published ''Reading and Criticism'' in 1950; he joined the Editorial Board of the new journal ''Essays in Criticism''. In 1951, he was recalled to the army as a reservist to fight in the
Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top: ...
. He refused to go, registering as a conscientious objector. He expected to be jailed for a month, but the Appeal Tribunal panel, which included a professor of classics, was convinced by his case and discharged him from further military obligations in May 1951. Between 1946 and 1957, he was involved with the film-maker Michael Orrom, whom he had known in Cambridge. They co-wrote ''Preface to Film'', published in 1954, and Williams wrote the script for an experimental film, ''The Legend'', in 1955. This was rejected in July 1956 and he parted company with Orrom shortly afterwards. He wrote a number of novels in this period, but only one, ''Border Country'', would be published. Inspired by T.S. Eliot's 1948 publication ''Notes towards the Definition of Culture'', Williams began exploring the concept of culture. He first outlined his argument that the concept emerged with the
Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
in the essay "The Idea of Culture", which resulted in the widely successful book ''
Culture and Society ''Culture and Society'' is a book published in 1958 by Welsh progressive writer Raymond Williams, exploring how the notion of culture developed in Great Britain, from the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries. When first published, the boo ...
'', published in 1958. This was followed in 1961 by '' The Long Revolution''. Williams's writings were taken up by the
New Left The New Left was a broad political movement mainly in the 1960s and 1970s consisting of activists in the Western world who campaigned for a broad range of social issues such as civil and political rights, environmentalism, feminism, gay rights, ...
and received a wide readership. He was also well known as a regular book reviewer for '' The Manchester Guardian'' newspaper. His years in adult education were an important experience and Williams was always something of an outsider at Cambridge University. Asked to contribute to a book called ''My Cambridge'', he began his essay by saying: "It was not my Cambridge. That was clear from the beginning."


Academic career

On the strength of his books, Williams was invited to return to Cambridge in 1961, where he was elected a fellow of
Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes f ...
. He eventually achieved an appointment in the Faculty of English, University of Cambridge, first as Reader in Drama (1967–1974), and then as the University's first Professor of Drama (1974–1983). He was a visiting professor of political science at Stanford University in 1973, an experience he used to effect in his still useful book ''Television: Technology and Cultural Form'' (1974). A committed socialist, he was interested in the relations between
language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...
, literature and society, and published many books, essays and articles on these and other issues. Among the main ones is ''
The Country and the City ''The Country and the City'' is a book of cultural analysis by Raymond Williams which was first published in 1973. Origins Coming from the Welsh border, a village in the Black Mountains, Raymond Williams found that the images of rural life taugh ...
'' (1973), where chapters on literature alternate with chapters on social history. His tightly written ''Marxism and Literature'' (1977) is mainly for specialists, but also sets out his approach to cultural studies, which he called cultural materialism. The book was in part a response to structuralism in literary studies and pressure on Williams to make a more theoretical statement of his position, against criticisms that it was a humanist Marxism, based on unexamined assumptions about lived experience. He makes much use of the ideas of Antonio Gramsci, though the book is uniquely Williams's and written in his characteristic voice. For a more accessible version, see ''Culture'' (1981-1982), which develops an argument about cultural sociology, which he hoped would become "a new major discipline". Introducing the US edition, Bruce Robbins identifies it as "implicit self-critique" of Williams's earlier ideas, and a basis on which "to conceive the oppositionality of the critic in a permanently fragmented society".


