Dave Renton
Encyclopedia
Dave Renton is a left-wing writer and historian.
Renton is a great-nephew of the Communist historian Dona Torr
and the explorer Rosita Forbes
. His maternal grandfather was the Australian shoe designer and Holocaust survivor Kurt Geiger, and his paternal uncle is Tim Renton, Baron Renton of Mount Harry
.
Renton studied as an undergraduate at Oxford University with Ross McKibbin and as a postgraduate at Sheffield with Richard Thurlow and Colin Holmes (British historian)
, before teaching at various universities in Britain and South Africa. At Oxford, Renton was one of the organisers of a campaign to commemorate murdered refugee Said Guleid Ahmed.
His two best-known books are Fascism, theory and practice, and When we touched the Sky. Fascism, theory and practice criticises the "new consensus" theory of fascism associated with Roger Griffin
and others, in which fascism is understood as a form of palingenetic ultranationalism. Renton's approach is to analyse fascism as a specific form of reactionary mass politics. In contrast to Griffin, Renton places greater emphasis on what he portrays as a key contradiction between the popular support many fascist parties have enjoyed, and their ideology, which was radically inegalitarian and anti-democratic. Fascism, in Renton's argument, is always a tentative politics, capable of rapid growth but also organisational lethargy or even collapse.
In When we touched the Sky, Renton considers the part played by anti-fascists in the Anti-Nazi League
in bringing about the defeat of the British National Front
.
He works as a barrister in London.
Renton is a great-nephew of the Communist historian Dona Torr
Dona Torr
Dona Ruth Anne Torr was a British Marxist historian, and a major influence on the Communist Party Historians Group. Aside from her translations of many Marxist classics into English, she is perhaps best known for her unfinished biography of the important labour activist, Tom Mann, Tom Mann and his...
and the explorer Rosita Forbes
Rosita Forbes
Rosita Forbes, née Joan Rosita Torr was an English travel writer and explorer. In 1920-21 she was the first European woman to visit the Kufra Oasis in Libya , in a period when this was closed to westerners...
. His maternal grandfather was the Australian shoe designer and Holocaust survivor Kurt Geiger, and his paternal uncle is Tim Renton, Baron Renton of Mount Harry
Tim Renton, Baron Renton of Mount Harry
Ronald Timothy Renton, Baron Renton of Mount Harry, PC , is a British Conservative Party politician. He served as a Minister of State in both the Foreign Office and the Home Office, and as a Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury. He was promoted to the Cabinet serving as Margaret Thatcher's Chief...
.
Renton studied as an undergraduate at Oxford University with Ross McKibbin and as a postgraduate at Sheffield with Richard Thurlow and Colin Holmes (British historian)
Colin Holmes (British historian)
Colin Holmes is a British author, scholar, and historian. He is an Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Sheffield, where his academic interests include migration, racism, antisemitism, and fascism.-Academic career:...
, before teaching at various universities in Britain and South Africa. At Oxford, Renton was one of the organisers of a campaign to commemorate murdered refugee Said Guleid Ahmed.
His two best-known books are Fascism, theory and practice, and When we touched the Sky. Fascism, theory and practice criticises the "new consensus" theory of fascism associated with Roger Griffin
Roger Griffin
Roger D. Griffin is a British academic political theorist at Oxford Brookes University, England. His recent efforts have focused on a definition and examination of fascism...
and others, in which fascism is understood as a form of palingenetic ultranationalism. Renton's approach is to analyse fascism as a specific form of reactionary mass politics. In contrast to Griffin, Renton places greater emphasis on what he portrays as a key contradiction between the popular support many fascist parties have enjoyed, and their ideology, which was radically inegalitarian and anti-democratic. Fascism, in Renton's argument, is always a tentative politics, capable of rapid growth but also organisational lethargy or even collapse.
In When we touched the Sky, Renton considers the part played by anti-fascists in the Anti-Nazi League
Anti-Nazi League
The Anti-Nazi League was an organisation set up in 1977 on the initiative of the Socialist Workers Party with sponsorship from some trade unions and the endorsement of a list of prominent people to oppose the rise of far-right groups in the United Kingdom. It was wound down in 1981...
in bringing about the defeat of the British National Front
British National Front
The National Front is a far right, white-only political party whose major political activities took place during the 1970s and 1980s. Its popularity peaked in the 1979 general election, when it received 191,719 votes ....
.
He works as a barrister in London.
Books
- Dave Renton (2000). Fascism, Anti-Fascism and the 1940s
- Dave Renton and Keith FlettKeith FlettKeith Flett is a socialist historian and a prolific letter writer in the British press.-Activities:Letters from "Keith Flett, London N17" are regularly published in the press, literary and political journals, advancing his favoured causes of socialism and the Beard Liberation Front...
(2000). The Twentieth Century - Dave Renton (2001). This Rough Game
- Dave Renton (2001). Marx on Globalization
- Dave Renton and James Eaden (2002) The Communist Party since 1920
- Dave Renton (2002). Classical Marxism
- Dave Renton and Keith FlettKeith FlettKeith Flett is a socialist historian and a prolific letter writer in the British press.-Activities:Letters from "Keith Flett, London N17" are regularly published in the press, literary and political journals, advancing his favoured causes of socialism and the Beard Liberation Front...
(2003). New Approaches to Socialist History - Dave Renton (2004). Dissident Marxism
- Dave Renton (2004). Trotsky
- Dave Renton (2004). Sidney Pollard: a Life in History
- Dave Renton and Nigel Copsey (2004). British Fascism, the Labour Movement and the State
- Dave Renton, Leo Zeilig and David Seddon (2006). The Congo
- Dave Renton (2006) When we touched the Sky: the ANL 1977-1981
- Dave Renton (2007) CLR James: Cricket's Philosopher King. Haus PublishingHaus PublishingHaus Publishing is a London-based publishing company which was formally established in 2002.-History:Haus Publishing was founded in 2005 by Barbara Schwepcke, the former publisher of Prospect magazine...
- Dave Renton (2008) Colour Blind? Race and Migration in North East England