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‘…Two Monstrous Antagonistic Structures’: E. P. Thompson’s Marxist Historical Philosophy and Peace Activism During the Cold War

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Marxist Historical Cultures and Social Movements during the Cold War

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements ((PSHSM))

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Abstract

E. P. Thompson was a Marxist, a radical as well as a pacifist, who had been very active, first in the Communist Party of Great Britain, and subsequently in the New Left and in the peace movement. He was one of the founding fathers of European Nuclear Disarmament (END) and widely acknowledged as intellectual leader of the British peace movement, both at home and abroad. In this article, we focus primarily on how his Marxism influenced his commitment to peace. Many of his historical and political writings, including his novels, were extremely popular among peace activists so that one can assume a wide readership and hence considerable influence of Thompson in the peace movement. We shall ask how his Marxism informed his peace activism and what connections he drew between a Marxist social analysis and the demands to overcome the bipolar world order of the Cold War that, in his eyes, prevented progressive political developments and threatened humanity with extinction.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    B. D. Palmer (1994) E.P. Thompson. Objections and Oppositions (London: Verso); H. J. Kaye and K. McClelland (eds.) (1990) E. P. Thompson. Critical Perspectives (Oxford: Temple University Press); and S. Hamilton (2011) The Crisis of Theory. E. P. Thompson, the New Left and Post-war British Politics (Manchester: Manchester University Press).

  2. 2.

    W. Matthews (2013) The New Left, National Identity, and the Break-Up of Britain (Leiden: Brill), p. 2.

  3. 3.

    G. Eley (2002) Forging Democracy: The History of the Left in Modern Europe, 1850–2000 (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

  4. 4.

    P. Byrne (1988) The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (London: Croom Helm Ltd.); L. S. Wittner (2009) Confronting the Bomb: A Short History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement (Stanford: Stanford University Press).

  5. 5.

    S. Berger and N. LaPorte (2010) Friendly Enemies: Britian and the GDR, 1949–1990 (Oxford: Berghahn Books), pp. 265–66.

  6. 6.

    E. P. Thompson (1978) The Poverty of Theory and Other Essays (London: Monthly Review Press), p. 265.

  7. 7.

    On the development of third way conceptions in Britain, see J. Schneer (1988) Labour’s Conscience. The Labour Left 1945–1950 (Boston: Unwin Hyman).

  8. 8.

    M. Bess (1993) Realism, Utopia, and the Mushroom Cloud. Four Activist Intellectuals and Their Strategies for Peace, 1945–1989, Louise Weiss (France), Leo Szilard (United States), E. P. Thompson (England), Danilo Dolci (Italy) (Chicago: Phoenix Fiction).

  9. 9.

    B. D. Palmer (1994) E.P. Thompson, chapter 5.

  10. 10.

    M. Shaw (1990) ‘From Total War to Democratic Peace: Exterminism and Historical Pacifism’ in K. McClelland (eds.) E. P. Thompson. Critical Perspectives (Oxford: Temple University Press), pp. 233–51.

  11. 11.

    R. Taylor (2013) ‘Thompson and the Peace Movement: From CND in the 1950s and 1960s to END in the 1980s’ in R. Fieldhouse and R. Taylor (eds.) E. P. Thompson and English Radicalism (Manchester: Manchester University Press), pp. 181–201.

  12. 12.

    E.g. G. McCann (1997) Theory and History. The Political Thought of E.P. Thompson (Aldershot: Ashgate), chapter 5.

  13. 13.

    H. Ansari (2010) ‘Musings of Sir Mohammad Iqbal on the Place of Muslims in Late Colonial India: Letters to Edward John Thompson, 1933–1934’, Transcript of a podcast: http://media.podcasts.ox.ac.uk/engfac/indian_traces/ansari.pdf?CAMEFROM=podcastsGET, date accessed 17 January 2018, p. 1.

  14. 14.

    M. Kaldor (1993) ‘Obituary: E. P. Thompson’, The Independent, 30 August 1993, see online: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-e-p-thompson-1464255.html, date accessed 17 January 2018.

  15. 15.

    W. Matthews (2013) The New Left, p. 62.

  16. 16.

    C. Winslow (2014) ‘Introduction. Edward Thompson and the Making of the New Left’ in: idem (ed.) E.P. Thompson and the Making of the New Left: Essays and Polemics (New York: Monthly Review), p. 16.

  17. 17.

    M. D. Bess (1993) ‘The Historian as an Activist’, American Historical Review, 98, 1, 19–38, at p. 20.

  18. 18.

