Raymond Williams

Raymond Williams-a Welsh media critic and a pioneer of cultural studies-believed that the traditional focus of biographies on individuals isolated these people from their communities. For this reason, Alan O’Connor looks at Williams and his time period-one of social change and crisis. Williams, son of a railway worker, would have pursued university studies had World War II not disrupted his plans. So the unorthodox intellectual worked outside the university until 1960, his revolutionary media studies emphasizing the interchange between culture and democracy. O’Connor concludes with the same message Williams advocated: In a period dominated by conservative forces, it is still worthwhile to struggle for small changes.

Alan O’Connor is associate professor of cultural studies at Trent University in Canada.