EP Thompson's The Making of the English Working Class is one of those classic books that, despite its original off-putting cover and title, has totally influenced thinking over the last fifty years.
First published in 1963, the book goes through English history, focussing on the birth of the Industrial Revolution and the working class in its formative years 1780 to 1832.
It was the time, Thompson states in his Preface, when "most English working people came to feel an identity of interests as between themselves, and as against other men whose interests are different from (and usually opposed to) theirs."
While mainstream history was concentrating on kings and queens and rich people's battles, Thompson moved the academic goalposts towards social history, a legacy that lives on in places like the Working Class Movement Library in Salford and the People's History Museum in Manchester.
To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of The Making of the English Working Class, there's going to be a one day Conference at the People's History Museum "to consider its reception, its critics, and why it endures". Speakers include broadcaster Stuart Maconie, former union leader Rodney Bickerstaffe, and Professor Adrian Randall from the University of Birmingham.
Meanwhile, from April 4th, the Working Class Movement Library will be hosting an exhibition centred around EP Thompson and his wife Dorothy's life and work.
EP Thompson Exhibition
Working Class Movement Library
4th April – 5th July
Wed-Fri 1-5pm free
For further details click here
EP Thompson Conference
Saturday 13th April
People's History Museum £10/£5
For further details click here
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