Why Orwell Matters

By: Christopher Hitchens

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Synopsis: George Orwell's body of work does not offer an easy categorization of his political stances. A product of English elite schooling, Orwell was posted to Burma as a colonial officer. Hitchens chronicles Orwell's experiences in that role and his subsequent evaluation of the brutalizing effects colonialism has on both the occupiers and the occupied. This led to a lifelong hatred of authoritarianism which led him to become a committed socialist. Like many socialists of the time, Orwell had great hopes for the Soviet Union. After witnessing Stalin's iron-fisted suppression of dissent during the Spanish Civil War he saw Stalin to be as great a danger to civilization as Hitler. Hitchens examines Orwell's exasperation at the refusal of his socialist comrades to accept that their hopes for the promise of Communism had been brutally and cynically manipulated and betrayed. Although Orwell was contemptuous of the Right, he has nonetheless been claimed by them, although uneasily. The Left has never been comfortable with Orwell either. How this has come about and why is the subject of "Why Orwell Matters". Hitchens' prose is always a joy to read, though his contrariarnism can be jarring at times. "Why Orwell Matters" is probably Hitchen's least polemic works. If you've ever wanted to get a better understanding of George Orwell - and don't want to wade through an exhaustive biography, this is the book for you.