In 2011 his first work of criticism,Folk Opposition,was published by Zero Books.[14] The book attempted to reclaim a variety of populist and folk culture motifs for the political left. Writing in the journal of the Institute for Public Policy Research,Niki Seth-Smith described it as a "rebuttal to ... knee jerk reactions [about folk culture] by way of careful historicisation and incisive cultural analysis",[15] while Joe Kennedy of The Quietus described it as "one of 2011's most incisive polemics".[16]
In 2014,his second book,a study of the Oasis album Definitely Maybe,was published in Bloomsbury Publishing's 33⅓ series.[17] Summarising the book in Pitchfork,Stephen M. Deusner wrote that Niven "makes his arguments with such insight that for a while I did come to think of Oasis as a bunch of leftist revolutionaries reconceiving pop music as a vehicle for working-class liberation."[18]
In 2019,his third book was published:New Model Island:How to Build a Radical Culture Beyond the Idea of England.[19]Tom Whyman described it in Jacobin as "suffused with a deep love of the North East",[20] while Tim Burrows of The Guardian called it "a rare thing:a critique that provides practical suggestions about how to change things –specifically England –for the better."[12]
In 2023,his book on Northern England,The North Will Rise Again:In Search of the Future in Northern Heartlands,was published by Bloomsbury Publishing. It was described by Andy Burnham as a "great book",[4] though Stuart Maconie,writing in New Statesman,was critical of Niven's judgement that descriptions of Diane Abbott as "disgusting" and "stupid" by voters during the 2019 United Kingdom general election were influenced by racial prejudice.[5] Maconie argued that "it is simply not good enough to slander anyone ... unimpressed by Diane Abbott as a racist".[21]
1 2 Niven, Alex (2023). The North Will Rise Again: In Search of the Future in Northern Heartlands. Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-399-41401-2. OCLC 1420813068.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
