Paul Corthorn

Historian Paul Corthorn argues that Enoch Powell was about much more than his ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech and should be considered a seminal political intellectual of his time rather than as a divisive figure.

Corthorn looks at Powell’s political life from the 1950s onwards and reveals a man who thought deeply about many of the key debates. He rejected the Cold War emphasis on the Anglo-American alliance; he promoted free market economics before it was fashionable; vehemently opposed membership of the European Community; and supported unilateral nuclear disarmament. Corthorn argues that Powell’s sometimes contradictory positions can be seen as coherent against the backdrop of a decline in Britain’s international, military and economic power.

Corthorn is a senior lecturer in modern history at Queen’s University Belfast and author of In the Shadow of the Dictators: The British Left in the 1930s.