About this title: E. P. Thompson examines the period from 1870 to 1932, when historical forces and processes, including the Industrial Revolution, brought about the working class as a separate and identifiable group in England.
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Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books
Date Published: 1966
Description: Good. No DJ, as issued. NOT EX-LIB! Paperback in good condition. Text block is loose. Foxing to eps and closed edges of book. No underlining or writing. All text bright and tight I have a stellar reputation as a bookseller. Please email with any questions. Thank you for looking! "Find it! Buy it! Read it! " Arkansas Bookseller. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Date Published: 1970
ISBN-13:9780140210002ISBN:0140210008
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Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Random House Inc
Date Published: 1966-03-01
ISBN-13:9780394703220ISBN:0394703227
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780394703220. read more
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Random House Inc
Date Published: 1966
ISBN-13:9780394703220ISBN:0394703227
Description: Very Good. Size: 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall; Trade paperback in Very Good Condition. 5" x 8" tall. 848 pp--a thick book. Cover is clean, no soiling, is rubbed, with a small closed tear on the upper edge and a crease on the lower corner. Interior is clean and unmarked, pages toned, more so on page edges. Controversial, a masterpiece, of permanent importance--a recapturing of the agonies, heroisms and illusions of the English working class as it made itself. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 1966
ISBN-13:9780394703220ISBN:0394703227
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books, NY
Date Published: 1963
Description: G. Moderate shelf wear. Underlining. Previous owner's name on front end paper. Pages bright, binding solid.; Vintage; 848 pages. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: PENGUIN BOOKS LTD Country = UNITED KINGDOM
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780140136036ISBN:0140136037
Description: BRAND NEW PAPERBACK. 960 pages. (960 pages) shows how the english working class emerged through the degradations of the industrial revolution to create a culture and political consciousness of enormous vitality. illustrations (Paperback) read more
Description: Acceptable. Ships from the UK. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Your purchase also supports literacy charities. read more
"In the opening chapters of E. P. Thompson's The Making of the English Working Class, the author does something impressive, he manages a history of the Industrial Revolution which manages to discuss both the massive statistical, technological and economic changes which England underwent between 1780 and 1850 while still allowing the reader to connect to these changes on a personal level. In doing so, Thompson effectively illustrates the cataclysmic effects of industrialization upon the culture of the English worker and his standard of living. Thompson characterizes the changes faced, particularly by the artisans of England during the period as catastrophic. In the space of a generation, a group of skilled laborers went from a position of independent craftsmen with lives outside of their work, to dependent, subservient laborers, driven in some cases (particularly that of the hand-loom weavers) to the point of effective extinction. It is clear from Thompson's writing that his arguments are directed specifically toward a particular school of thought regarding the Industrial Revolution, particularly those historians who view the progress of industrialization in England in an overall optimistic light. In showing the suffering and hardship of particular groups hard hit by industrialization Thompson seeks to counteract the effects of the use of averages in determining the overall suffering caused to the working classes by industrialization. Of particular note here is his work regarding the domestic weaving industry, a group which, at one time, was one of the trades which employed the most people in England, and had a history and a culture that stretched back for 300-400 years. Thompson shows how, in the space of a single generation, the progressive lowering of wages reduced hand-loom weavers to beneath subsistence levels, leaving them in a state of destitution and, in some cases starvation. One cannot read these passages without having ones sense of horror inflamed, or one's sense of humanity strongly affected. Yet Thompson's purpose in this work is not merely to showcase the suffering of the English working classes under industrialization, it is a work that seeks to chart the development of class consciousness among this group. Thompson traces this raising of consciousness to two particular forces: Agitation by Jacobin radicals of the middle and artisan classes for Parliamentary reform in the 1790's, and the sense which many artisans, whose status had degraded due to industrialization, of lost privileges through the rise of Capitalist exploitation. The first, through the writings of such radicals as Thomas Paine, gave voice to an ongoing antagonism between the laboring folk and the landed Aristocracy, by voicing widely held ideas regarding the illegitimacy of that institution. Such agitation, coupled with harsh crackdowns by Pitt's government raised a sense of solidarity among the working class men who participated in the radical societies. The second, fueled a sense of the inherent injustice of the capitalist system on those most exploited by it, and spurred them toward acts of resistance, such as trade-unionism and rioting. In Chapters 11-16 of The Making of the English Working Class E. P. Thompson traces the rise in class consciousness among English workers from the dawn of the 19th Century to 1832. Of particular note to Thompson during this period are the agitations of the Luddites, the post-war radicals, the Peterloo massacre and its effects and the rise of middle-class activism leading to the 1832 Parliamentary Reform Bill. Throughout these chapters the inherent complexity and intertwined nature of both middle-class radicalism and working-class mobilization becomes apparent. Thompson's treatment of the Luddites is particularly interesting. He begins by noting the considerable difficulty which historians have in tracking the progress of this movement, as it was an intentionally underground, outlaw organization, which did not leave records behind it, and whose members remained surprisingly loyal to the cause of secrecy, refusing to divulge secrets when caught, and rarely coming forth, even years later, to discuss their activities. Even with this scanty evidence, Thompson makes a strong case for the idea that Luddism was more than mere resistance to mechanization, it was the first real movement for the English working-class and it incorporated many of the ideas of Paine and the Jacobins, as well as traditional ideas of the moral economy, which caused the Luddites to only attack those masters who were seen as exploitative, while leaving alone non offending employers. Thompson also gives a fascinating examination of the post-war radical movement in England, following the expiration of many of the more limiting of the wartime security laws. In particular he examines the effect which spies and provocateurs had on the radical movement, and whether or not certain risings or anti-government conspiracies (such as the Cato Street Conspiracy) were actual conspiracies, or nothing more than the activities of government instigators. The conclusions he comes to are complex. While he finds the work of provocateurs such as Oliver and Castle as helpful in driving the radicals to attempting risings, he sees them as tapping into movements which were already actively considering such activity. Indeed, in the case of men like Oliver, Thompson sees their true legacy not in their successfully flushing out of conspiracies, but in the dissension and distrust which their example spread throughout the movement. This disunion among the middle-class radical leadership, particularly in London, is one of the major factors which Thompson sees as being responsible for the lack of an English revolution in the early nineteenth century. In the post war years he sees the radical leadership as being divided between powerful personalities who were often at odds with each other, and less interested in leading a rising than in the adulation of the masses. As such, Thompson describes the ludicrous situation which erupted time after time between 1815-1820 in which the radicalized weavers and tradesmen of Lancashire, Yorkshire and the West Riding were mobilized and ready to attack, and merely awaited instructions from London, which never came, despite at times popular sentiment against the government, such as in the aftermath of the Peterloo massacre which garnered sympathy for the working-class activists across class boundaries. Finally, Thompson considers the rising class consciousness of the workers, throughout the 1820's, influenced by their auto-didactic learning, their introduction to political thought (particularly through the writings of Cobbett) and a particular culture which advocated for freedom of assembly, political combination and freedom of the press. As these rights became secured, the radicalized working class became a political force to be reckoned with in English politics."
"Thompson shares the impressive legacy of struggle and the agency with which that class strived for a better life. He proposes class as a "historical phenomenon" understood "as a social and cultural formation." This is in stark contrast to Marxism, where class is defined by one's relationship to the means of production. It reminded me Zinn's People History, though Thompson does not touch on women, the Irish or other factors that would paint a broader picture of the working class."
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