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The Fatal Lure of Politics by Terry Irving
Engrossing biography of eminent archaeologist with a revolutionary impulse
PROPELLED TOWARDS MARXISM: Vere Gordon Childe [Andrew Swan Watson/Creative Commons]

 

FEW today will know the name Vere Gordon Childe, but, during the first half of the 20th century until his assumed suicide in 1957, he was a world-renowned and key figure in the worlds of archaeology and European prehistory as well as being a radical Marxist.

He wrote more than 20 books, including the popular What Happened in History, which sold 300,000 copies, as well as numerous articles and essays. His scholarly reputation rests largely on the work he did in Britain from the late 1920s until 1957.

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