Communist Party Historians Group

A subdivision of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), from 1946-1956 the Communist Party Historians Group formed a highly influential cluster of British Marxist historians, who contributed to "history from below." Famous members included such leading lights of 20th-century British history as Christopher Hill, Eric Hobsbawm, Raphael Samuel and E.P. Thompson, as well as important non-academics like A. L. Morton and Brian Pearce.

In keeping with their standing positions, many of the members carried out their projects from adult education institutions, rather than the academy. In 1952 several of the members founded the influential social history journal Past and Present.

Notable members

• Maurice Dobb
• Christopher Hill
• Rodney Hilton
• Charles Hobday
• Eric Hobsbawm
• Victor Kiernan
• A. L. Morton
• George Rudé
• Raphael Samuel
• John Saville
• Dorothy Thompson
• E. P. Thompson
• Dona Torr

Aims and methods

In their work we can read two definite aims:

1. to seek out a popular revolutionary tradition that could inspire contemporary activists; and yet
2. to apply a Marxist economic approach which placed an emphasis on social conditions rather than supposed "Great Men".

This dualism was represented by Marx and Engels' dictum that "men make their own history, but they do not do so in conditions of their own choosing," which is regularly paraphrased in CPHG members' texts.

Revisiting and reinstating popular agency in the narrative 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 and the Subaltern Studies Group, writing the histories of marginalised groups.

1956 and after

The group lost many prominent members after 1956 as the Hungarian Uprising, Khrushchev's Secret Speech, and several other factors precipitated something of a sea change in international Marxist opinion. Many figures went on to become prominent in the New Left, especially Samuel, Saville and Thompson. Other members, most notably Eric Hobsbawm, 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. In early 1992 it reconstituted itself as the Socialist History Society, 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 called "Occasional Papers".

External links

• Socialist History Society
• Selection of CPHG publications