Llevaba mucho tiempo sin leer un libro completo de ensayos. Aunque el género me agrada, estaba destinando mi tiempo libre para abordar algunos textos filosóficos y literarios (me refiero a ficción y poesía) que me llamaban la atención. Ahora, aprovechando la oportunidad de dictar un curso de Ensayos de opinión en la universidad en la que trabajo, decidí abordar algunos textos que había comprado hace tiempo. Some knowledge of politics and history is assumed, and I was left googling around a few of the topics: what was the significance of the Corn Laws exactly? Who could vote before the first Reform Bill? What happened next for the Church of Ireland? Did the Peelites run as independents afterwards (I guess so)?

Jorge Argueta. Somos como las nubes / We Are Like the Clouds. Pictures by Alfonso Ruano. Translated by Elisa Amado. Toronto: Groundwood Books, 2016. JonArno Lawson. Down in the Bottom of the Bottom of the Box. Illus. Alec Dempster. Ontario: The Porcupine’s Quill, 2012. 2012 Adoff wins The Lion and The Unicorn Poetry Award

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William Gladstone, like his hero, Tory Prime Minister Robert Peel, was the son of a wealthy manufacturer who had bought a country estate and provided his children with all the advantages of the British aristocracy, except the title. Gladstone's indefatigable high-church conscience pushed him to work incessantly. He rose through the political ranks, and become head of the Board of Trade under Peel by 1843, when he was only 34 years old. After the Tory Party broke apart under Peel's low tariff policy, he joined the rump group of "Peelites" fighting for free trade and the memory of their hero. He finally moved over to the Liberal Party, and became prime minister four separate times. Despite his attachment to the Church of England, he championed the freedom of Irish Catholicism and eventually Irish nationalism, and despite his frugal inclinations, supported increased outreach to the poor. Gladstone's dark secret, however, was that he spent many nights wandering the London streets looking for prostitutes, under the guise of "saving" them, and then whipped himself for his transgressions later. His whole life he walked a tight line between salvation and damnation. Eric Arthur Blair, known by his pen name as George Orwell, was born into a privileged class but developed socialist leanings and a shrewd writing style that spawned an output of essays, newspaper articles, literary criticism and novels. He is also critical of many political movements, among which, his statement on pacifism stands out even today.: On the bright side, our sense of togetherness saves us from overt hostility. It also means that we’re mostly tolerant of others, and that differences of opinion don’t have to carry too much resentment at the end of the day. Though he himself is a nationalist, he honestly talks about the paradox of otherwise meaningless fights that nationalism brings with it:

Shopkeepers at War - He makes the case for a socialist system in England and declares that the old ruling class and their capitalism must be overthrown for the simple reason that private capitalism, that is, an economic system in which land, factories, mines and transport are owned privately and operated solely for profit- does not work.

Then, Lenny himself must go away, evacuated from his home and family to escape the bombing. Staying in a strange new place, Lenny gathers all his lion bravery, all his unicorn courage, and discovers that magic can happen, even in the most desperate of times. Teaching Ideas and Resources: English

It's incredibly rare for two politicians to dominate a period of political history as Gladstone and Disraeli did, but that is precisely what happened in Parliament from the 1860s-1880s. After a period of tumultuous exchanges of power in the House of Commons, the twisting power grabs of these two excellent politicians makes for fascinating reading. He believes in nationalism (as against a world government which he considers not viable) but concludes that a nation is beyond political or military cultures. He would rather drive his nationality in England's law, literature and commercial culture (a nation of shopkeepers). The name of the book this is “Lion and Unicorn”, it was wrote and illustrated by Shirley Hughes. The first version was published in 1998. But their is an other version published on 7 September 2000 by the publisher Red Fox. Shirley Hughes has received a lot of awards but I don't know if this book has won an award.His understanding of English patriotism matches mine exactly and reminds me of Billy Bragg's call for people on the left to love their country as much as people on the right seem to. I love the small observations on how the English character is distinctive and different from that of other nationalities. In addition to his literary career Orwell served as a police officer with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma from 1922-1927 and fought with the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War from 1936-1937. Orwell was severely wounded when he was shot through his throat. Later the organization that he had joined when he joined the Republican cause, The Workers Party of Marxist Unification (POUM), was painted by the pro-Soviet Communists as a Trotskyist organization (Trotsky was Joseph Stalin's enemy) and disbanded. Orwell and his wife were accused of "rabid Trotskyism" and tried in absentia in Barcelona, along with other leaders of the POUM, in 1938. However by then they had escaped from Spain and returned to England.