The Rise of the 鈥楴ew鈥 Social History: Socialist Humanism and Feminist History of the 1960s and 1970s
After the atrocities of WWII, many historians felt that a new history writing was required. Enlightened modernist values (e.g reasons/rationality, progress, scientific objectivity and also the tenets of 19th-century historical materialism) which had inspired history writing until then (including that of the early Annales scholars) would no longer do: these 'values' appeared much less transparent and triumphant than they had to earlier generations of historians. A new age of intellectual questioning opened up. Modernist values came to be seriously questioned during the turbulent times of decolonisation, civil rights and women鈥檚 movements, anti-war and anti-nuclear protest. Any authority based on modernist norms and values was critiqued in public and academic life. The rise of the 鈥榥ew鈥 social鈥 history in the 1960s and 70s emerged in the midst of these critiques. By moving human experiences and the culture of individuals and social classes to the fore, this history 鈥榝rom below鈥 was to quickly conquer history departments all over the world.
In the lecture we shall concentrate on two prominent strands of the 鈥榥ew鈥 social history in the English-speaking world in the 1960s and 70s: the 鈥榮ocialist humanism鈥 of the E.P. Thompson and the writings of Sheila Rowbotham. E.P. Thompson was perhaps the most prominent Marxist historian in the English-speaking world to break with Stalinism in the wake of the revelations in Khruschev's speech to the 20th Party Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and the Soviet invasion of Hungary. His rejection of Stalinist politics fed into a life-long search for a 'socialist humanism' which rejected orthodox-Marxist beliefs in historical inevitability and the ineffably 'scientific' status of Marxism. The revitalized Marxist historiography which Thompson pioneered came to be known as 'history from below'. This new form of socialist historiography soon entered into a tense, conflicted but productive relationship with second-wave feminism. While Thompson himself was much-criticized for his relative neglect of questions of gender and women's experiences, 'history from below' also inspired a new wave of feminist historiography, mainly practised by socialist-feminists. One of the most prominent British socialist-feminists was Sheila Rowbotham, whose writings on women's experiences, feminism, and radical politics was extremely influential. This week we shall examine some of the writings of Thompson and Rowbotham, and reflect on the nature of 'socialist humanism', 'history from below', and 'socialist-feminist history'.
READINGS CAN ALSO BE FOUND .
Texts/Documents/Arguments/Sources
Thompson, Edward Palmer, The Making of the English Working Class (London, 1963), pp. 8-27, 207-232, 887-915. (extracts)
Rowbotham, Sheila, Hidden from History. 300 Years of Women鈥檚 Suppression and the Fight Against It (London: Pluto Press, 1973), Preface; pp. and chapter 13 and 14, pp. 65-76.
powerpoint: socialist humanism
Background Seminar Reading
Soper, K., 鈥Socialist Humanism鈥, in Kaye & McClelland, op.cit., pp. 204-232.
Downs, L. L., 鈥From Women鈥檚 History to Gender History鈥, in S. Berger, H. Feldner and K. Passmore (eds), Writing History: Theory and Practice (London, 2003), pp. 261-82.
Also recommended reading:
Significant Quotations
鈥楥lass is defined by men as they live their own history, and, in the end, this is its only definition.鈥 (E. P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class, 1963)
鈥業 have tried to explore both what has been specific to women as a sex and the many ways in which class has cut across oppression.鈥 (Sheila Rowbotham, Hidden from History, 1973).
鈥楾his book comes directly from a political movement. The decision to work over some of the territory I had gone through and find out more came out of discussions in women鈥檚 liberation and on the left about the situation of women in contemporary capitalism鈥. (Sheila Rowbotham, Hidden from History, 1973).
Seminar Questions
Why were there virtually no women in history departments before the 1960s/70s?
How 鈥榦riginal鈥 was E.P. Thompson?
Did Thompson鈥檚 political work make him a 鈥榖etter鈥 historian?
What did Thompson understand by 鈥榚xperience鈥?
Why did feminists of the 1960s/70s have a problem with E.P. Thompson work?
Why were women 鈥榟idden鈥 from history for such a long time?
Further Reading
Ankersmit, F. R., 鈥楥an We Experience the Past鈥, in Rolf Torstendahl and Irmeline Veit-Brause (eds), History-Making: The Intellectual and Social Formation of a Discipline (1996).
