"The Freeborn Englishman" Forty Years On
E.P. Thompson's The Making of the English Working Class revisited
Call for Papers
2003 marks the fortieth anniversary of the publication of one of the classics of socialist history, Edward Thompson's The Making of the English Working Class.
The book which remains in print today has been hugely influential in Europe, North and Central America and Asia. But if Thompson sought to rescue the forgotten rank and file of English working class history from the enormous condescension of posterity, does his book now itself need rescuing from those who would seek to amend, add to or challenge its contents?
Further how does Thompson's take on the history of the English working class look 40 years on? How successfully has Thompson's method been applied to the experience of the working class in other countries? Would the same or a similar book be written in 2003 or do socialist historians now have different things to say about the past, present and future of the working class.
Proposals (of not more than 400 words) are invited by 1st December 2002. These should be sent to conference2003@LondonSocialistHistorians.org, or by mail to the London Socialist Historians Group, 38 Mitchley Road, Tottenham, London N17 9HG , England.
John Walker
London Socialist Historians Group
www.londonsocialisthistorians.org