Arguments Within English Marxism by Perry Anderson (PDF)

Description

The characteristic form taken by English Marxism since the war has been the study of history. No writer exemplifies its achievements better than Edward Thompson, whose Making of the English Working Class is probably the most influential single work of historical scholarship by a socialist today. An editor of The New Reasoner in 1957–59, a founder of the New Left in 1960, now an eloquent champion of civil rights, Thompson has most recently aroused widespread interest with the appearance of his Poverty of Theory, which combines philosophical and political polemic with Louis Althusser, and powerful advocacy of the historian’s craft. Arguments Within English Marxism is an assessment of its central theses that relates them to Thompson’s major historical writings themselves. Thus the role of human agency—the part of the conscious choice and active will—in history is discussed through consideration of its treatment in The Making of the English Working Class. The problems of base and superstructure in historical materialism, and of affiliation to values in the past, are reviewed in the light of Whigs and Hunters. The claims of utopian imagination are illustrated from the findings of William Morris. Questions of socialist strategy are broached in part through the articles now collected in Writing by Candlelight. Exploring at once differences and convergences between New Left Review and one of its founders, the essay concludes by suggesting the virtues of diversity within a common socialist culture.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Published more than 30 years ago, this richly illuminating engagement by Perry Anderson retains its full value and brilliance. Written in critical ‘dialogue’ with E.P. Thompson’s “Poverty of Theory” (1978), Anderson here provides a thoughtful and deeply learned meditation on the challenges of bringing theory to bear on problems of historical explanation. Acknowledging much of the force of Thompson’s passionate reaffirmation of the dialectically mediated role of human collective agency in the making of history, and of the obligation to attend closely and faithfully to the complexities of the empirical in all theoretical argumentation — strictures Thompson delivered with devastating effect against the structuralist excesses and nebulous scholasticism of Althusserian Marxism — Anderson nonetheless perceptively identifies a series of slippages and lacunae in Thompson’s own rather particular version of Marxism. As to be expected, the writing is characteristically dazzling in style and clarity, the substantive materials tellingly informative, and the degree of theoretical discernment and sophistication is exhilarating to reflect upon. As with Anderson’s other celebrated contributions, “Arguments Within English Marxism” should find a privileged space on the bookshelves of all students of the historical social sciences.

⭐Articulate, eloquent and tightly argued as one always expects from Perry Anderson. This book offers a brilliant analysis of the debate which unfolded between Althusser and E.P Thompson and gives each their fair due. A real tour de force.

⭐Published more than 30 years ago, this richly illuminating engagement by Perry Anderson retains its full value and brilliance. Written in critical ‘dialogue’ with E.P. Thompson’s “Poverty of Theory” (1978), Anderson here provides a thoughtful and deeply learned meditation on the challenges of bringing theory to bear on problems of historical explanation. Acknowledging much of the force of Thompson’s passionate reaffirmation of the dialectically mediated role of human collective agency in the making of history, and of the obligation to attend closely and faithfully to the complexities of the empirical in all theoretical argumentation — strictures Thompson delivered with devastating effect against the structuralist excesses and nebulous scholasticism of Althusserian Marxism — Anderson nonetheless perceptively identifies a series of slippages and lacunae in Thompson’s own rather particular version of Marxism. As to be expected, the writing is characteristically dazzling in style and clarity, the substantive materials tellingly informative, and the degree of theoretical discernment and sophistication is exhilarating to reflect upon. As with Anderson’s other celebrated contributions, “Arguments Within English Marxism” should find a privileged space on the bookshelves of all students of the historical social sciences.

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