A history of the common people and the Industrial Revolution: "A true
masterpiece" and one of the Modern Library's 100 Best Nonfiction Books
of the twentieth century (Tribune).
During the formative years of the Industrial Revolution, English workers
and artisans claimed a place in society that would shape the following
centuries. But the capitalist elite did not form the working class--the
workers shaped their own creations, developing a shared identity in the
process. Despite their lack of power and the indignity forced upon them
by the upper classes, the working class emerged as England's greatest
cultural and political force. Crucial to contemporary trends in all
aspects of society, at the turn of the nineteenth century, these workers
united into the class that we recognize all across the Western world
today.
E. P. Thompson's magnum opus, The Making of the English Working Class
defined early twentieth-century English social and economic history,
leading many to consider him Britain's greatest postwar historian. Its
publication in 1963 was highly controversial in academia, but the work
has become a seminal text on the history of the working class. It
remains incredibly relevant to the social and economic issues of current
times, with the Guardian saying upon the book's fiftieth anniversary
that it "continues to delight and inspire new readers."
