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.
Read more about Communist Party Historians Group: Aims and Methods, 1956 and After, Socialist History Society, Notable Members
Famous quotes containing the words communist, party, historians and/or group:
“In communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, shepherd or critic.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“A party is perpetually corrupted by personality.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Nations without a past are contradictions in terms. What makes a nation is the past, what justifies one nation against others is the past, and historians are the people who produce it.”
—Eric J. Hobsbawm (b. 1917)
“The boys think they can all be athletes, and the girls think they can all be singers. That’s the way to fame and success. ...as a group blacks must give up their illusions.”
—Kristin Hunter (b. 1931)