E.P. Thompson
British · 1924–1993
British historian, writer, and socialist activist, author of The Making of the English Working Class, a landmark of social history that recovered the agency and experience of ordinary people in the industrial revolution.
Wikipedia ↗“We should not assume that what happened was bound to happen. People made choices, and those choices were conditioned by the experiences and resources available to them.”
English
“No one eats "the average." A wage expressed as an average can buy less and less while appearing stable in the statistics.”
English
“The working class did not rise like the sun at an appointed time. It was present at its own making.”
English
“I am seeking to rescue the poor stockinger, the Luddite cropper, the "obsolete" hand-loom weaver, the "utopian" artisan, and even the deluded follower of Joanna Southcott, from the enormous condescension of posterity.”
English
“Class happens when some men, as a result of common experiences, feel and articulate the identity of their interests as between themselves, and as against other men whose interests are different from and usually opposed to theirs.”
English
“Class is a relationship, not a thing.”
English
“The moral economy of the crowd imposes the expectation that prices should be reasonable, that in times of dearth the authorities should ensure provision, and that exploitative practices should be punished.”
English