The Making of the English Working Class

The Making of the English working class (The Making of the English Working Class ) is an influential work on the English social history, written by Edward P. Thompson, a historian of the " New Left ". The book was in 1963 (revised 1968) by Victor Gollancz published publisher and reissued later in Pelican. It was also one of the early books of the Open University. The German edition is published with over 1,000 pages in 1987 at Suhrkamp Verlag in two volumes. It focuses on English artisan and working class in the 1780 bis 1832.

In the German book titles, the ambiguity of the English original is not reached:

History from below

Thompson attempts to add a humanist element of social history and is critical of those who make the people of the working class to an inhuman statistical bloc. These people are not just pawns of history: Thompson displays them as actors who control their own history. He also discusses the popular movements that were often forgotten in history, such as obscure Jacobin societies. Thompson took great pains, the life - experience of the working classes to represent new - this angle made ​​the work of an influential work.

" The Making of the English working class " is considered the precursor of a "history from below". Thompson uses the term "working class" ( working class ) to place the brunt of the work on the growth of a working class consciousness. He claims in the introduction that " in the years 1780-1832 most of the members of the English working class has an identity of interests felt themselves and to their leaders and entrepreneurs. " Class -based for him in the immediate experience:

He was interested in the further acting traditions of plebeian radicalism and therefore, contribute to memory work for the reactivation of such traditions.

Luddism

The book was also in a broader public to a new understanding of Luddism at. So Thompson showed that the Luddites in the main opponents of the new technology were not, but opponents of the new economic relations ( as abolition of fixed prices ), which should be enforced as part of their introduction. The destruction of the machines was an organized and targeted form of action that was directed against certain property owners who should be moved to comply with the old rules, while other machine owners were often spared. The high efficiency, targeting and organization of luddistischen actions with up to 100 participants Thompson applies also as an indication of the wide acceptance of the Luddites in their communities.