Histories of a radical book: e. p. thompson and <em>the making of the english working class</em>

Does a revolution need big books anymore? Did it ever? As we write the preface to this re-publication of our retrospective special issue on E. P. Thompson’s The Making of the English Working Class in the summer of 2020, it may not be the most important question. The people in the streets—Black, Brown, white—are raising fists and holding masks in place, not brandishing copies of books, whether larger or small. Some are turning, or returning, to James Baldwin. Others reach for Frantz Fanon. His recurrent arguments about the ways that colonial occupation made it “impossible ... to breathe” are an uncanny reminder of the way it has always been for people op-pressed because of the color of their skin.1 Or, we read poetry—which, to re-cast Irish poet Eavan Boland, is “at once an archive of defeat and a diagram of victory.”2 In its comparatively small frame the poem holds the world, and seems well-suited to our TLDR/too long didn’t read world. It’s the perfect primer, readable off a small screen and committed easily to memory. Who has the time or patience to read big books now? Contents Preface • Antoinette Burton and Stephanie Fortado Introduction: Radical Book History: E. P. Thompson and The Making of the English Working Class • Antoinette Burton 1 Making and Unmaking the Working Class: E. P. Thompson and the “New Labor History” in the United States • James R. Barrett 2 History from Down Under: E. P. Thompson’s The Making of the English Working Class and Australia • Ann Curthoys 3 The Ecology of Class: Revolution, Weaponized Nature, and the Making of Campesino Consciousness • Christopher R. Boyer 4 Worst Conceivable Form: Race, Global Capital, and The Making of the English Working Class • Zach Sell 5 Race, Antiracism, and the Place of Blackness in the Making and Remaking of the English Working Class • Caroline Bressey 6 E. P. Thompson and the Kitchen Sink or Feeling from Below, c. 1963 • Lara Kriegel 7 South African Remains: E. P. Thompson, Biko, and the Limits of The Making of the English Working Class • Isabel Hofmeyr 8 Talking History: E. P. Thompson, C. L. R. James, and the Afterlives of Internationalism • Utathya Chattopadhyaya Index "E.P. Thompson's monumental book "The Making of the English Working Class" has played an essential role in shaping the intellectual lives of generations of readers since its original publication in 1963. This collected volume explores the complex impact of Thompson's book, both as an intellectual project and material object, relating it to the social and cultural history of the book form itself-an enduring artifact of English history"-- Provided by publisher For better or worse, E.P. Thompson's monumental book The Making of the English Working Class has played an essential role in shaping the intellectual lives of generations of readers since its original publication in 1963. This collected volume explores the complex impact of Thompson's book, both as an intellectual project and material object, relating it to the social and cultural history of the book form itself—an enduring artifact of English history.