    S. Rowbothman (2011) ‘Sheila Thompson Obituary’, The Guardian, 6 February 2011, see online: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/feb/06/dorothy-thompson-obituary, date accessed 18 January 2018.

  19. 19.

    H. Abelove (1983) ‘E. P. Thompson’ in idem. (ed.) Visions of History Interview (London: MARHO), p. 13.

  20. 20.

    C. Winslow (2014) ‘Introduction’, p. 16.

  21. 21.

    Ibid, pp. 18–19.

  22. 22.

    Ibid., p. 15.

  23. 23.

    R. Taylor (2013) ‘Thompson’, pp. 182–83.

  24. 24.

    W. Matthews (2013) The New Left, p. 66.

  25. 25.

    E. P. Thompson (2008) ‘Foreword’ in The Poverty of Theory and Other Essays (New York: Monthly Review Press).

  26. 26.

    M. D. Bess (1993) ‘The Historian’, p. 22.

  27. 27.

    See M. Newman (2013) ‘Thompson and the Early New Left’ in R. Fieldhouse and R. Taylor (eds.) E. P. Thompson and English Radicalism (Manchester: Manchester University Press), pp. 162–63.

  28. 28.

    E. P. Thompson (1957a) ‘Socialism and the Intellectuals’, Universities & Left Review, 1, 1, 31–36, see online: http://banmarchive.org.uk/collections/ulr/index_frame.htm, date accessed 18 January 2018.

  29. 29.

    M. Kaldor (1993) ‘Obituary’.

  30. 30.

    P. Worsley, assisted by D. Thompson and S.Hall (2006) The New Reasoner, see online: http://www.amielandmelburn.org.uk/collections/nr/index_frame.htm, date accessed 18 January 2018.

  31. 31.

    R. Taylor (2013) ‘Thompson’, p. 184.

  32. 32.

    E. P. Thompson Morris (1955) William Morris. Romantic to Revolutionary (London: Lawrence & Wishart), p. 16.

  33. 33.

    M. D. Bess (1993) ‘The Historian’, p. 21.

  34. 34.

    C. Winslow (2014) ‘Introduction’, p. 20.

  35. 35.

    Ibid.

  36. 36.

    E. P. Thompson (1967) ‘Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism’, Past & Present, 38, 1, 56–97.

  37. 37.

    C. Hill, R. Hilton, and E. Hobsbawm (1983) ‘Past and Present. Origins and Early Years’, Past & Present, 100, 1, 3–14.

  38. 38.

    K. Laybourn (2006) Marxism in Britain: Dissent, Decline and Re-emergence, 1945–c.2000 (Oxon: Routledge), pp. 76–77.

  39. 39.

    D. H. Cole (2001) ‘An Unqualified Human Good: E.P. Thompson and the Rule of Law’, Journal of Law and Society, 28, 2, 177–203, at pp. 201–2.

  40. 40.

    R. Taylor (2013) ‘Thompson’, p. 188.

  41. 41.

    The text of the END Appeal is included in E. P. Thompson and D. Smith (eds.) (1980) Protest and Survive (London: Penguin), pp. 223–26.

  42. 42.

    R. Taylor (2013) ‘Thompson’, p. 189.

  43. 43.

    E. P. Thompson (1980) ‘Notes on Exterminism, the Last Stage of Civilization’, New Left Review, 182, 1, Exterminism and Cold War, London 1982, pp. 3–31.

  44. 44.

    J. Saville and E. P. Thompson (1957) ‘Editorial’, The New Reasoner, 1.

  45. 45.

    M. Kaldor (1993) ‘Obituary’.

  46. 46.

    E. P. Thompson (1957c) ‘Socialist Humanism: An Epistle to the Philistines’, The New Reasoner, 1, 105–43.

  47. 47.

    E. P. Thompson (1957) ‘Socialist Humanism’, p. 138.

  48. 48.

    G. McCann (1997) Theory and History, p. 1.

  49. 49.

    H. J. Kaye (1994) The British Marxist Historians (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).

  50. 50.

    H. Abelove (1983) ‘E. P. Thompson’, p. 16.

  51. 51.

    See E. P. Thompson (1957b) ‘Socialist Humanism. An Epistle to the Philistines’, The New Reasoner, 1, 105–7.

  52. 52.

    E. P. Thompson (1957a) ‘Socialism and the Intellectuals’, Universities & Left Review, 1, 1, 31–36, at p. 36.

  53. 53.

