The Crisis of Theory: E.P. Thompson, the New Left and Postwar British Politics
Scott Hamilton
Abstract
This book tells the story of the political and intellectual adventures of Edward Palmer Thompson, one of Britain's foremost twentieth-century thinkers. It shows that all of Thompson's work, from his acclaimed histories to his voluminous political writings to his little-noticed poetry, was inspired by the same passionate and idiosyncratic vision of the world. The book demonstrates the connection between Thompson's famously ferocious attack on the ‘Stalinism in theory’ of Louis Althusser and his assaults on positivist social science in such books as The making of the English working class, and p ... More
This book tells the story of the political and intellectual adventures of Edward Palmer Thompson, one of Britain's foremost twentieth-century thinkers. It shows that all of Thompson's work, from his acclaimed histories to his voluminous political writings to his little-noticed poetry, was inspired by the same passionate and idiosyncratic vision of the world. The book demonstrates the connection between Thompson's famously ferocious attack on the ‘Stalinism in theory’ of Louis Althusser and his assaults on positivist social science in such books as The making of the English working class, and produces evidence to show that Thompson's hostility to both left- and right-wing forms of authoritarianism was rooted in first-hand experience of violent political repression.
Keywords:
Edward Palmer Thompson,
Stalinism in theory,
Louis Althusser,
positivist social science,
authoritarianism,
political repression,
twentieth-century thinkers,
political writings
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2011 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780719084355 |
| Published to Manchester Scholarship Online: July 2012 |
DOI:10.7228/manchester/9780719084355.001.0001 |
