The Communist Party Historians' Group (CPHG) was a subdivision of the
Communist Party of Great Britain
The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPGB ...
(CPGB) that formed a highly influential cluster of
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies.
* British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...
Marxist historians
Marxist historiography, or historical materialist historiography, is an influential school of historiography. The chief tenets of Marxist historiography include the centrality of social class, social relations of production in class-divided soc ...
. The Historians' Group developed
social history
Social history, often called history from below, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. Historians who write social history are called social historians.
Social history came to prominence in the 1960s, spreading f ...
, which was popularised in the 1960s with "history from below" approach described by
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 partic ...
. During the heyday of the Historians' Group, from 1946 until 1956, notable members included Thompson, Christopher Hill,
Eric Hobsbawm
Eric John Ernest Hobsbawm (; 9 June 1917 – 1 October 2012) was a British historian of the rise of industrial capitalism, socialism and nationalism. His best-known works include his tetralogy about what he called the "long 19th century" (''Th ...
,
Raphael Samuel
Raphael Elkan Samuel (26 December 19349 December 1996) was a British Marxist historian and author, described by Stuart Hall as "one of the most outstanding, original intellectuals of his generation". Samuel helped create the History Workshop m ...
Brian Pearce
Brian Leonard Pearce (8 May 1915 – 25 November 2008) was a British Marxist political activist, historian, and translator. Adept and prolific in Russian-to-English translation, Pearce was regarded at the time of his death as "one of the most a ...
. The Historians' Group arose at the
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
in the 1930s under the encouragement of the economist
Maurice Dobb
Maurice Herbert Dobb (24 July 1900 – 17 August 1976) was an English economist at Cambridge University and a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. He is remembered as one of the pre-eminent Marxist economists of the 20th century. Dobb was high ...
Marx
Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...
narrative
A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether non-fictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travel literature, travelogue, etc.) or fictional (fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller ...
of British history required originality and determination in the research process, to draw out marginal voices from texts in which they were barely mentioned or active. The techniques influenced both
feminist historians
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern societies are patriarchal—th ...
Although the Historians' Group did not officially exist until 1946, it began informally before the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. The most consequential achievement of the Historians' Group as a result of this period was the development of
social history
Social history, often called history from below, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. Historians who write social history are called social historians.
Social history came to prominence in the 1960s, spreading f ...
, a field of history that gained prominence in the 1960s with the publication of Thompson's
The Making of the English Working Class
''The Making of the English Working Class'' is a work of English social history written by E. P. Thompson, a New Left historian. It was first published in 1963 by Victor Gollancz Ltd, and republished in revised form in 1968 by Pelican, after ...
. Although Thompson's Marxism waned over the course of his career and he would eventually distance himself from structural Marxism, underlying
social history
Social history, often called history from below, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. Historians who write social history are called social historians.
Social history came to prominence in the 1960s, spreading f ...
("history from below") is
historical materialism
Historical materialism is Karl Marx's theory of history. Marx located historical change in the rise of Class society, class societies and the way humans labor together to make their livelihoods.
Karl Marx stated that Productive forces, techno ...
.E. P. Thompson, “History from Below,” Times Literary Supplement, 7 April 1966, 279
In 1952 several of the members founded the influential
social history
Social history, often called history from below, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. Historians who write social history are called social historians.
Social history came to prominence in the 1960s, spreading f ...
journal
A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to:
*Bullet journal, a method of personal organization
*Diary, a record of personal secretive thoughts and as open book to personal therapy or used to feel connected to onesel ...
History Workshop Journal
The ''History Workshop Journal'' is a British academic history journal published by Oxford University Press. ''History Workshop'' was founded in 1976 by Raphael Samuel and others involved in the History Workshop movement. Originally sub-titled " ...
, also arose from the Historians' Group.
Post-Hungarian Uprising (1956–1991)
The group had been losing members during the Cold War, but lost many more prominent members due to events that shook the Global Communist movement in 1956. First was
Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Premier of the Soviet Union, Chai ...
's
Secret Speech
"On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences" () was a report by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, made to the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on 25 Februa ...
, which stunned many diehards and led to discussions in parties around the world about the crimes of Stalin. Instead of this leading to loosening up of the system in the Eastern Bloc it helped trigger the Hungarian Uprising, the brutality of the Soviet invasion disgusted a great many party members who abandoned hope in peaceful reform. The year 1956 thus had several key factors that precipitated something of a sea change in international Marxist opinion. Many figures went on to become prominent in the
New Left
The New Left was a broad political movement that emerged from the counterculture of the 1960s and continued through the 1970s. It consisted of activists in the Western world who, in reaction to the era's liberal establishment, campaigned for freer ...
