Histomat: Adventures in Historical Materialism

'Historical materialism is the theory of the proletarian revolution.' Georg Lukács

Saturday, November 03, 2007

'Our History' online

The British Communist Party Historians Group was one of the most important intellectual inspirations behind the rise of 'social history' in the world of academic history in the 1960s, including among its number such luminaries as Eric Hobsbawm, E.P. Thompson, Christopher Hill, George Rude, John Saville, A.L. Morton, Victor Kiernan, Rodney Hilton, Raphael Samuel and Maurice Dobb. After 1956, most of these historians left in protest at the Stalinist suppression of a workers revolt in Hungary, and the CPGB Historians Group was never the same again. Yet it continued on against the odds, and from 1956 onwards produced a series of short mongraphs called 'Our History', which are slowly being made available online. These monographs should not be written off as 'vulgar Stalinist historiography' without value (well perhaps a few should), but as a resource for Marxist historians to use and build on today, - some of them indeed are very important and still pioneering efforts - and those putting them online should be congratulated for making them accessible.

1956
1 The Class Struggle in Local Affairs (part 1)-(part2)
2 Luddism in the period 1779-1830 (part 1)-(part 2)
3 The Struggle For Educational Opportunity
4 Some Dilemmas For Marxists 1900 - 1914
1957
5 Labour - Communist Relations 1920 - 1939
6 The Tradition of Civil Liberties in Britain
7 Enclosure and Population Change
8 Land Nationalisation in Britain
1958
9 Cromwell in the English Revolution (Tercentenary)
10 Social conditions in the Early 19th Century
11 Town Privileges and Politics in Tudor and Stuart England
12 The Working Week
1959
13 The Historical Novel. Jack Lindsay & Diana St.John
14 Africa in World History
15 Party Politics in the 19th Century - " Namierism "
16 John Burns' Library. Yvonne Kapp
1960
17 Chartist Literature. Y.V. Kovalev
18 Sheffield Shop Stewards 1916 - 1918 Bill Moore
19 An S.D.F. Branch 1903-1906. Andrew Rothstein
20 The Common People 1688-1800.
1961
21 Diary of Ernest Jones 1839 - 47. (Chartism)
22 The General Strike In The North - East. R.Page Arnot et al.
23 Pages From a Worker's Life 1916 - 26. Bob Davies
24 The Lancashire Cotton Famine 1861 - 65.
1962
25 Thomas Bewick 1753-1828; Artist, Naturalist, Radical
26/27 Tom Mann 1890-92. Dona Torr and E.P. Thompson
28 The Lesser Fabians. E.J. Hobsbawm
1963
29 Transition From Feudalism to Capitalism. Maurice Dobb
30 Songs of the Labour Movement. John Millar
31 Chartism and The Trade Unions.
32 The World Of Homer. R.F. Willetts
1964
33 Shakespeare's Idea of History. A.L. Morton
34 Houses of The People. E. Mercer
35 Slave Society : Some Problems. R. Browning
36/37 Prints of the Labour Movement. (From the James Klugman collection)
1965
38 Tom Mann in Australasia 1902 - 1909. Dona Torr
39. The Organisation of Science - Science as social activity.
40. Chartism in the Black Country 1850 - I860. G.Barnsby
1966
41. Problems of The German Anti-Fascist Resistance. A.Merson
42. Class and Ideology in Bath 1800-1850. R.S.Neale
43. The Easter Rising as History. C.Desmond Greaves
44/45. History and Social Structure on the East African Plateau.
46. A Contemporary View of the Napoleonic Wars. Frida Knight
1967
47. The Second Reform Bill.
48. Alexander Macdonald and the Miners. Raymond Challinor
1968
49/50 The Revolt in the Fields in East Anglia. Alf Peacock
51. Leveller Democracy- Fact or Myth ? A.L. Morton
52. German Imperialism and its Influence in GB. A.Rothstein
1970
53. The Nations of Britain: The Making of the Union. B. Ruheman .
54. Since the Ind. Revolution. A.Jenkin.
1972
55. Social Control in the 19C Black Country. G.Barnsby
1973
56. Europe's 17th Century crisis - A Marxist Review. D.Parker
57. Nazis and Monopoly Capital. Allan Merson
1974
58. The Miners of Kilsyth and 1926. Paul and Carol Carter
59. The S.D.F, and the Boer War. Bill Baker
60. Time and Motion Strike, Manchester 1934-7. Mick Jenkins
1975
61. Middle Class Opinion and the 1889 Dock Strike. G.Cronje
62. 1945 - Year Of Victory. George Barnsby
63. On the Origins of Capitalism. Alexander Chistozvonov
64. Imperialism and the British Labour Movement. (l920's) S.Macintyre
1976
65. The 1926 General Strike in Lanarkshire. J.McLean
66. Feudalism, Capitalism, and the Absolutist State. Reviews of Perry Anderson by E.J.Hobsbawm and Douglas Bourn.
67. Spain Against Fascism 1936 - 1939. N.Green and A.M.Elliot
68. Worker's Newsreels in the 1920's and 30's. Bert Hogenkamp
69. Rank and File Building Workers Movements 1910-20. P.Latham
70. The Struggle against Fascism and War in Britain. Mike Power
71. From Radicalism to Socialism - Paisley Engineers 1890-1920. J.Brown
72 People's Theatre in Bristol' 1930 - 1945. Angela Tuckett
73. T.A. Jackson - A Centenary appreciation. Vivien Morton & S.Macintyre
74. The National Question in Cornwall. Royston Green
75. The 1842 General Strike in South Wales. Heather Jordan
76. Armed Resistance and Insurrection: Early Chartism. J.Baxter
77. Appeasement. Bill Moore
78. The Making of the Clydeside Working Class. Shipbuilding and Working Class Organisation in Govan, Calum Campbell 79. 1688: How Glorious was the Revolution? by A.L. Morton
80. London Squatters 1946 ed. N. Branson
81. The Anti-Fascist People's Front In the Armed Forces eds. Bill Moore, George Barnsby
82 Labour-Communist Relations Part I ed Noreen Branson/Bill Moore
83 Labour –Communist Relations Part II ed Noreen Branson/Bill Moore

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2 Comments:

At 6:41 pm, Blogger John Baxter said...

I appreciate your comments- people like me were marginalised deliberately -I was a libertarian Marxist/situationalist if you can handle that juxtaposition-I respected the help the CP history group gave me to get this published-peple now reference it and in a highly democratic way pople can access it John Baxter

 
At 9:18 am, Anonymous 3 button suit said...

Thanks for the long list.

 

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