    E. P. Thompson (1959) ‘Commitment in Politics’, Universities & Left Review, 6, 50–55.

  54. 54.

    Ibid.

  55. 55.

    C. Winslow (2014) ‘Introduction’, p. 11.

  56. 56.

    For an explicit commitment to the history from below approach see E. P. Thompson (1960) ‘Homage to Tom Maguire’ in A. Briggs and J. Saville (eds.) Essays in Labour History. In Memory of G. D. H. Cole 25 September 1889–14 January 1959 (London: Palgrave Macmillan), pp. 276–316.

  57. 57.

    C. Winslow (2014) ‘Introduction’, p. 17.

  58. 58.

    G. McCann (1997) Theory and History, p. 2.

  59. 59.

    Matthews, New Left, p. 64; R. Fieldhouse, T. Koditschek, and R. Taylor (2013) ‘E. P. Thompson: A Short Introduction’ in R. Fieldhouse and R. Taylor (eds.) E. P. Thompson and English Radicalism (Manchester: Manchester University Press), pp. 1–24, here p. 2.

  60. 60.

    Cited in M. Newman (2013) ‘Thompson’, p. 162.

  61. 61.

    Perry Anderson responded to Thompson defending Marxist structuralism from a cosmopolitan point of view. See, in particular his Arguments within English Nationalism.

  62. 62.

    H. Abelove (1983) ‘E. P. Thompson’, pp. 16–17.

  63. 63.

    Ibid.

  64. 64.

    E. P. Thompson (1982b) Beyond the Cold War (London: Pantheon), p. 10.

  65. 65.

    Ibid, p. 10.

  66. 66.

    P. Byrne (1997) Social Movements in Britain (Theory and Practice in British Politics) (London: Routledge).

  67. 67.

    W. Matthews (2013) The New Left, p. 7.

  68. 68.

    Ibid, p. 10.

  69. 69.

    M. Bess (1993) Realism, p. 107.

  70. 70.

    E. P. Thompson (1960) ‘Outside the Whale’ in idem. (ed.) Out of Apathy (London: Stevens and Sons), p. 145.

  71. 71.

    M. Bess (1993) Realism, p. 114.

  72. 72.

    E. P. Thompson (1982c) ‘Introduction: The Wet Gate’ in O. Grimmson and A. McCormack (eds.) END Special Report: The Nuclear North Atlantic (Glasgow: Heatherbank Press), pp. 6–10, here p. 8.

  73. 73.

    M. D. Bess (1993) ‘The Historian’.

  74. 74.

    M. Kaldor (1993) ‘Obituary’.

  75. 75.

    E. P. Thompson et al. (2011) ‘Appeal for European Nuclear Disarmament’ in F. Holroyd (ed.) Thinking About Nuclear Weapons. Analyses and Prescriptions (London: Routledge), p. 368 [Reprinted version].

  76. 76.

    Ibid.

  77. 77.

    M. Howard (1980) ‘Reviving Civil Defence’, Letter to The Times (30 January 1980), printed in E. P. Thompson and D. Smith (eds.) (1980) Protest and Survive.

  78. 78.

    E. P. Thompson (1980) ‘Notes’, p. 5.

  79. 79.

    Ibid., pp. 5–6.

  80. 80.

    Ibid., p. 7.

  81. 81.

    Ibid., pp. 17–21.

  82. 82.

    Ibid., pp. 29–31.

  83. 83.

    E. P. Thompson (1982a) ‘Author’s Note’ in idem (ed.) Beyond the Cold War (London: Pantheon).

  84. 84.

    Ibid, p. 1.

  85. 85.

    Ibid, p. 4.

  86. 86.

    Ibid, p. 6.

  87. 87.

    For more on these intellectual squabbles, see R. Taylor (2013) ‘Thompson’, pp. 194–95.

  88. 88.

    Territorial Masquerade (2012) ‘In Conversation: E. P. Thompson and C. L. R. James’, http://territorialmasquerades.net/in-conversation-e-p-thompson-and-c-l-r-james/, date accessed 14 September 2014.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Social Movements, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany

    Stefan Berger

  2. Universiteit Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Christian Wicke

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  1. Institute for Social Movements, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany

    Stefan Berger

  2. Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany

    Christoph Cornelissen

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Berger, S., Wicke, C. (2019). ‘…Two Monstrous Antagonistic Structures’: E. P. Thompson’s Marxist Historical Philosophy and Peace Activism During the Cold War. In: Berger, S., Cornelissen, C. (eds) Marxist Historical Cultures and Social Movements during the Cold War. Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03804-5_7

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