The “ Communist Party Historians Group ” is a unit within the Communist Party of Great Britain consisting of major British historians , Marxists , who contributed to the spread of “popular history”.
This group included such famous historians as Christopher Hill, Eric Hobsbaum, Rafael Samuel, Edward Thompson, Arthur Morton and Brian Pearce. In 1952 , the influential social history magazine Past and Present was founded.
Content
- 1 Largest representatives
- 2 Objectives and research methods
- 3 Group after 1956
- 4 Literature
- 5 Links
Largest Representatives
- Maurice Dobb
- Christopher Hill
- Rodney Hilton
- Eric Hobsbaum
- Victor Kjernan
- Arthur Morton
- George Ryude
- Rafael Samuel
- John Saville
- Dorothy Thompson
- Edward thompson
- Dona Torr
Objectives and research methods
In their work, we can distinguish two main goals:
- Search in the history of the revolutionary movement for that which has not lost its relevance to this day;
- apply the Marxist - historical-materialistic - method, which - in contrast to the "heroic school" - emphasized the social conditioning of the lives of individuals.
This approach is due to the thought of Marx: people themselves create their own history, but not arbitrarily, but in the given circumstances. This thesis constantly appeared in the writings of the group members.
Group after 1956
Many prominent members left the group after the suppression of the 1956 Hungarian rebellion , Khrushchev's secret report at the XX Congress of the CPSU, and a number of other reasons. Some of them subsequently played a prominent role in the movement of the new left , especially Samuel, Saville and Thompson. Others remained in the group, such as Eric Hobsbaum, and in 1956 organized a quarterly edition of a series of studies called Our History.
As a division of the Communist Party, the Group continued to function until the dissolution of the CPV in 1991 and even increased the number of its members and publications, while the party itself was in decline.
In early 1992, the Group was renamed the Socialist Historical Society with the right of membership for all comers, regardless of party affiliation. Twice a year, the Society publishes the magazine “Socialist History”, as well as the monographic series “Random Notes”.
Literature
- Historian as a Marxist. “The Group of Historians” chapter from the book “The New History and the Old: Critical Essays and Reappraisals” (2004)
- Kaye, Harvey J. The British Marxist Historians: an introductory analysis. - Cambridge: Polity Press, 1984.