ABSTRACT
George Orwell was the twentieth century's greatest propagandist for liberty. A despiser of fascism and an advocate of democratic socialism, Orwell was one of the first prominent intellectuals of the European Left to decry the menace of Soviet communism, which he saw as a sadistic betrayal of genuine revolution. Orwell saw how totalitarian regimes could manipulate popular perceptions by altering historical memory and politicizing language, a practice he termed "Newspeak." Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair on June 25, 1903, in Motihari, India, into a family that he described as part of the English "lower-upper-middle class." The first half details the degradations of the poor and the environmental and aesthetic costs of industrial capitalism; the second half explains why socialism, despite its justice, had become unattractive to the middle class and was losing ground to fascism. Like any smart informer, Orwell was good at spotting his enemies and even better at fingering his friends.
