Childe among the Penguins

Abstract

Gordon Childe ( 1892-1957), often considered the most distinguished European prehistorian of his time, had a previous career as political activist and New South Wales civil servant. As recent work has demonstrated (Gathercole et al. 1995), this career provided some richly varied experiences of the vagaries of politics, including the knife-thrusts that can enliven those of the university world. In 1927, however, as he told his friend, Palme Dutt, founder member of the CPGB (Dutt 1965), Childe abandoned involvement in revolutionary politics in favour of the academic life, when he was appointed the first holder of the Abercromby Chair of Prehistoric Archaeology at Edinburgh University. Nonetheless, in the broad sense his archaeological writings never wholly abjured their political contexts. For example, the very title of his first book, The Dawn of European Civilization (1925), carried at least an implied acceptance of the concept of social evolution, while by 1933 at least, marxist formulations were appearing in his work (Gathercole 1994:38). To a degree this quickening of political emphasis can be related to the changing political situation in Europe, especially the rise of fascism and the change in the Comintern's line from communist sectarianism to the call for left wing alliances to face this threat. Western intellectuals helped to mould, as much as respond to, what was then emerging as a novel political and intellectual climate, triggered partly by the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, activating scientists as much as poets and novelists, not least in Britain (cf. Hynes 1976; Werskey 1978). One of the publishers connected with these developments was Watts & Co., associated with the Rationalist Press Association, also the publisher of the book one can regard above all others as Childe's contribution to this new intellectual climate, Man Makes Himself ( 1936). Based on drafts prepared for a proposed but abandoned Marxist history of science (Gathercole 1994:33-34), the book offered a rationalist case for social evolution with a clear anti-fascist stance (cf. Childe 1936:2). Indeed, when reviewing it, Ashley-Montagu felt able to claim that in a sense, 'this book represents a more convincing exposition of the Mamian thesis than even Das Kapital itself (Ashley-Montagu 1937534). The book was an immediate success, reprinted in 1937 and many times thereafter, with at least 13 translations (Gathercole et. al. 1990). In 1938 Man Makes Himself came to the attention of Allen Lane, head of the paperback publishers, Penguin Books. The following account traces how this single, almost casual event led eventually to the writing and publication of What Happened in History - in both sales and influence Childe's most successful book. The prime source is the correspondence between Childe and Lane and other members of his editorial staff, now housed in the Penguin Books Archive in the University Library, University of Bristol. But to establish the context of the genesis of the book it is first necessary to say something about the company's early days. Penguin Books was established in 1935 to publish cheap but good quality paperbacks, initially reprints of books previously issued by other publishers (Hare 1995). The venture was immediately successful, and in 1937 Lane launched a parallel series, Pelicans, whose topics were to range from the natural and physical sciences to the humanities and social sciences (Hare 1995:50-56). From the start Pelicans, because of the standing of many of their authors as much as of their range of titles, were recognized for their valuable contribution to adult education. In fact, to be a Pelican author quickly became a position of some note.