THE year 1936 marked the start of the Spanish civil war, the remilitarisation of the Rhineland, the Jarrow Crusade and the nazis’ Olympic games in Berlin. It also saw the launch of the Left Book Club.

The club, founded by Stafford Cripps, Victor Gollancz and John Stratchey, was to publish titles including Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier, Arthur Koestler’s Spanish Testament and A L Morton’s A People’s History of England over the next 12 years. Its stated objective was to “help in the struggle for world peace and against fascism,” but more broadly it sought to get the British left thinking about ideas.

The past few months have seen politics invigorated on a scale not seen for generations. We’re seeing it in the destruction of Greece and the collapse of EU democracy, and in the surge in support for left-wing Labour leadership candidate Jeremy Corbyn.

In spite of this, the institutions of “official” politics are remarkably bereft of thinking. Just look back to the dreary state of the Labour leadership election before Corbyn’s entry. It would be laughable to even ask which theorists or thinkers have inspired Liz Kendall’s programme.

And even on the fringes, how often is there an opportunity to stop and think? Social media makes it all the more exciting to follow events as they unfold, but too often we end up with an incomplete patchwork of the facts. How can we possibly even understand an analysis, let alone develop one ourselves?

In this political climate, the rebirth of the Left Book Club could not be more timely or more vital. Over the past year, a collective of activists, writers and trade unionists has been working with the radical publisher Pluto Press to build both a network of readers and discussion groups and a professional means of producing books.

Not aligned to any particular group or faction, the new Left Book Club launches in September with its first book — fittingly, one seeking to make sense of the situation in Greece.

In Syriza: Escaping the Labyrinth, Kevin Ovenden, who reported on the Greek elections for the Morning Star, will track the party’s rise and its turbulent first six months in office — and the fallout from its confrontation with “Merkelism” and the troika. Next up will be The Rent Trap, an investigation of the housing crisis by Samir Jeraj and Rosie Walker, which promises to be the first critical account of what is going on in the private rented sector. Also in the pipeline is a cutting indictment of austerity from Jeremy Seabrook and Ken Livingstone’s analysis of the mayoral elections. With additional titles mooted on the EU, climate change, new forms of protest and radical history, this is surely a line-up for our times.

The original club played a pivotal role in the formation of the post-war Labour government, numbering no fewer than 11 members of the new cabinet among its authors, including Ernest Bevin, Herbert Morrison and prime minister Clement Attlee.

It would be foolish to make promises or prophesies in today’s very different political climate, but we hope the re-established club can play its part in pulling our politics away from both vacuous soundbites and dry, distant academia.

Surely there is a place for a plain-speaking discourse that is not afraid to give pressing issues the time of day they deserve? This is what we’re aiming for in the four books a year to be sent to members for their £40 subscription — which will be written in a jargon-free journalistic style.

Club members will also be invited to events discussing major political issues and have access to a lively online discussion forum, newsletters and special offers on non-LBC titles.

The club is already appealing to figures outside the comfort zone of traditional activist circles. The writer and mythographer Marina Warner calls it “an important, strong, timely idea.” The poet and dramatist Heathcote Williams, also a supporter, believes the original club is “owed a huge debt as an intellectual mojo.” To relaunch it, he says, is “the most natural thing in the world.”

The Left Book Club will be the sum of its members. Please join us and help give intellectual ballast to the wave of change sweeping across Europe.

• To find out more about the Left Book Club, and to subscribe, visit www.leftbookclub.com.
• Anna Minton is the author of Ground Control and a reader in architecture at the University of East London. Conrad Landin is the Morning Star’s industrial reporter. Both sit on the LBC’s board of directors.