In 1956, when he wrote the philippic against Anthony Eden that appears overleaf, Malcolm Muggeridge was waging a class war, open war against rule by the upper class. By the time Ian Jack wrote the final article in this collection the matter of class was, though by no means irrelevant, certainly more confusing. The transformation that took place in the intervening years emerges vividly from the bound volumes of the New Statesman in many forms, and the following pages contain a sample of the more eye-catching pieces. As before, the headlines are the originals, but many of the articles have had to be abridged. The selection ends, perhaps, a little early for a "century", but from about 1990 the events described took on a contemporary air which seemed to exclude them - Brian Cathcart

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