E. P. Thompson, Marxist Historian and Radical Democrat (1924-1993)

In: New politics: a journal of socialist thought, Band 4, Heft 4, S. 157-166

Abstract

Provides a biographical portrait of the late English historian & radical E. P. Thompson (1924-1993), focusing on the dialectical relationship between Thompson's historiography & politics. Personal recollections of meeting with Thompson in the early 1980s are followed by a narration of Thompson's intellectual & political biography. Special attention is given to Thompson's role in the making of the British New Left in the early 1960s & the development & significance of Thompson's historical masterpiece, The Making of the English Working Class (1963), particularly its appreciation of the experience, agency, & creative struggles of English working people for liberty, equality, & democracy. Also discussed are Thompson's later writings on eighteenth-century England & his leading role in the movement for European nuclear disarmament, concluding with a brief discussion of Thompson's relationship to the US. AA