E.P. Thompson and the Making of the New Left: Essays and Polemics
288 pp, $23 pbk, ISBN: 9781583674437
By E.P. Thompson, edited by Cal Winslow
Reviewed by Dan Johnson
“The English working class ‘did not rise like the sun at an appointed time. It was present at its own making.’ In frequently quoted lines from the preface to The Making of the English Working Class (1780-1832), E.P. Thompson endeavored to ‘rescue the poor stockinger, the Luddite cropper, the “obsolete” hand-loom weaver, the “utopian” artisan, and even the deluded follower of Joanna Southcott, from the enormous condescension of posterity.’ ¶ More broadly, Thompson sought to elucidate class as a historical phenomenon that involved changing human relationships over time, rather than being a static structure or simple category of analysis….”
Read the review in Against the Current/Solidarity
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