Historians Of By & Present

image: "Historians of Past too Present," National Portrait Gallery, London Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 recent article...

image: "Historians of Past too Present," National Portrait Gallery, London

Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 recent article on J. H. Elliott inward the New York Review of Books includes a real striking portrait of the founders of the British history journal, Past too Present. The prototype includes Eric Hobsbawm, Rodney Hilton, Lawrence Stone, too Keith Thomas (standing); too Christopher Hill, J. H. Elliott, too Joan Thirst (seated). The journal has been an incredibly of import platform for approximately of the best social history existence written from its founding inward 1952 through the present, too it is real striking to see these pathbreaking historians all depicted together.

The magazine was founded post-war yesteryear a grouping of historians who were Marxist too oftentimes members of the British Communist Party; simply the magazine itself maintained an intellectual independence from doctrine too political party that allowed it to cultivate truly of import historical research. As Hill, Hilton, too Hobsbawm spot the signal inward the 1983 essay mentioned below, "In our dealings amongst Party or Group nosotros were quite explicit inward establishing that the magazine was independent, too would convey no policy instructions" (5).

There is 1 chemical constituent of this slice of intellectual history that I move along to notice especially intriguing. This has to produce amongst the human relationship betwixt intellectual honesty too political conviction.  How is an historian's operate (or the operate of a social scientist or philosopher) affected yesteryear his or her political convictions? Intellectual honesty seems similar a straightforward thing: nosotros desire scholars to pursue their findings as the facts too inferences guide them. We desire them to aid us empathize how the Blue Planet works, based on their best reading of the evidence. We don't desire them to "spin" events or processes into alignment amongst their political ideologies or commitments. So how did this operate for the historians of Past too Present and for Communist historians who were non business office of the magazine similar E. P. Thompson? 

One business office of the respond seems clear: these historians chose their topics for interrogation based on their intuitions virtually the drivers of history, too these intuitions were sure jump upwards inward their political commitments too passions. So when Hobsbawm focuses on "Machine Breakers" (1952) or Soboul on "Robespierre too the Popular Movement of 1793-4" (1954) or Rodney Hilton on "Freedom too Villeinage inward England" (1965) or E. P. Thompson on "The Moral Economy of the English linguistic communication Crowd" (1971), the topics they written report request hold an obvious relevance to their political passions. But what virtually their findings? Are they able to see the aspects of their stories that are unexpected from a classical Marxist signal of view? Is history "gnarly" too unpredictable for them? And are they honest inward laying out the facts as they found them? Having read each of Hobsbawm, Soboul, Hilton, too Thompson amongst a sure score of aid over the years, my belief is that they come across this test. Certainly this is truthful for Thompson; the originality of his classic book, The Making of the English linguistic communication Working Class, is exactly to last found inward the fact that it is non a cookie-cutter theory of class. Instead, Thompson goes into neat detail, based on a rich multifariousness of primary sources, virtually the sources of identity that working people inward the eighteenth too nineteenth centuries created for themselves. These historians are non doctrinaire inward their findings, too they honestly human face the historical realities that they find.

One agency of getting a feeling for the magazine is to expression at its contents. The topics included inward the foremost 10 years of publication of Past too Present comprehend a wide make of historical subjects. Here are approximately exemplars from the foremost decade:

