Formation of the British working class

Author: Thompson
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-01-01
Features: "The working class does not rise like the sun at a set time; it appears in its own formation." Through this classic work of Western Marxism in the field of history, the author selects workers during the British Industrial Revolution as the subject of study, explaining history with the perspectives of class analysis and class struggle, and elaborating on his theories of class and the "formation" of class. Insightful and highly influential. The Making of the English Working Class emerged in this academic context: on one hand, the suffering of British workers during industrialization was primarily shaped by Fabianism and liberalism; on the other hand, the Marxist intellectual community showed a tendency to ignore British traditions and detach itself from the realities of Britain. What Thompson sought to do was to understand this British experience through "Marxism." The appearance of The Making of the English Working Class in Britain also had a social background. After World War II, the social and economic conditions of the working people improved, and their living standards rose. Many children of the working class received higher education and became a new generation of intellectuals. They were relatively left-leaning in thought, sympathetic to the exploited and oppressed, and nostalgic for their fathers and elder brothers—the ordinary laborers who had watered the flowers of the Industrial Revolution with their sweat—while also harboring a mysterious curiosity to find their own origins in their experiences. This was a "root-seeking craze," and The Making of the English Working Class precisely fulfilled this desire. Therefore, its emergence was both rooted in the tradition of British history and born from the special call of the times.