Co-Operative Revolution: A graphic novel

The Co-Operative Revolution begins with the story of the Rochdale Pioneers, but it's a much broader celebration of cooperatives and cooperation.If you're not familiar with the Rochdale Pioneers, this slim volume is as neat a summary as you'll find. These were the industrial workers of northern England who got together in the face of considerable obstruction and started a small shop in 1844. They weren't the first coop, but their model was the one that kickstarted the rise of cooperatives. The context is important, and the novel does a fine job of explaining just how radical the idea was. It's easy to take it for granted now, but what The Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers was doing was actually pretty subversive.Does it work as a graphic novel? Just about. There are a few pictures of meetings - hard pressed industrial workers plotting together, cooperative workers being turned away by bank managers, etc. But really, the story of the Rochdale Pioneers is just the introduction. The graphic side of things comes into its own as the book goes on.The middle section explores co-ops today, from Co-op City in New York which houses 60,000 people and has its own police force, to a cooperative of snake catchers in India. The third chapter looks at cooperation in nature - cooperation, it suggests, is just as much a factor in evolution as competition. The artist is at his most imaginative here, with beautiful ink drawings depicting flocks of starlings, honeycomb, or jellyfish.There's loads more, but I won't spoil it for you. Suffice to say that The Co-operative Revolution is well worth an afternoon of your time. It makes a fine case for the role of the co-op, celebrating a revolution that rumbles on largely unnoticed, but is increasingly important in the global economy.

This is a subject close to my heart as I think the Rochdale Pioneers are unsung heros and people don't realise what they did for our society. This book remedies that.I gives quite a detailed background, in pictures, of what made it necessary for those men to bring about a revolution. But it was a quiet and peaceful, and very successful revolution. I think every school in the United Kingdom should put this book on their curriculum. They should have multiple copies in their libraries. Child friendly, but not childish.

This book was quite a wonderful surprise. I knew of the Co-Operative, of course, having shopped there every now and then, but knew nothing of how it had come about. I was also surprised to see that the circumstances that brought about the start of the Co-Operative are in many ways similar to the ones we're experiencing in this day and age. Read it and get your children to read it too - I feel it's important to let them know that it's possible to fight back in a constructive way, such as this one.

A must read for anyone interested in people working together. A great episode in English social history, with ideas we can use to-day.

Polyp's new graphic novel is a great introduction to the co-operative movement. A good read for those people who might have thought co-operatives began and ended with the supermarket of the same name. Using the graphic novel format Polyp tracks the many different strands of co-operation, from the 19th century to the present day and beyond!

A pleasant reading with wonderful drawings, The Co-operative Revolution explores the history of the co-operative movement from Rochdale to contemporary history giving a lot of information, examples and anecdotes. An instructive book that should be read by anyone interested in modern history.