• Hill, Christopher. 1952. "Puritans too the Poor." Past & Present (2):32-50. doi: 10.2307/650123. http://www.jstor.org/stable/650123
• Hilton, R. H. 1952. "Capitalism--What's inward a Name?" Past & Present (1):32-43. doi: 10.2307/649987. http://www.jstor.org/stable/649987
• Hobsbawm, E. J. 1952. "The Machine Breakers." Past & Present (1):57-70. doi: 10.2307/649989. http://www.jstor.org/stable/649989
• Homans, George Caspar. 1953. "The Rural Sociology of Medieval England." Past & Present (4):32-43. doi: 10.2307/649895. http://www.jstor.org/stable/649895
• Kiernan, V., too Christopher Hill. 1953. "Puritanism too the Poor." Past & Present (3):45-54. doi: 10.2307/650035. http://www.jstor.org/stable/650035
• Hobsbawm, E. J. 1954. "The General Crisis of the European Economy inward the 17th Century." Past & Present (5):33-53. doi: 10.2307/649822. http://www.jstor.org/stable/649822
• Mondolfo, Rodolfo, too D. S. Duncan. 1954. "The Greek Attitude to Manual Labour." Past & Present (6):1-5. doi: 10.2307/649811. http://www.jstor.org/stable/649811
• Soboul, A. 1954. "Robespierre too the Popular Movement of 1793-4." Past & Present (5):54-70. doi: 10.2307/649823. http://www.jstor.org/stable/649823
• Childe, V. G. 1955. "The Sociology of the Mycenaean Tablets." Past & Present (7):76-77. doi: 10.2307/650174. http://www.jstor.org/stable/650174
• Kosminsky, E. A. 1955. "The Evolution of Feudal Rent inward England from the XIth to the XVth Centuries." Past & Present (7):12-36. doi: 10.2307/650170. http://www.jstor.org/stable/650170
• Rudé, George E. 1955. "The Outbreak of the French Revolution." Past & Present (8):28-42. doi: 10.2307/649776. http://www.jstor.org/stable/649776
• Aston, T. H. 1956. "The English linguistic communication Manor." Past & Present (10):6-14. doi: 10.2307/650142. http://www.jstor.org/stable/650142
• Goubert, Pierre. 1956. "The French Peasantry of the Seventeenth Century: Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 Regional Example." Past & Present (10):55-77. doi: 10.2307/650145. http://www.jstor.org/stable/650145
• Soboul, A. 1956. "The French Rural Community inward the Eighteenth too Nineteenth Centuries." Past & Present (10):78-95. doi: 10.2307/650146. http://www.jstor.org/stable/650146
• Connell, K. H. 1957. "Peasant Marriage inward Republic of Ireland afterwards the Great Famine." Past & Present (12):76-91. doi: 10.2307/650016. http://www.jstor.org/stable/650016
• Klíma, A. 1957. "Industrial Development inward Bohemia 1648-1781." Past & Present (11):87-99. doi: 10.2307/649742. http://www.jstor.org/stable/649742
• Ludloff, R. 1957. "Industrial Development inward 16th-17th Century Germany." Past & Present (12):58-75. doi: 10.2307/650015. http://www.jstor.org/stable/650015
• Jones, A. H. M. 1958. "The Roman Colonate." Past & Present (13):1-13. doi: 10.2307/649865. http://www.jstor.org/stable/649865
• Małowist, M. 1958. "Poland, Russian Federation too Western Trade inward the 15th too 16th Centuries." Past & Present (13):26-41. doi: 10.2307/649867. http://www.jstor.org/stable/649867
• Cobb, R. 1959. "The People inward the French Revolution." Past & Present (15):60-72. doi: 10.2307/649832. http://www.jstor.org/stable/649832
• Trevor-Roper, H. R. 1959. "The General Crisis of the 17th Century." Past & Present (16):31-64. doi: 10.2307/650152. http://www.jstor.org/stable/650152
• Briggs, Asa. 1961. "Cholera too Society inward the Nineteenth Century." Past & Present (19):76-96. doi: 10.2307/649981. http://www.jstor.org/stable/649981
• Soboul, Albert, too Georges Lefebvre. 1961. "Urban Society inward the Orléanais inward the Late Eighteenth Century." Past & Present (19):46-75. doi: 10.2307/649980. http://www.jstor.org/stable/649980
• Dore, R. P. 1962. "Talent too the Social Order inward Tokugawa Japan." Past & Present (21):60-72. doi: 10.2307/649996. http://www.jstor.org/stable/649996
• Finley, M. I. 1962. "Athenian Demagogues." Past & Present (21):3-24. doi: 10.2307/649993. http://www.jstor.org/stable/649993

Out of this listing a issue of themes recur: for example, underclass life, revolution, class, too economical history. These topics reverberate the theoretical too political interests of the founders too the editors of the journal, too they served to encourage a substantial mass of additional interrogation along these lines inward the years that followed. Many of these essays request hold proven to last a classics inward their genres.

Two interesting articles were published inward the magazine inward 1983 virtually its ain history (link). The foremost was yesteryear 3 of the founding editors of the journal, Christopher Hill, Rodney Hilton, too Eric Hobsbawm. And the other was yesteryear Jacques Le Goff, the then-editor of the every bit of import French history journal, Annales.  These 2 essays offering real interesting snapshots into the purpose that the magazine played inward British history through the mid 1980s.

Hill, Hilton, too Hobsbawm emphasize the intellectual independence of the magazine from its inception. This independence derived from the commitment of the board of editors: "It has been the collegiality of the Board which enabled us to know each other, to formulate a consensus virtually the kind of history nosotros wanted to encourage -- irrespective of ideological or other divergences inside the Board -- to flora policies too perspectives for the journal, even thus tacitly too empirically, too to flora a flexible continuity of policy" (12).

Jacques Le Goff likewise addresses the Marxist orientation of the magazine inward his 1983 contribution inward these terms:

Never having had whatever prejudice against Marxism, provided it was opened upwards too undogmatic, I was totally able to convey a publication inward which in that place was sure an chemical constituent of Marxism simply which gave no impression of existence plain of written report to a dogma, silent less to a party. (14)

Le Goff emphasizes the importance of the intellectual impetus that Past too Present created for historians everywhere. He draws attending to the annual conferences that the Past too Present Society organized, too the importance of many of these discussions for farther developments inward historical research.

Past too Present has been a leading forum for a especially dynamic plain of historiography inward its half dozen decades of publication. Its pages request hold highlighted the importance of social too economical history; the concrete history of social classes; the dynamics of revolution; the purpose that applied scientific discipline played inward ordinary life inward medieval too modern times; the fundamental roles that agriculture too rural life played inward early on modern history; too underclass social life. These are themes that request hold a neat bargain of salience for a Marxist interpretation of history.  But what is displayed inward its pages, from start to the present, is rigorous, critical history -- non Marxist dogmas virtually the working class, the peasantry, or the inevitability of social revolution.

(Here is a rational intelligence of Hobsbawm's political affiliations inward the Guardian; link. And hither is a diatribe against Hobsbawm's insufficient commitment to Marxism inward the International Marxist Tendency; link. This lengthy slice presents an option interpretation of Hobsbawm's life too work. Harvey Kaye provides extensive intelligence of these figures in The British Marxist Historians. Also interesting is Michael Scott Christofferson's French Intellectuals Against the Left: The Anti-totalitarian Moment of the 1970s.)