E. P. Thompson
Edward Palmer Thompson (3 February 1924 – 28 August 1993) was an English historian, writer, socialist and peace campaigner. He is best known for his historical work on the radical movements in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, in particular The Making of the English Working Class (1963).
E. P. Thompson | |
|---|---|
Thompson at a 1980 protest rally | |
| Born | Edward Palmer Thompson 3 February 1924 Oxford, England |
| Died | (aged 69) Upper Wick, England |
| Known for | The Making of the English Working Class |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
| Parent |
|
| Academic background | |
| Education | Corpus Christi College, Cambridge |
| Influences | Karl Marx William Morris William Blake |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | History |
| Institutions | University of Warwick (until 1971) University of Leeds |
In 1966, Thompson coined the term "history from below" to describe his approach to social history, which became one of the most consequential developments within the global history discipline. History from below arose from the Communist Party Historians Group and its work to popularise historical materialism. Thompson's work is considered by some to have been among the most important contributions to social history in the latter twentieth-century, with a global impact, including on scholarship in Asia and Africa. In a 2011 poll by History Today magazine, he was named the second most important historian of the previous 60 years, behind only Fernand Braudel.