, especially Samuel, Saville and Thompson. Others stayed in the party, most notably
Eric Hobsbawm
Eric John Ernest Hobsbawm (; 9 June 1917 – 1 October 2012) was a British historian of the rise of industrial capitalism, socialism and nationalism. His best-known works include his tetralogy about what he called the "long 19th century" (''Th ...
, who remained in the group, which in 1956 launched a quarterly monograph series "Our History". As the CP History Group, it continued until the CPGB's dissolution at the end of 1991, and even managed to increase its membership and output of publications at a time when the CPGB itself was in terminal decline.
Socialist History Society (1991–present)
In early 1992 it reconstituted itself as the
Socialist History Society
The Socialist History Society (SHS) is a British-based organisation which publishes a twice-yearly journal (''Socialist History'') mainly about the history of the socialist and labour movements in Britain. It also publishes a series of pamphlets ...
(SHS), and made full membership available to anybody regardless of party affiliation. The SHS now publishes a twice-yearly journal ''Socialist History'' and a series of
monographs
A monograph is generally a long-form work on one (usually scholarly) subject, or one aspect of a subject, typically created by a single author or artist (or, sometimes, by two or more authors). Traditionally it is in written form and published a ...
called "Occasional Papers".
Notable members
*
Maurice Dobb
Maurice Herbert Dobb (24 July 1900 – 17 August 1976) was an English economist at Cambridge University and a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. He is remembered as one of the pre-eminent Marxist economists of the 20th century. Dobb was high ...
Rodney Hilton
Rodney Howard Hilton (17 November 1916 – 7 June 2002) was an English Marxist historian of the late medieval period and the transition from feudalism to capitalism.
Biography
Hilton was born in Middleton in Lancashire. His father, John ...
Eric Hobsbawm
Eric John Ernest Hobsbawm (; 9 June 1917 – 1 October 2012) was a British historian of the rise of industrial capitalism, socialism and nationalism. His best-known works include his tetralogy about what he called the "long 19th century" (''Th ...
*
Victor Kiernan
Edward Victor Gordon Kiernan (4 September 1913 – 17 February 2009) was a British historian and a member of the Communist Party Historians Group. Kiernan's work was prominent in the field of Marxist historiography in Britain, analyzing hi ...
*
Sam Lilley
Samuel Lilley (25 June 1914, Belfast – 11 November 1987, Nottingham) was an educationalist, historian of science and broadcaster active in the United Kingdom following the Second World War.
Lilley attended the Belfast Academical Institution f ...
*
Stephen Finney Mason
Stephen Finney Mason FRS FRSC (6 July 1923 – 11 December 2007) was a British chemist and historian of science.
Biography
Stephen Finney Mason was born in Leicestershire on 6 July 1923, the first child of Leonard Stephen Mason, a garage o ...
George Rudé
George Frederick Elliot Rudé (8 February 1910 – 8 January 1993) was a British Marxist historian, specializing in the French Revolution and " history from below", especially the importance of crowds in history.George Rudé (1964). ''The Crow ...
*
Raphael Samuel
Raphael Elkan Samuel (26 December 19349 December 1996) was a British Marxist historian and author, described by Stuart Hall as "one of the most outstanding, original intellectuals of his generation". Samuel helped create the History Workshop m ...
*
John Saville
John Saville (born Orestis Stamatopoulos; 2 April 1916 – 13 June 2009) was a Greek-British Marxist historian, long associated with the University of Hull. He was an influential writer on British labour history in the second half of the twen ...
*
Dorothy Thompson
Dorothy Celene Thompson (July 9, 1893 – January 30, 1961) was an American journalist and radio broadcaster. She was the first American journalist to be expelled from Nazi Germany, in 1934, and was one of the few women news commentators broadc ...
*
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 partic ...
*
Dona Torr
Dona Ruth Anne Torr (April 28, 1883January 8, 1957) was a British Marxist historian, and a major influence on the famous Communist Party Historians Group. Aside from her translations of many Marxist classics into English, she is perhaps best kn ...
Bibliography
*Ashman, Sam. “Communist Party Historians’ Group”, in John Rees (ed.), ''Essays on Historical Materialism'', London: Bookmarks, 1998, pp. 145–59.
*Crossley, James, ''A. L. Morton and the Radical Tradition'', London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2025, pp. 159–257
*Hobsbawm, Eric. ''The Historians’ Group of the Communist Party'', Verso Books, 9 June 2023, https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/blogs/news/the-historians-group-of-the-communist-party.
*Kaye, Harvey J., ''The British Marxist Historians: an introductory analysis'', Cambridge: Polity Press, 1984.
*Parker, David. “The Communist Party Historians’ Group”, ''Socialist History'' 12 (1997), pp. 33–58.
*Schwarz, Bill. “'The People' in History: The Communist Party Historians Group 1946–56,” in Richard Johnson et al, ''Making Histories: Studies in History Writing and Politics'', London: Hutchinson, 1982, pp. 44–95