Anderson, P., Arguments within English Marxism (London, 1980)
Bess, H., 鈥楨. P. Thompson: The Historian as Activist鈥, American Historical Review, 98 (1993): 19-38
Calhoun, C., The Question of Class Struggle: Social Foundations of Popular Radicalism During the Industrial Revolution (Oxford, 1982)
Chakrabarty, D., Rethinking Working-Class History. Bengal, 1890-1940 (Princeton NJ, 2000)
Curry, P., 鈥楾owards a Post-Marxist Social History: Thompson, Clark and Beyond鈥, in A. Wilson (ed.), Rethinking Social History: English Society, 1570-1920 and Its Interpretation (Manchester, 1993), pp. 158-200
Donnelly, F. K., 鈥業deology and Early English Working-Class History: Edward Thompson and his Critics鈥, Social History 2 (1976), 219-38
Dworkin, D., Cultural Marxism in Postwar Britain: History, the New Left and the Origin of Cultural Studies (Durham NC, 1997)
Eastwood, D., 鈥楬istory, Politics and Reputation: E.P. Thompson Reconsidered鈥, History 85 [No.280] (2000), 634-54
Feldman, D., 鈥楥lass鈥, in P. Burke (ed.), History and Historians in the Twentieth Century (Oxford, 2002), 181-206
Hamilton, S., The Crisis of Theory: EP Thompson, the New Left and Postwar British Politics (Manchester 2011)
Hensman, Rohini, review of Joan Allen, Alan Campbell and John McIlroy (eds.), Histories of Labour: National and International Perspectives (2010), in Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 48, No.3, 19 Jan. 2013, pp. 31-33. For a recent brief review of British labour history.
Hitchcock, T., 鈥楢 New History From Below鈥, History Workshop Journal, 57 (2004), 294-98
Hobsbawm, E. J., 鈥榃here are British Historians Going?鈥, Marxist Quarterly, 2 (1955), 14-26
Iggers, G. G., Historiography in the Twentieth Century: from Scientific Objectivity to the Postmodern Challenge (Middletown CT, 1997), ch.7.
Jay, M., Songs of Experience. Modern American And European Variations On A Universal Theme, (Berkeley CA and London, 2005).
Jones, G. S., Languages of Class: Studies in English Working-Class History, 1832-1982 (Cambridge, 1984).
Ireland, C., 鈥楾he Appeal to Experience and its Consequences: Variations on a Persistent Thompsonian Theme鈥, Cultural Critique 52 (2002), 86-107
Johnson, R., 鈥楨dward Thompson, Eugene Genovese and Socialist-Humanist History鈥, History Workshop Journal, 6 (1978): 79-100.
Kaye, H. J., The British Marxist Historians: An Introductory Analysis (Cambridge, 1984).
Kaye, H. J., The Education of Desire. Marxists and the Writing of History (London, 1992)
Kaye, H. J., 鈥楩anning the Spark of Hope in the Past: the British Marxist Historians鈥, Rethinking History, 4:3 (2000), 281-94
Kaye, H., & McClelland, K. (eds), E.P. Thompson: Critical Perspectives (Cambridge, 1991).
Kenny, Michael, The First New Left: British Intellectuals After Stalin (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1995).
King, P., 鈥楨dward Thompson鈥檚 Contribution to Eighteenth-Century Studies: The Patrician-Plebeian Model Re-Examined鈥, Social History, 21 (1996): 215-28.
Randall, A., & Charlesworth, A. (eds), Moral Economy and Popular Protest: Crowds, Conflict and Authority (Basingstoke, 2000)
Renton, D., 鈥楽tudying Their Own Nation Without Insularity? The British Marxist Historians Reconsidered鈥, Science and Society, 69:4 (2005), 559-79.
Rosaldo, R. 鈥Celebrating Thompson鈥檚 Heroes: Social Analysis in History and Anthropology鈥, in H. J. Kaye & K. McClelland (eds), E. P. Thompson: Critical Perspectives (Cambridge, 1990), pp. 103-124.
Palmer, B. D., 鈥楻easoning Rebellion. E.P. Thompson, British Marxist Historians, and the Making of Dissident Political Mobilization鈥, Labour / Le Travail, 50 (2002), 187-216
Schofield, Philipp, 鈥楬istory and Marxism鈥, in Lambert, P., Schofield, Phillipp (eds), Making History: An Introduction to the History and Practices of a Discipline (London/New York, 2004), pp. 180-191.
