Aims and Methods
In their work we can read two definite aims:
- to seek out a popular revolutionary tradition that could inspire contemporary activists; and yet
- 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.
Read more about this topic: Communist Party Historians Group
Famous quotes containing the words aims and/or methods:
“In truth, the care and expense of our fathers aims only at furnishing our heads with knowledge; of judgement and virtue, little news.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“There are souls that are incurable and lost to the rest of society. Deprive them of one means of folly, they will invent ten thousand others. They will create subtler, wilder methods, methods that are absolutely DESPERATE. Nature herself is fundamentally antisocial, it is only by a usurpation of powers that the organized body of society opposes the natural inclination of humanity.”
—Antonin Artaud (1896–1948)