ABSTRACT
In Lifetimes of Commitment, Molly Andrews looks at the sustained commitment of ‘fifteen people who, for at least half a century, have dedicated themselves to working for social change’. In doing so, she undoes the opposition between youthful radicalism and ageing conservatism. The men and women whose lives she looks at and listens to have grown into, not out of socialism. Theirs have been lifetimes of sustained political commitment, inspiring and instructive. Andrews defines ‘commitment’ in terms of a lasting adherence to the politics of social change. She maps out four features of commitment-intention, duration, action, and priority. Her fifteen interviewees have led committed lives for over half a century, participating in a variety of political struggles, from fighting Franco to actively opposing apartheid.
