Raymond Williams has a blunt argument: modern society still produces tragedy — we just refuse to recognise it.

Tracing tragedy from Sophocles and William Shakespeare through to modern drama and political upheaval, Williams shows how the form evolved alongside shifts in power, class, and social imagination. Where classical tragedy focused on kings and fate, modern tragedy emerges from ordinary lives caught in historical forces — revolution, war, labour, bureaucracy.

Written in the 1960s at the height of Williams’ influence in cultural theory, the book blends literary criticism with political thought. More than a study of drama, Modern Tragedy is an attempt to understand why modern societies simultaneously generate catastrophic events while insisting they are merely unfortunate accidents.