Historians of the world unite! Eric Hobsbawm and the Communist Party Historians Group, 1946-1956
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5007/1984-9222.2018v10n19p71Resumo
How do historians become historians? Some might say that all it takes is dedication to the profession and a talent for reading archival sources. But the reality of the profession is rather more complex. Eric Hobsbawm - one of the most famous historians of the twentieth-century - is a perfect example of this. His journey from a bright doctoral student to a global household name was not inevitable; instead, it involved a complex web of friendships and contacts that enabled him to speak knowledgeably to (and about) a huge range of audiences. In this article, I explore one of the most important aspects of his historical apprenticeship: his membership of the Communist Party Historians Group. This became one of the pre-eminent forums for the development of Hobsbawm’s ideas in the 1940s and 50s - and, through the richness of its discussions, left a lasting impression on Marxist historiography.
Referências
Anônimo [Eric Hobsbawm & Raymond Williams], “War in URSS?” (Londres: University Labor Federation, 1940), Biblioteca Memorial Marx YA08/WAR.
ABRAMSKY, Sasha. The House of Twenty Thousand Books. Londres: Halban, 2014.
BARROW, Logie. “Letter”. Labour History Review, v. 18, n. 3, 293-295, 2015.
CHABAL, Emile. “The voice of Hobsbawm”. In: Aeon (8 October 2018), https://aeon.co/essays/how-eric-hobsbawm-helped-shape-theglobal-marxist-imagination.
CORNFORTH, Maurice (ed.). Rebels and Their Causes: Essays in Honour of A. L. Morton. Londres: Lawrence & Wishart, 1978.
CROFT, Andy (ed.). A weapon in the struggle: the cultural history of the Communist Party in Britain. Londres: Pluto Press, 1998.
DOBB, Maurice. Studies in the Development of Capitalism. Londres: George Routledge and Sons, 1946.
EVANS, Richard. Eric Hobsbawm: A Life in History. London: Little; Brown, 2019.
HIMMELFARB, Gertrude. “The Historian as Marxist: The Group”. In: HIMMELFARB, Gertrude. The New History and the Old: Critical Essays and Reappraisals. Londres: Harvard University Press, 2004.
HOBSBAWM. “The Historians’ Group”, p. 22. 8 BRANSON, Noreen. History of the Communist Party of Great Britain 1927-1941. Londres: Lawrence and Wishart, 1985.
HOBSBAWM, Eric. “The Historians’ Group of the Communist Party”. In: CORNFORTH, Maurice (ed.). Rebels and Their Causes: Essays in Honour of A. L. Morton. Londres: Lawrence & Wishart, 1978.
HOBSBAWM, Eric (ed.). Labour’s Turning Point, 1880-1900. Extracts from contemporary sources. Londres: Lawrence & Wishart, 1948.
HOWE, Antony. ‘‘Our only ornament: Tom Mann and British Communist hagiography”. Twentieth Century Communism. v. 1, n. 1, p. 91-109, 2009.
HOWE, Antony. “Dona Torr”. In: GILDART, Keith; HOWELL, David (eds.). Dictionary of Labour Biography, Volume XII. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
HOWE, Antony. “The past is ours: the political usage of English history by the British Communist Party, and the role of Dona Torr in the creation of its Historians Group, 1930- 56”. (PhD diss., University of Sydney, 2003).
KAYE, Harvey. The British Marxist Historians: an introductory analysis. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1984.
MORTON, A. L. A História do Povo Inglês. Tradução de José Laurênio de Melo. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Civilização Brasileira, 1970.
PARKER, David. Ideology, absolutism and the English Revolution: debates of the british communist historians, 1940-1956. Londres: Lawrence and Wishart, 2008.
SAMUEL, Raphael. “The British Marxist Historians, 1880-1980”. New Left Review, n. 120, p. 21-96, Mar-Apr 1980.
SAVILLE, John. “Introduction”. In: SAVILLE, John (ed.). Democracy and the Labour Movement: essays in honour of Dona Torr. Londres: Lawrence & Wishart, 1954.
SCHWARZ, Bill. ‘‘The people’ in history: the Communist Party Historians’ Group, 1946-56”. In: JOHNSON, Richard et al. (eds.). Making Histories: Studies in history-writing and politics. Abingdon: Routledge, 2007 [1982].
SHENK, Timothy. Maurice Dobb: political economist. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
SWEEZY, Paul M.; DOBB, Maurice. “The Transition from Feudalism to
Capitalism”. Science & Society, v. 14, n. 2, p. 134-67, 1950.
THORPE, Andrew. “The Membership of the Communist Party of Great Britain, 1920-1945”. The Historical Journal, v. 43, n. 3, p. 777-800, 2000.
WILLIAMS, Raymond. Politics and Letters: Interviews with New Left Review. Londres: New Left Books, 1979.
Downloads
Publicado
Como Citar
Edição
Seção
Licença
Os autores cedem à Revista Mundos do Trabalho os direitos exclusivos de primeira publicação, com o trabalho simultaneamente licenciado sob a Licença Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 International. Esta licença permite que terceiros remixem, adaptem e criem a partir do trabalho publicado, atribuindo o devido crédito de autoria e publicação inicial neste periódico. Os autores têm autorização para assumir contratos adicionais separadamente, para distribuição não exclusiva da versão do trabalho publicada neste periódico (ex.: publicar em repositório institucional, em site pessoal, publicar uma tradução, ou como capítulo de livro), com reconhecimento de autoria e publicação inicial neste periódico.
