{"product_id":"arguments-within-english-marxism","title":"Arguments Within English Marxism","description":"The characteristic form taken by English Marxism since the war has been the study of history. No writer exemplifies its achievements better than Edward Thompson, whose \u003ci\u003eMaking of the English Working Class\u003c\/i\u003e is probably the most influential single work of historical scholarship by a socialist today. An editor of \u003ci\u003eThe New Reasoner\u003c\/i\u003e in 1957-59, a founder of the New Left in 1960, now an eloquent champion of civil rights, Thompson has most recently aroused widespread interest with the appearance of his \u003ci\u003ePoverty of Theory\u003c\/i\u003e, which combines philosophical and political polemic with Louis Althusser, and powerful advocacy of the historian's craft. \u003ci\u003eArguments Within English Marxism\u003c\/i\u003e is an assessment of its central theses that relates them to Thompson's major historical writings themselves. Thus the role of human agency-the part of the conscious choice and active will-in history is discussed through consideration of its treatment in \u003ci\u003eThe Making of the English Working Class\u003c\/i\u003e. The problems of base and superstructure in historical materialism, and of affiliation to values in the past, are reviewed in the light of \u003ci\u003eWhigs and Hunters\u003c\/i\u003e. The claims of utopian imagination are illustrated from the findings of \u003ci\u003eWilliam Morris\u003c\/i\u003e. Questions of socialist strategy are broached in part through the articles now collected in \u003ci\u003eWriting by Candlelight. \u003c\/i\u003eExploring at once differences and convergences between \u003ci\u003eNew Left Review\u003c\/i\u003e and one of its founders, the essay concludes by suggesting the virtues of diversity within a common socialist culture.","brand":"Verso Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54250080633176,"sku":"9780860917274","price":21.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9780860917274_94e60708-fa51-46b2-816a-8089debe4d1b.jpg?v=1765672211","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/arguments-within-english-marxism","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}