Concepts and theory


Vocabulary

Williams was keen to establish the changing meanings of the vocabulary used in discussions of culture. He began with the word ''culture'' itself; his notes on 60 significant, often difficult words were to have appeared as an appendix to ''Culture and Society'' in 1958. This was not possible, and so an extended version with notes and short essays on 110 words appeared as ''
Keywords Keyword may refer to: Computing * Keyword (Internet search), a word or phrase typically used by bloggers or online content creator to rank a web page on a particular topic * Index term, a term used as a keyword to documents in an information syste ...
'' in 1976. Those examined included "aesthetic", "bourgeois", "culture", "hegemony", "isms", "organic", "romantic", "status", "violence" and "work". A revised version in 1983 added 21 new words, including "anarchism", "ecology", "liberation" and "sex". Williams wrote that the ''
Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...
'' (OED) "is primarily philological and etymological," whilst his work was on "meanings and contexts". In 1981, Williams published ''Culture'', where the term, discussed at length, is defined as "a ''realized signifying system''" and supported by chapters on "the means of cultural production, and the process of cultural reproduction".


Debate

Williams wrote critically of Marshall McLuhan's writings on technology and society. This is the background to a chapter in ''Television: Technology and Cultural Form'' (1974) called "The Technology and the Society", where Williams defended his visions against technological determinism, focusing on the prevalence of social over technological in the development of human processes. Thus "Determination is a real social process, but never (as in some theological and some Marxist versions)... a wholly controlling, wholly predicting set of causes. On the contrary, the reality of determination is the setting of limits and the exertion of pressures, within which variable social practices are profoundly affected but never necessarily controlled." His book ''Modern Tragedy'' may be read as a response to ''The Death of Tragedy'' by the conservative literary critic
George Steiner Francis George Steiner, FBA (April 23, 1929 – February 3, 2020) was a Franco-American literary critic, essayist, philosopher, novelist, and educator. He wrote extensively about the relationship between language, literature and society, and the ...
. Later, Williams was interested in the work of Pierre Bourdieu, although he found it too pessimistic about the possibilities for social change.


Last years

Williams joined the Labour Party after he moved to Cambridge in 1961, but resigned in 1966 after the new majority Labour government had broken the seafarers' strike and introduced public expenditure cuts. He joined the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign, and wrote the May Day Manifesto (published 1967), along with Edward Thompson and Stuart Hall. It has been claimed that Williams later became a
Plaid Cymru Plaid Cymru ( ; ; officially Plaid Cymru – the Party of Wales, often referred to simply as Plaid) is a centre-left to left-wing, Welsh nationalist political party in Wales, committed to Welsh independence from the United Kingdom. Plaid wa ...
member and a Welsh nationalist. He retired from Cambridge in 1983 and spent his last years in Saffron Walden. While there he wrote ''Loyalties'', a novel about a fictional group of upper-class radicals attracted to 1930s Communism. Williams was working on ''
People of the Black Mountains ''People of the Black Mountains'' is an historical novel by Raymond Williams. This book is a work in two volumes, published in 1989 and 1990. It features a great diversity of people in a single place across the ages. Most of them are ordinar ...
'', an experimental historical novel about people who lived or might have lived around the Black Mountains, his own part of Wales, told through flashbacks featuring an ordinary man in modern times, looking for his grandfather, who has not returned from a hill-walk. He imagines the region as it was and might have been. The story begins in the
Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός '' palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone to ...
, and would have come up to modern times, focusing on ordinary people. He had completed it to the
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
by the time he died in 1988. The whole work was prepared for publication by his wife, Joy Williams, then published in two volumes with a
postscript PostScript (PS) is a page description language in the electronic publishing and desktop publishing realm. It is a dynamically typed, concatenative programming language. It was created at Adobe Systems by John Warnock, Charles Geschke, ...
briefly describing what the remainder would have been. Almost all the stories were complete in typescript, mostly revised many times by the author. Only "The Comet" was left incomplete and needed small additions for a continuous narrative. In the 1980s, Williams made important links to debates on feminism, peace,
ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overl ...
and social movements, and extended his position beyond what might be recognised as
Marxism Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialec ...
. He concluded that with many different societies in the world, there would be not one, but many socialisms. Influenced partly by critical readings of Sebastiano Timpanaro and Rudolf Bahro, he called for convergence between the labour movement and what was then called the ecology movement. The Raymond Williams Society was founded in 1989 "to support and develop intellectual and political projects in areas broadly connected with Williams's work". Since 1998 it has published ''Key Words: A Journal of Cultural Materialism'', which is "committed to developing the tradition of cultural materialism" he originated. The Raymond Williams Centre for Recovery Research opened at Nottingham Trent University in 1995. The Raymond Williams Foundation (RWF) supports activities in adult education; it was originally formed in 1988 as the Raymond Williams Memorial Fund. A collaborative research project building on Williams's investigation of cultural keywords called the "Keywords Project", initiated in 2006, is supported by Jesus College, University of Cambridge, and the University of Pittsburgh. Similar projects building on Williams's legacy include the 2005 publication, ''New Keywords: A Revised Vocabulary of Culture and Society'', edited by the cultural-studies scholars Tony Bennett, Lawrence Grossberg, and Meaghan Morris, and the ''Keywords'' series from New York University Press including ''Keywords for American Cultural Studies.'' In 2007 a collection of Williams's papers was deposited at
Swansea University , former_names=University College of Swansea, University of Wales Swansea , motto= cy, Gweddw crefft heb ei dawn , mottoeng="Technical skill is bereft without culture" , established=1920 – University College of Swansea 1996 – University of Wa ...
by his daughter Merryn, herself a poet and author.Raymond Williams Society Newsletter


