page_title: Left Book Club
section_title: Relaunch
hierarchical_section_title: Left Book Club / Relaunch
caption_attribution_description: English: Logo for the Left Book Club
context_page_description: The Left Book Club was a publishing group that exerted a strong left-wing influence in Great Britain from 1936 to 1948.
  Pioneered by Victor Gollancz, it offered a monthly book choice, for sale to members only, as well as a newsletter that acquired the status of a major political magazine. It also held an annual rally. Membership peaked at 57,000, but after the Soviet-Nazi non-aggression pact of 1939, it disowned its large Communist element, and subsequent years of paper-rationing, during and after the war, led to further decline. It ceased publishing in 1948.
  The concept and series was revived in 2015, following at least one earlier effort to relaunch the series in the early 2000s.
context_section_description: In 2015 the Left Book Club was relaunched as a non-profit organisation with the aim of encouraging left-wing debate and discussion among its followers. Its first publication was Kevin Ovenden's Syriza: Inside the Labyrinth. Initially publishing four books a year in conjunction with Pluto Press, in October 2018 it stepped up its publishing programme to publish a book every month, working with a range of different publishers. The club remains not for profit and is funded by subscriptions and voluntary contributions. Books are selected by an editorial panel and are chosen to represent the best critical writing on left politics, economics, society and culture, written for a broad audience. Subscribers can choose from classic or contemporary writing. Each book is published in a unique LBC edition which is paid for through monthly subscriptions, and members organise their own reading groups to discuss the books.
  MP for Islington North Jeremy Corbyn offered wholehearted support to the project. "The relaunch of the Left Book Club is a terrific and timely idea, and will give intellectual ballast to the wave of political change sweeping Britain and beyond, encouraging informed and compassionate debate. I have a large collection of Left Book Club publications collected by my late parents and me. The works will open minds and inspire. I support the new LBC wholeheartedly."
caption: Logo of the relaunched LBC (2015)
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