Out of the Ordinary

An elegant essay on the need to recognize the value in down-to-earth, small scale activity as well as the grand scheme. -- Andrew Hill * Financial Times *
Uncovers a hidden tradition in British politics, one of local attachments and civic pride, which he pieces together from the writings of George Orwell, J. B. Priestley, D. H. Lawrence, and Dylan Thomas, figures who placed as Stears puts it, ‘humble, everyday humanity’ at the center of their optimistic understanding of a politics of a patriotic and progressive left. Orwell et al. are all figures from the past, whose influence peaked during the 1940s. But Stears believes they give hope Britons can escape the current culture war which pits a conservative ‘Us’ against a liberal ‘Them.’ -- Steven Fielding * The Spectator *
[An] elegiac study of how our literary and aesthetic past might animate our political future…Stears [is] trying to make the larger point that it is in our daily life that the most significant experiences reside and that politics is too often unhelpfully broad-brush, arrogantly distant from the things that really matter. -- Melissa Benn * New Statesman *
Stands as a timely and provocative work of centrism. -- Peter Berard * Los Angeles Review of Books *
Beautifully written and evocative, Out of the Ordinary moves artfully between personal narrative and historical reflection, political theory and literary criticism. It is a wonderful book, illuminating and engrossing. -- Nicholas Pearce, University of Bath
Out of the Ordinary is a brilliant account of a neglected tradition of radical political thought and a compelling contribution to contemporary political debate. Stears deftly evokes a generation of British writers and artists who confronted extremism, technocratic rule, and populism in the mid-twentieth century—and demonstrates that their political thought speaks powerfully to the troubled politics of our own time. -- Benjamin Jackson, University of Oxford
Out of the Ordinary is a moving and intimate reflection on a potent, lost moment in British cultural history and what it still might mean for our political imaginations, and in it Marc Stears has found his voice. -- Helen Thompson, Professor of Political Economy, University of Cambridge
Inspiring and energizing, Out of the Ordinary lays out a vision for social and political progress through solidarity and rooted in everyday human dignity. Against the ideological rigidities of our age and polarization of our thinking, Stears eloquently and movingly draws on a British intellectual lineage represented by George Orwell, Dylan Thomas, and Barbara Jones to show us how tradition can be combined with progress, patriotism with diversity, and individual rights with social duties. -- Danielle Allen, author of Our Declaration and Cuz
A brilliant, subtle book…Serves up a remarkable lost history of British radical ideas and offers a set of well-conceived policy proposals…Ought to be widely and closely read. As both a historical narrative and a work of political theory, it is an important book. -- Seamus Flaherty * Spiked *
Stears’ book cites and quotes exhilarating, vivid, poetic descriptions and invocations of shared ordinary life…There is much to enjoy in this readable book. -- Elizabeth Frazer * Society *