2,329 subscribers
Go offline with the Player FM app!
Podcasts Worth a Listen
SPONSORED


1 Battle Camp S1: Reality Rivalries with Dana Moon & QT 1:00:36
Ken Loach on Gerrard Winstanley
Manage episode 378300365 series 1301287
Veteran British film director Ken Loach nominates the 17th century radical pamphleteer and and leader of the Diggers, Gerrard Winstanley.
Born in Wigan in 1609, Winstanley began writing religious pamphlets after his cloth selling business in London went bankrupt and he was forced to move to the country. There his 'heart was filled with sweet thoughts ... that the earth shall be made a common treasury of livelihood to all mankind', for 'the great Creator Reason, made the Earth to be a Common Treasury... for Man had Domination given to him, over the Beasts, Birds and Fishes; but not one word was spoken in the beginning, that one branch of mankind should rule over another."
Winstanley began to dig a nearby wasteland, calling on others - rich and poor -to join him in the digging, which he believed would start a revolution and feed the poor. His ideas were radical, communal, spiritual and deeply challenging. Within a year the Diggers had been aggressively expelled from their site of occupation.
The late Tony Benn called the Diggers, 'the first true socialists', but Winstanley has also been claimed by anarchists and environmentalists.
With Emeritus Professor of Early Modern history, Ann Hughes.
Presented by Matthew Parris and produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Ellie Richold
381 episodes
Manage episode 378300365 series 1301287
Veteran British film director Ken Loach nominates the 17th century radical pamphleteer and and leader of the Diggers, Gerrard Winstanley.
Born in Wigan in 1609, Winstanley began writing religious pamphlets after his cloth selling business in London went bankrupt and he was forced to move to the country. There his 'heart was filled with sweet thoughts ... that the earth shall be made a common treasury of livelihood to all mankind', for 'the great Creator Reason, made the Earth to be a Common Treasury... for Man had Domination given to him, over the Beasts, Birds and Fishes; but not one word was spoken in the beginning, that one branch of mankind should rule over another."
Winstanley began to dig a nearby wasteland, calling on others - rich and poor -to join him in the digging, which he believed would start a revolution and feed the poor. His ideas were radical, communal, spiritual and deeply challenging. Within a year the Diggers had been aggressively expelled from their site of occupation.
The late Tony Benn called the Diggers, 'the first true socialists', but Winstanley has also been claimed by anarchists and environmentalists.
With Emeritus Professor of Early Modern history, Ann Hughes.
Presented by Matthew Parris and produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Ellie Richold
381 episodes
All episodes
×

1 Maggi Hambling picks muse and lover Henrietta Moraes 27:35








1 A N Wilson selects Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 27:47








1 Dr Hannah Critchlow picks Professor Colin Blakemore 27:59




1 Ekow Eshun on the first openly gay footballer, Justin Fashanu 27:47
Welcome to Player FM!
Player FM is scanning the web for high-quality podcasts for you to enjoy right now. It's the best podcast app and works on Android, iPhone, and the web. Signup to sync subscriptions across devices.