Editing V. Gordon Childe (section)

===London and early books: 1922–1926===

Unable to find an academic job in Australia, Childe remained in Britain, renting a room in [[Bloomsbury]], [[Central London]], and spending much time studying at the [[British Museum]] and the [[Royal Anthropological Institute]] library.{{sfnm|1a1=Trigger|1y=1980|1p=9|2a1=Green|2y=1981|2p=40}} An active member of London's socialist movement, he associated with leftists at the [[1917 Club]] in [[Gerrard Street, London|Gerrard Street]], [[Soho]]. He befriended members of the Marxist [[Communist Party of Great Britain]] (CPGB) and contributed to their publication, ''[[Labour Monthly]]'', but had not yet openly embraced Marxism.{{sfnm|1a1=Playford|1y=1963|1pp=57–59|2a1=Green|2y=1981|2p=41}} Having earned a good reputation as a prehistorian, he was invited to other parts of Europe to study prehistoric artefacts. In 1922 he travelled to [[Vienna]] to examine unpublished material about the [[Cucuteni–Trypillia culture|painted Neolithic pottery]] from [[Schipenitz]], [[Bukovina]], held in the Prehistoric Department of the [[Naturhistorisches Museum|Natural History Museum]]; he published his findings in the 1923 volume of the ''[[Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute]]''.{{sfn|Childe|1923}}{{sfn|Green|1981|pp=43–44}} Childe used this excursion to visit museums in Czechoslovakia and Hungary, bringing them to the attention of British archaeologists in a 1922 article in ''[[Man (journal)|Man]]''.{{sfn|Green|1981|p=44}} After returning to London, in 1922 Childe became a private secretary for three [[Member of Parliament|Members of Parliament]], including [[John Hope Simpson]] and [[Frank Gray]], both members of the centre-left [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]].{{sfn|Green|1981|p=45}} Supplementing this income, Childe worked as a translator for the publishers [[Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co.]] and occasionally lectured in prehistory at the [[London School of Economics]].{{sfn|Green|1981|pp=45–46}}
{{Quote box|width=25em|align=left|quote="As the [Australian] Labour Party, starting with a band of inspired Socialists, degenerated into a vast machine for capturing political power, but did not know how to use that political power except for the profit of individuals; so the <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[One Big Union (concept)|One Big Union]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> will, in all likelihood, become just a gigantic apparatus for the glorification of a few bosses. Such is the history of all Labour organizations in Australia, and that is not because they are Australian, but because they are Labour." |salign= right |source=— Gordon Childe, ''How Labour Governs'', 1923.{{sfn|Childe|1964|p=181}}}}

In 1923 the London Labour Company published his first book, ''How Labour Governs''. Examining the Australian Labor Party and its connections to the [[Australian labour movement]], it reflects Childe's disillusionment with the party, arguing that once elected, its politicians abandoned their socialist ideals in favour of personal comfort.{{sfnm|1a1=Trigger|1y=1980|1p=34|2a1=Green|2y=1981|2pp=46–47}} Childe's biographer Sally Green noted that ''How Labour Governs'' was of particular significance at the time because it was published just as the British [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] was emerging as a major player in British politics, threatening the two-party dominance of the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservatives]] and Liberals; [[1923 United Kingdom general election|in 1923]] Labour formed [[First MacDonald ministry|their first government]].{{sfn|Green|1981|pp=46–47}} Childe planned a sequel expanding on his ideas, but it was never published.{{sfn|Irving|1995|pp=82–94}}

In May 1923 he visited the museums in [[Lausanne]], [[Bern]], and [[Zürich]] to study their prehistoric artefact collections; that year he became a member of the Royal Anthropological Institute. In 1925, he became the institute's librarian, one of the only archaeological jobs available in Britain, through which he began cementing connections with scholars across Europe.{{sfnm|1a1=Trigger|1y=1980|1pp=35–36|2a1=Green|2y=1981|2pp=48–49}} His job made him well known in Britain's small archaeological community; he developed a great friendship with [[O. G. S. Crawford]], the archaeological officer to the [[Ordnance Survey]], influencing Crawford's move toward socialism and Marxism.{{sfnm|1a1=Green|1y=1981|1pp=49–50|2a1=Hauser|2y=2008|2pp=110, 172}}

In 1925, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co published Childe's second book, ''The Dawn of European Civilisation'', in which he synthesised the data about European prehistory that he had been exploring for several years. An important work, it was released when there were few professional archaeologists across Europe and most museums focused on their locality; ''The Dawn'' was a rare example that looked at the larger picture across the continent. Its importance was also due to the fact that it introduced the concept of the [[archaeological culture]] into Britain from continental scholarship, thereby aiding in the development of [[culture-historical archaeology]].{{sfnm|1a1=Trigger|1y=1980|1pp=37–40|2a1=Green|2y=1981|2pp=51–52|3a1=Trigger|3y=2007|3pp=242–245}} Childe later said the book "aimed at distilling from archaeological remains a preliterate substitute for the conventional politico-military history with cultures, instead of statesmen, as actors, and migrations in place of battles".{{Sfn|Childe|1958|p=70}} In 1926 he published a successor, ''The Aryans: A Study of Indo-European Origins'', exploring the theory that [[Indo-European migrations|civilisation diffused northward and westward into Europe]] from the Near East via an [[Indo-European linguistic group]] known as the [[Indo-Iranian peoples|Aryans]]; with the ensuing racial use of the term "Aryan" by the German [[Nazi Party]], Childe avoided mention of the book.{{sfnm|1a1=Trigger|1y=1980|1pp=37–40|2a1=McNairn|2y=1980|2pp=12–14|3a1=Green|3y=1981|3p=53}} In these works, Childe accepted a moderate version of [[diffusionism]], the idea that cultural developments diffuse from one place to others, rather than being independently developed in many places. In contrast to the hyper-diffusionism of [[Grafton Elliot Smith]], Childe suggested that although most cultural traits spread from one society to another, it was possible for the same traits to develop independently in different places.{{sfnm|1a1=Trigger|1y=1980|1pp=44–49|2a1=McNairn|2y=1980|2p=7|3a1=Green|3y=1981|3pp=52–53}}