This collection of essays marks the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of E. P. Thompson's most famous book, The Making of the English Working Class. It was a highly influential work which contributed significantly to a revolution in the way history was studied, not only in Britain but in many countries. Instead of viewing history solely in terms of kings, courtiers, aristocrats and politicians, historians began to consider the perspective of the common people. E. P. Thompson and English Radicalism gathers together a selection of leading authors from a diverse range of disciplines to critically review not only this pivotal work, but the wide range of his career, including his experience as an adult educator, writer, poet and critic. His involvement in the early New Left, his political theories, his socialist humanism and his concept of class are all interrogated fully. Thompson was also a notable and passionate political polemicist, peace campaigner and activist who saw all his public activity as complementary parts of a unified whole, and this collection aims to bring his ideas to the attention of a new generation of students, scholars and activists.

Available in paperback for the first time, E. P. Thompson and English radicalism gathers together a selection of leading authors from a diverse range of disciplines to critically review not only this pivotal work, but the wide range of his career, including his experience as an adult educator, writer, poet and critic. His involvement in the early New Left, his political theories, his socialist humanism and his concept of class are all interrogated fully. Thompson was also a notable and passionate political polemicist, peace campaigner and activist who saw all his public activity as complementary parts of a unified whole, and this collection aims to bring his ideas to the attention of a new generation of students, scholars and activists.

For better or worse, E.P. Thompson’s monumental book The Making of the English Working Class has played an essential role in shaping the intellectual lives of generations of readers since its original publication in 1963. This collected volume explores the complex impact of Thompson’s book, both as an intellectual project and material object, relating it to the social and cultural history of the book form itself—an enduring artifact of English history.

This account of artisan and working-class society in its formative years, 1780 to 1832, adds an important dimension to our understanding of the nineteenth century. E.P. Thompson shows how the working class took part in its own making and re-creates the whole life experience of people who suffered loss of status and freedom, who underwent degradation and who yet created a culture and political consciousness of great vitality.

For better or worse, E.P. Thompson’s monumental book The Making of the English Working Class has played an essential role in shaping the intellectual lives of generations of readers since its original publication in 1963. This collected volume explores the complex impact of Thompson’s book, both as an intellectual project and material object, relating it to the social and cultural history of the book form itself—an enduring artifact of English history.

E. P. Thompson is a towering fi gure in the fi eld of labor history, best known for his monumental and path-breaking work, The Making of the English Working Class. But as this collection shows, Thompson was much more than a historian: he was a dedicated educator of workers, a brilliant polemicist, a skilled political theorist, and a tireless agitator for peace, against nuclear weapons, and for a rebirth of the socialist project. The essays in this book, many of which are either out-of-print or diffi cult to obtain, were written between 1955 and 1963 during one of the most fertile periods of Thompson’s intellectual and political life, when he wrote his two great works, The Making of the English Working Class and William Morris: Romantic to Revolutionary. They reveal Thompson’s insistence on the vitality of a humanistic and democratic socialism along with the value of utopian thinking in radical politics. Throughout, Thompson struggles to open a space independent of offi cial Communist Parties and reformist Social Democratic Parties, opposing them with a vision of socialism built from the bottom up. Editor Cal Winslow, who studied with Thompson, provides context for the essays in a detailed introduction and reminds us why this eloquent and inspiring voice remains so relevant to us today.