Works


Novels

* * * * * * *


Literary and cultural studies

* * * * – new edition with new introduction * – reissued with additional footnotes * – translated into Spanish * * – new edition, without play ''Koba'' and with new afterword * * * * * * * * * – translated into Spanish and Portuguese * * * – translated into Chinese (Taiwan's complex characters), Italian, Korean and Swedish * * * – translated into Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and Korean * * – reissued as * ''Culture'', Fontana New Sociology Series, Glasgow, Collins, 1981. US edition, The Sociology of Culture, New York, Schocken, 1982 – translated into Spanish * * * * * * * * * * – translated into Spanish * *


Short stories

* "Red Earth", ''Cambridge Front'', No. 2, 1941 * "Sack Labourer", ''English Short Story 1'', W. Wyatt, ed., London: Collins, 1941 * "Sugar", R. Williams, M. Orrom and M. J. Craig, eds, ''Outlook: a Selection of Cambridge Writings'', Cambridge, 1941, pp. 7–14 * "This Time", ''New Writing and Daylight'', No. 2, 1942–1943, J. Lehmann, ed., London: Collins, 1943, pp. 158–164 * "A Fine Room to be Ill In", ''English Story 8'', W. Wyatt (ed.), London, 1948 * "The Writing on the Wall", '' Colours of a New Day: Writing for South Africa'', Sarah LeFanu and Stephen Hayward, eds, London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1990


Drama

* '' Koba'' (1966), ''Modern Tragedy'', London, Chatto and Windus * ''A Letter from the Country'', BBC Television, April 1966, ''Stand'', 12 (1971), pp. 17–34 * ''Public Enquiry'', BBC Television, 15 March 1967, ''Stand'', 9 (1967), pp. 15–53


