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Black, David "Helen Macfarlane. A Feminist, Revolutionary Journalist and Philosopher in Mid-Nineteenth-Century England". Lexington Books, Lanham, Toronto, Oxford. 2004. Pbk. Vii, 177pp. index.. Includes Macfarlane's original translation of "The Communist Manifesto". ISBN 0-7391-0864-6 £12.00

I have to confess that before receiving this book I hadn't heard of Helen Macfarlane, which is one reason why I looked forward to reading it. However, having read it, I can now see why I hadn't heard of her. Apart from a brief foray into the world of revolutionary politics in Britain in 1850, she seems to have passed through without leaving much of a trace. Indeed David Black has been unable to find a date or place of birth, marriage (if any) or death. What little is known can be summarised by saying she was in Vienna in 1848 at the time of the uprising, was radicalised by what she saw and was in contact with Hegelian thinkers. On her return to Britain she became associated with George Harney, writing in Democratic Review, Red Republican and Friend of the People, initially under her own name and then as "Howard Morton".

It was whilst writing for the Red Republican that she had her translation of the Communist Manifesto published in November 1850. However, in 1851 she appears to have moved north, following a falling out with Harney, although she was absent from the Macfarlane household in Burnley at the time of the 1851 census. What became of her seems a mystery. She may have married and retired from politics or perhaps she went abroad. We simply don't know.

Helen Macfarlane was, without doubt, one of the most "advanced" writers in Britain at this time. She was familiar with the works of Hegel and knew Marx and his circle. We are given only a few glimpses of her journalism, which is unfortunate, as few readers are likely to be able to dig out and read the originals, so we cannot get from this book a complete view of her as a writer and thinker. What is provided is a copy of her translation of the Communist Manifesto, done from the German. Now I can't claim any familiarity with any other versions and so can't give a comparative evaluation of her translation. Certainly it lacks some of the most phrases such as the "spectre haunting Europe", rendered as a hobgoblin and the equally famous "all that is solid melts into air". But it is a workwoman like attempt and one loses very little by the changes.

David Black takes considerable pains to situate Helen Macfarlane within the radical and revolutionary movement in Britain in the mid nineteenth century, the time when, after the excitement of the 1848 revolutions in Europe and there eventual suppression, Chartism in Britain finally dwindled away, leaving the ground ready for a more revolutionary approach to working class political action on the one hand and a slew of liberal and "radical" approaches on the other. It was a time of great change - economically and socially as well as politically - but one in which revolutionary politics made little impact in Britain. Maybe Helen Macfarlane tired of the in-fighting among the British radicals and the scheming of the exile revolutionaries and retired into the world of domesticity - or perhaps she went abroad to continue her studies. Whatever, she vanishes from history.

David Black has written an interesting book, which uses Helen Macfarlane as a focus for discussions on mid nineteenth century British politics and the development of communist ideology. Her translation of the Communist manifesto is welcome, but personally I would have preferred to have seen her own journalism reprinted. Neat production and a reasonable price for what is an academic text. Recommended to anyone who has an interest in this period of British history or the development of political ideas.

7/10

Richard Alexander