History

Lawrence Wishart was formed in 1936, as a result of a merger between Martin Lawrence, the Communist Party press, and Wishart Limited, a family owned liberal and anti-fascist publisher. The new press was soon immersed in the political and cultural life of the Popular Front, publishing literature, drama and poetry, as well as political economy, working-class history and the classics of Marxism. New Writing, a twice-yearly LW anthology, published writers such as W.H. Auden, Ralph Fox, Christopher Isherwood and Cecil Day Lewis.

During the post-war period, LW also published work from the Communist Party’s History Group, including early work by Eric Hobsbawm, Christopher Hill, Edward Thompson and John Saville. Other outstanding marxist writers published in this period include J.D. Bernal, George Thompson and Brian Simon. Amongst the many working-class works of fiction and reportage that we published during the 1950s and 1960s, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists stands out as a classic.

The 1970s was the decade of Eurocommunism and critical Marxism. LW began its project of translating the work of Antonio Gramsci, whose work remains crucial for an understanding of the relationship between politics and culture. There were also publications charting emerging social movements and new forms of politics.

From the mid-1980s, LW began a period of transformation and development. Cultural studies was bringing a new dimension to critical political theory, and LW published work that brought the insights of cultural studies to bear on more traditional political concerns with questions of ideology, politics and power. It sought to broaden the political analysis by drawing on emerging new perspectives on gender, race and sexuality, with innovative approaches to culture and identity. Work was published by Joseph Bristow, Beatrix Campbell, Lorraine Gamman, Doreen Massey, Christopher Norris, Michael Rustin, Judith Squires, Jeffrey Weeks and Lola Young – to name a few.

In the 1990s LW established its reputation as a journals publisher. We now publish Soundings, New Formations, Renewal, Anarchist Studies, Twentieth Century Communism, Socialist History and FORUM, all of which, in their different ways, engage critically with contemporary political culture.