Introductions

* Seven-page introduction to '' All Things Betray Thee'', a novel by Gwyn Thomas


See also

* Anti-capitalism


References


Sources

* * *


Further reading


Book-length treatments

* Maria Elisa Cevasco, ''Para ler Raymond Williams'' (Portuguese of To Read Raymond Williams) São Paulo, Paz e Terra, 2001 *
Eagleton, Terry Terence Francis Eagleton (born 22 February 1943) is an English literary theorist, critic, and public intellectual. He is currently Distinguished Professor of English Literature at Lancaster University. Eagleton has published over forty books ...
, editor. ''Raymond Williams: Critical Perspectives''. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1989 * J. E. T. Ethridge, ''Raymond Williams: Making Connections''. New York: Routledge, 1994 * Jan Gorak, ''The Alien Mind of Raymond Williams''. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 1988 * John Higgins, ''Raymond Williams: Literature, Marxism and Cultural Materialism''. London and New York, Routledge, 1999 *
Fred Inglis Frederick Charles Inglis (born 17 May 1937) is Emeritus Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Sheffield in the UK. Previously Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Warwick, he has been a member of the School of Social Sci ...
, ''Raymond Williams''. London and New York: Routledge, 1995 * Paul Jones, "Raymond Williams's Sociology of Culture: A Critical Reconstruction". London: Palgrave, 2004 * David Lusted, ed., ''Raymond Williams: Film, TV, Culture'', London: British Film Institute, 1989 * Don Milligan
''Raymond Williams: Hope and Defeat in the Struggle for Socialism''
Studies in Anti-Capitalism, 2007 * Andrew Milner, ''Re-Imagining Cultural Studies: The Promise of Cultural Materialism'', London: Sage, 2002 * W. John Morgan and Peter Preston, eds. ''Raymond Williams: Politics, Education, Letters'', Macmillan Press, and St Martin's Press, , 1993 * Alan O'Connor, ''Raymond Williams: Writing, Culture, Politics''. Oxford and New York: Blackwell, 1989 * Alan O'Connor, ''Raymond Williams''. Critical Media Studies. Rowman and Littlefield, 2005 * Tony Pinkney, ed., ''Raymond Williams''. Bridgend, Mid Glamorgan, UK: Seren Books, 1991 * ''Politics and Letters'' (London, New Left Books, 1979) gives the author's own account of his life and work. * Dai Smith, ''Raymond Williams: A Warrior's Tale''. Cardigan: Parthian, 2008 * Nick Stevenson, ''Culture, Ideology, and Socialism: Raymond Williams and E.P. Thompson''. Aldershot, England: Avebury, 1995 * Nicolas Tredell, ''Uncancelled Challenge: the work of Raymond Williams''. Nottingham: Paupers' Press, 1990. * J. P. Ward, ''Raymond Williams'' in the Writers of Wales series. University of Wales Press, 1981 * Daniel Williams, ed., ''Who Speaks for Wales?: Nation, Culture, Identity'', Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2003 * Stephen Woodhams, ''History in the Making: Raymond Williams, Edward Thompson and Radical Intellectuals 1936–1956'', Merlin Press 2001


Articles

* Craig, Cairns, ''Peripheries'', in '' Cencrastus'' No. 9, Summer 1982, pp. 3–9, *


External links


The Raymond Williams Society

Raymond Williams Archive at Swansea University


* ttp://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/Raymond-Williams-in-retrospect-5615 Maurice Cowling on Raymond Williams
Selections from ''Keywords''



Raymond Williams page at ''The Literary Encyclopedia''

Raymond Williams Worldcat Identity

Raymond Williams at 100 Welsh Heroes

The Raymond Williams Foundation


– Keywords Project – University of Pittsburgh and Jesus College, Cambridge * Th
Raymond Williams' book collection
is housed at Special Collections and Archives, Cardiff University. {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Raymond 1921 births 1988 deaths 20th-century British short story writers 20th-century British novelists 20th-century British philosophers Academics of the University of Cambridge Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge British anti-capitalists Anti-consumerists British Army personnel of World War II British conscientious objectors British literary critics British Marxists Communist Party of Great Britain members British cultural critics Ecosocialists Fellows of Jesus College, Cambridge Literary theorists Marxist theorists Marxist writers Mass media theorists People from Abergavenny Philosophers of culture Philosophers of language Philosophers of literature Political philosophers British social commentators Social critics Social philosophers Welsh communists Welsh conscientious objectors Welsh literary critics Welsh male novelists Welsh scholars and academics Welsh short story writers Welsh socialists Royal Corps of Signals officers Utopian studies scholars