Dorothy Thompson (1) (1923–2011)

Weird book. It's got a single long essay, a medium sized one, some short ones and it's padded out by pretty short book reviews and stuff like that which have bits and pieces of interesting information but aren't particularly substantial. The long essay is about the Chartist movement in Halifax which is really fascinating and has a lot of quotes from people involved and the people opposed to them. It was never finished and it ends kind of abruptly but it's good and it has lots of interesting things in it.

Some stuff in essays
-One about what "the people" meant at the time, basically was used to mean the working class pretty much. Has a good amount of interesting quotes from MPs and chartists
-Women Chartists, women were a big part of the chartist movement but during its final years it became more "masculinised" and in retrospect people tended to erase the women because they weren't respectable. The vote for unmarried women was a pretty common demand. Usually they were supportive mostly of men's demands and eg "A slogan often repeated by men and women in the movement was ‘No women’s work except in the hearth and the schoolroom’." In the movement they often did stuff like organise boycotts of shops that didn't support Chartists
-An essay about what happened in Britain in 1848 - most of the Irish nationalists opposed the Chartists because the biggest organisation was funded by the Catholic church and didn't move further than repeal of the act of union, was deferential to Queen etc. Chartists weren't equipped for violent insurrection in 1848 although in 1839-1840 they probably could have mounted a good effort - by 1848 many had invested themselves in stuff like co-ops and friendly societies and were less motivated
- "Reflections on Marxist Teleology" is kind of weird it's pretty personal and a reflection on eg developing inside the CPGB. Basically says chain of everything leading up to final proletarian revolution is a bad way of thinking. Has a story of talking about the chartists and someone asking why they weren't pushing for 24 hour childcare which would have been a good feminist thing to

Hard to pick out highlights from the essay on Halifax chartism but still some stuff that really impressed me: the focus on arming the working classes and having people prepared in drills etc. Organised ability to disrupt arrests and rescue people who were taken away. Mass turn-out at elections even when they couldn't vote in the actual poll. The strong radicalism of the language and insurrectionary talk. The sheer squalor of every-day life (life expectancy for working class at 22 - the local doctor tried to appeal to the better nature of the propertied in providing medical services etc by showing it'd cost less than the many pauper's funerals) The refusal to capitulate to radical Liberal demands for them to be footsoldiers against the Corn Laws and leave all the politics to their betters. Sometimes the support for Tories over Whigs because Tories showed opposition to poor laws and support for Factory Acts. The disappointing national leadership that floundered in the later years among many acrimonious personal splits and lack of direction.

There's lots of quotes from the Halifax essay I'd love to pull out but it's really good, lots and lots of good stuff. Fascinating. The other essays in the book are generally good if a bit too short except 1 but the book reviews aren't very satisfying. It's not exactly a good intro to the chartists or anything although there's some good stuff.

Overall: the major essays are good, the book as a whole is kind of disappointing due to padding, not a good intro or anything but I learned stuff… (more)

This collection of writings by Thompson, the influential British historian of 18th- and 19th-century England, was compiled by his widow, the historian Dorothy Thompson (The Chartists). In this single edition, she includes The Making of the English Working Class, Customs in Common, Making History, and other of Thompson's salient works of history from the bottom up, or "history from below" the phrase that happens to be the title of one of the essays here. Whether discussing weavers or Mary Wollstonecraft, Thompson argues that social relationships in the modern Western world are open, dynamic, and evolving categories. Thompson considers consciousness, culture, and value systems just as crucial to the historical narrative as are explanations of social class and power. Indeed, his works have become important points of reference for many post-1960s American social historians.

In his lifetime E. P. Thompson was both admired and reviled. Even his harshest critics paid tribute to his incisive intellect and his efforts to write "history from below," detailing the everyday lives and contributions of ordinary people. Yet conservatives could not stomach his leftist sympathies while orthodox Marxists attacked his constant rebellions against their ideological straightjacket. The selections reveal a man committed to what he viewed as "progressive" causes, but also a man open to new ideas and interpretations of history and culture, even if they contradict his long-held positions. Some of the selections, such as The Making of the English Working Class (1963), are familiar to many historians. Others, such as his moving examination of the life of Mary Wollstonecraft, are rather obscure gems.… (more)