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In this third volume of The Making of the English Working Class , the people of England are not just statistics, victims of political repression and industrial alienation. The working class is a definitive part of its own formation.
With the third volume, "The Strength of the Workers," Thompson's work , "The Making of the English Working Class," concludes. Readers will become even more immersed in the disconcerting style of this English author who rejected all academic labels. In this volume, Thompson offers us a text that is simultaneously literary, journalistic, and richly historical.
In "The Strength of the Workers," we understand why, for the author, "recovering an alternative history almost always involves polemicizing with the dominant ideology." Let's take the central issue of historical periodization, 1790–1832, which, initially, in the light of traditional English historiography, has been largely ignored. But it is precisely during this period, according to Thompson, that the working class was historically formed. Now we can understand why the author rejected the dates and events valued by the dominant ideology. He warns us that the official frameworks of English historiography have imposed silence on the experiences and memories of the working class.
“Mr. Thompson’s deeply human imagination and controlled passion help us to recapture the agonies, heroisms, and illusions of the working class as it made itself. No one interested in the history of the English people should fail to read his book.”—London Times Literary Supplement
Thompson's book has been called controversial, but perhaps only because many have forgotten how explosive England was during the Regency and early Victoria's reign. Without reservation, *The Making of the English Working Class* is the most important study of that era since the Hammonds' classic work. —Commentary
“This is an active and valuable history, and its many clear judgments constitute an important challenge to many kinds of contemporary orthodoxy.” —The Listener
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