History as Argument: The Contrarian Analytics of 'The Making of the English Working Class'

Authors

  • Bryan D. Palmer
Keywords: E.P. Thompson, Marxism, Argument, Adult Education, Capitalism, Social Democracy, Fabianism, Stalinism, Historical Interpretation, Working Class, England, Dialectics

Abstract

The article explores the wide-ranging meaning and importance of argument in E.P. Thompson's The Making of the English Working Class. It explores how Thompson used the three parts of his study - 'The Liberty Tree'; 'The Curse of Adam'; and 'The Working-Class Presence' - to argue against specific traditions of interpretation of working-class experience arising from working-class autodidacts and the labour movement, conservative apologists for capitalism's development, and left-wing understandings associated with social democracy on the one hand and mechanical versions of Marxism on the other. Thompson's well-known accent on human agency is thus explained through the ways in which he argued against conventional wisdoms associated with the working class and its institutions, conservative commentators, and conventional left-wing thought.

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How to Cite
Palmer, B. D. (2013). History as Argument: The Contrarian Analytics of ’The Making of the English Working Class’. Historical Sociology, (3), 59–92. Retrieved from https://revistas.um.es/sh/article/view/189241
Issue
Section
Monográfico. 50 años de "La formación de la clase obrera en Inglaterra", de E. P. Thompson