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John Maclean
by Henry Bell
(Pluto Press, £14.99)
AS THE 100th anniversary of the infamous Battle of George Square in Glasgow approaches, there will be much ink spilt about Red Clydeside and Henry Bell's timely book on John Maclean is a welcome contribution to the centenary commemorations.
Like any worthy biography, it's as much a biography of the milieu in which the subject lived. In this case, we get a portrait of Scotland's modernity — one of rapid urbanisation and its discontents — refracted through the figure of Maclean.
Both his parents fled from the Highland clearances to settle in the industrial slums of Glasgow, the second “workshop of the world,” and it's this important context that informs Maclean's politics and analysis.
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