At 900 plus pages this is a big chunk of a history book, the bigness comes from the detail in the narrative rather than from telling a long story, the period of time covered in the book is actually relatively short. If I were given to cinematic language I would say the book was 'EPIC', it reminds me of the book of Genesis in the bible narrating the creation of the people of Israel, perhaps EP Thompson should have called it "The Genesis of the English Working Class". Like the book of Genesis the text is driven by ideology and collective identity, and this drives the direction of the story, the inevitability of the outcome is always present in the text not just because of the historical outcome but because of the narrator's agenda - which in the case of EP Thompson is radical socialist politics.
EP Thompson is at his best when he is sifting evidence, he is splendidly careful over research and the conclusions that can be drawn from it. Through the wealth of systematically assembled and evaluated evidence the figures of working class people of the time emerge from the pages. What he less good at is spotting and allowing for his own bias, there are two main places where this becomes almost comical, firstly his account of Methodism, and secondly his account of the 'Church and King' movement.
EP Thompson abandons almost all pretence of academic detachment in his account of the Methodist movement, which in the period covered by his book was the largest working class movement. He seems cross that Methodism is about Christianity not radical politics, which is like criticising the working class football clubs that emerged later in the century for being about about football rather than about revolutionary socialism. Failing to be able to adequately account for the popularity of Methodism with the Working Class he resorts to pseudo-psychological theories such as sexual repression and "psychic masturbation", none of which have any supporting evidence in psychology or history. Are we really to believe the intense spiritual experiences and personal reformations of tens of thousands of people in the early Methodist era were caused by sexual frustration? Surely it would be better to respect the integrity and authenticity of working class Methodist voices from the period even if you don't agree with what they are saying? If I were to indulge in a spot of pseudo-psychology I would point out that EP Thompson's parents were both Methodist Missionaries and that thus he may have had some childhood issues he was trying to resolve through his work, but such theories are highly speculative.
EP Thompson takes up the idea of Weber's 'The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism' and applies it to Methodism and the development of capitalism in England, and here he has a fair point, the honesty and hard work advocated by Methodism did in all likelihood make work place discipline an easier matter for Mill Owners. What he fails to observe is that hard work and honesty have great utility when you are hard pressed, the discipline of Methodism enabled workers to 'get on in life', and that this may be one reason why so many working class people became Methodists. Which leads me to my other criticism, EP Thompson's lack of understanding of the Church and King movement. From reading 'The Making of the English Working Class' it seems to me that most working class people did not want to over-through the system, they wanted to make it work for them. EP Thompson rummages through great piles of evidence looking for working class radical politics, cheering when he finds the merest sliver of evidence for it, but ignores the vast majority of people who are not involved. People on the left often seem to think that the working classes are ready for revolution when most working people just want to work hard and prosper within a reformed system that functions fairly for them. The crowds shouting for 'Church and King' were working class too.
So four stars rather than five, a masterly survey of the beginnings of the working class, shot through with insight, full of delightful details, carefully assembled...but let down by being too obviously a big pamphlet for radical socialist politics.
コメント