Witnesses

The year now coming to its end has marked the centenary of three fine British anti-Communist writers: Evelyn Waugh, George Orwell, and Malcolm Muggeridge. Each tried his hand at different kinds of writing, but I do not think it seriously unfair to tag them by the work they are best known for — as, respectively, a novelist, an essayist, and a journalist. All three writers lived among contemporaries held in thrall by the illusion of progress and social justice in the Soviet Union. All saw through that illusion very early. They were, you might say, premature anti-Communists.

It is not altogether coincidence that three of the West’s clearest voices for reason and liberty were born in precisely the same year. The observers best placed to witness, and reflect on, the tremendous events of the 20th century’s first half were the generation that came of age in the aftermath of WWI, Western civilization’s greatest crisis. To have been born in the early years of that century; to have had one’s childhood memories formed before the cataclysm; to have entered adolescence as the war was being fought; to have seen the shattered, disoriented post-war world with the receptive eyes of early adulthood — to have been part of that demographic cohort was to have had a grandstand seat at one of history’s most gripping spectacles.

About the Author

John Derbyshire

Mr. Derbyshire is a former contributing editor of National Review.

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The year now coming to its end has marked the centenary of three fine British anti-Communist writers: Evelyn Waugh, George Orwell, and Malcolm Muggeridge. Each tried his hand at different kinds of writing, but I do not think it seriously unfair to tag them by the work they are best known for — as, respectively, a novelist, an essayist, and a journalist. All three writers lived among contemporaries held in thrall by the illusion of progress and social justice in the Soviet Union. All saw through that illusion very early. They were, you might say, premature anti-Communists.

It is not altogether coincidence that three of the West’s clearest voices for reason and liberty were born in precisely the same year. The observers best placed to witness, and reflect on, the tremendous events of the 20th century’s first half were the generation that came of age in the aftermath of WWI, Western civilization’s greatest crisis. To have been born in the early years of that century; to have had one’s childhood memories formed before the cataclysm; to have entered adolescence as the war was being fought; to have seen the shattered, disoriented post-war world with the receptive eyes of early adulthood — to have been part of that demographic cohort was to have had a grandstand seat at one of history’s most gripping spectacles.