Joan Scott, 'The Evidence of Experience', Critical Inquiry 17: 4 (1991). This essay critiques the Thompsonian idea of 'experience'.
Carolyn Steedman, 'Threatening Letters: E. E. Dodd, E. P. Thompson, and the Making of 'The Crime of Anonymity', History Workshop Journal (online version, August 6, 2016).
Steinberg, M. W., 鈥楢 Way of Struggle: Reformations and Affirmations of E.P. Thompson鈥檚 Class Analysis in the Light of Post-modern Theories of Language鈥, British Journal of Sociology, 48 (1997), 471-92.
Steinberg, M. W., 鈥楥ulturally Speaking: Finding a Commons Between Post-Structuralism and the Thompsonian Perspective鈥, Social History 21 (1996): 193-214.
E.P. Thompson, 鈥楢nthropology and the Discipline of Historical Context鈥, Midland History, 1:3, Spring 1972.
ibid., 鈥楩olklore, Anthropology and Social History鈥, Indian Historical Review, 3:2 (1978), 247-266, & reprinted as a Studies in Labour History Pamphlet (1979), copy available in library.
Ibid., 鈥楨ighteenth-Century English Society: Class Struggle without Class?鈥, Social History, 3: 2, May 1978.
Ibid., 糖心TV University Ltd. Industry, Management and the Universities (1970), 2nd ed. (London, 2014).
ibid., The Poverty of Theory and Other Essays (London, 1978).
ibid., Writing by Candlelight (London, 1980)
ibid., Customs in Common (London 1991). A collection put together by Thompson of some of his best-known essays, along with replies to his critics.
Thompson, E. P., Witness Against the Beast: William Blake and the Moral Law (London, 1993).
ibid., 鈥楾he Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth Century鈥, Past & Present 50 (1971): 76-136 (online) & reprinted in Thompson, Customs in Common (London, 1991), ch. 4, along with a rejoinder to his critics.
Wrightson, K., English Society, 1580-1680 (London, 2003), 9-16 (Introduction)
Yeo, E., 鈥楨. P. Thompson: Witness Against the Beast鈥, in W. Lamont (ed.), Historical Controversies and Historians (London, 1998), 215-224
Women鈥檚 and Gender History
Bock, 鈥榃omen鈥檚 History and the History of Gender: Aspects of an International Debate鈥, , 1 (1989).
Downs, L. L., 鈥From Women鈥檚 History to Gender History鈥, in S. Berger, H. Feldner and K. Passmore (eds), Writing History: Theory and Practice (London, 2003), pp. 261-82. (send)
Editorial Collective, 鈥榃hy Gender and History?鈥, , 1:1 (1989), 1-12.
Davis, N.Z. 鈥榃omen in History鈥 in Transition: The European Case鈥, Feminist Studies 3 (1976).
Downs, L.L., 鈥業f 鈥淲oman鈥 is Just an Empty Category Then Why Am I Afraid to Walk Alone At Night? Identity Politics Meets the Postmodern Subject鈥, 35:2 (April, 1993), 414-437. In the same issue, see also the response and counter-response: J. Scott, 鈥楾he Tip of the Volcano鈥, 438-443; and L. L. Downs, 鈥楻eply to Joan Scott鈥, 444-51.
Kelly, J. Women, History, and Theory (Chicago, 1984).
Rose, S.O., 鈥楪ender at Work. Sex, Class, and Industrial Capitalism鈥, History Workshop 21:1 (1986), 113-132.
Rowbotham, Sheila, Promise of a Dream: Remembering the Sixties (London, 2000).
Ibid., Women Resistance and Revolution (Allen Lane, 1972)
Ibid, Dreams and Dilemmas: Collective Writings (London, 1983).
Scott, Joan, 鈥楢 useful category of Historical Analysis鈥, American Historical Review 91 (1986): 1053-75.
Scott, Joan., Gender and the Politics of History (Columbia, 1988)
Scott, J. W., 鈥楾he Evidence of Experience鈥, Critical Inquiry, 17 (1991), 773-97, & revised as 鈥楨xperience鈥, in J. Butler & J.W. Scott (eds), Feminists Theorize the Political (New York, 1992), pp. 22-40.
Smith, B. G., The Gender of History: Men, Women, and Historical Practice (Cambridge MA, 1998).
Wiesner-Hanks, M. E., 鈥Gender鈥, in G. Walker (ed.), Writing Early Modern History (London, 2005), pp. 95-113.