1984 & The Road to Wigan Pier

It is only when you meet someone of a different culture from yourself that you begin to realise what your own beliefs really are.Illustrated with historic and contemporary photographs.In early 1936 Victor Gollancz George Orwells publisher propsed a new project researching the economic hardships unemployment and grinding poverty faced by many in the north of England. Orwell visited numerous norther towns and cities including Barnsley Sheffield and Wigan the town which lends its name to the book experiencing first hand social conditions for working class families at the height of the Great Depression.The book is comprised of two parts: the first contained Orwells sociological investigation into the living conditions of working class people in Yorkshire and Lancashire. The second part is in many ways the philosophical and political response to the study - consisting of an essay in which Orwell describes is middle class upbringing and his growing support for socialism whilst also addressing some of the reasons as to why many people in Britain who would benefit from socialism remain averse to it.The Road to Wigan Pier remains both a fascinating primary historical account of social conditions of 1930s Britain and a powerful argument for socialism.