The British Marxist Historians

HARVEY J. KAYE is Rosenberg Professor of Social Change and Development at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. He is the author of The Powers of the Past, The Education of Desire (Isaac Deutscher Memorial Prize winner, 1993) and coeditor of The American Radical.

The British Marxist Historians remains the first and most complete study of the founders of one of the most influential contemporary academic traditions in history and social theory. In this classic text, Kaye looks at Maurice Dobb and the debate on the transition to capitalism; Rodney Hilton on feudalism and the English peasantry; Christopher Hill on the English Revolution; Eric Hobsbawm on workers, peasants and world history; and E.P. Thompson on the making of the English working class. Kaye compares their perspective on history with other approaches, such as that of the French Annales school, and concludes with a discussion of the contribution of the British Marxist historians to the formation of a democratic historical consciousness. The British Marxist Historians is an indispensable book for anyone interested in the intellectual history of the late twentieth century.

Preface Foreword - Eric Hobsbawm Preface to the New Edition Introduction Maurice Dobb and the Debate on the Transition to Capitalism Rodney Hilton on Feudalism and the English Peasantry Chrisopher Hill on the English Revolution Eric Hobsbawm on Workers, Peasants and World History E.P. Thompson on the Making of the English Working Class The Collective Contribution Notes Select Bibliography Index