In May–June 1951, Carr delivered a series of speeches on British radio entitled "The New Society", that advocated a commitment to mass democracy, egalitarian democracy, and "public control and planning" of the economy. Carr was a reclusive man whom few knew well, but his circle of close friends included Isaac Deutscher, A. J. P. Taylor, Harold Laski and Karl Mannheim. Carr was especially close to Deutscher. In the early 1950s, when Carr sat on the editorial board of Chatham House, he attempted to block the publication of the manuscript that eventually became "The Origins of the Communist Autocracy" by Leonard Schapiro on the ground that the subject of repression in the Soviet Union was not a serious topic for a historian. As interest in the subject of Communism grew, Carr largely abandoned international relations as a field of study. In 1956, Carr did not comment on the Soviet suppression of the Hungarian Uprising, while at the same time condemning the Suez War.