THE ESSENTIAL E.P. THOMPSON
Dorothy Thompson, THE ESSENTIAL E.P. THOMPSON Edited by
This collection invites readers into the mind of one of the late 20th century's most influential historians. The British Thompson (The Making of the English Working Class ) was one of the initiators of what he termed "history from below"—the attempt to understand the past by studying the experiences of ordinary people rather than those of "great men." Thompson, who left his career as a historian for a time to become a peace activist, brought Marxist historical perspectives to the attention of mainstream scholarship and culture. Edited by his wife, a longtime collaborator, this scholarly compendium includes some of his groundbreaking ideas on class and political protest, based on his study of the development of the English working class during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. What distinguishes the work of Thompson, who died in 1993, is his ability to expand the field of social history by introducing new sources and subjects into the academic frame of reference. He embraces a moral approach to history in lieu of the discipline's traditionally detached, "objective" interest. In one piece, he examines the food riots that erupted in preindustrial England, demonstrating that the protests resulted from food deprivations and other attacks on social norms that aroused a class consciousness among those on society's bottom rungs. In another essay, Thompson explores anonymous protest letters that were published in a London newspaper and concludes, "What these letters show is not the absence of deference in this society, but something of its character and limitations." The collection could have benefited from a discussion, perhaps in the introduction, of the fate of Thompson's maverick leftist perspectives after the dissolution of the Communist bloc. These essays provide neither easy answers nor easy reading, but readers who persevere will find their world expanded. (Mar.)
closeDetailsReviewed on: 02/26/2001
Genre: Nonfiction
Paperback - 512 pages - 978-1-56584-622-7
This collection invites readers into the mind of one of the late 20th century's most influential historians. The British Thompson (
Reviewed on: 02/26/2001
Genre: Nonfiction
Paperback - 512 pages - 978-1-56584-622-7
