A Very Rooted Cosmopolitan: EP Thompson’s Englishness and Global Activism

Abstract

The political thought of the British peace activist E.P. Thompson (1924–1993) is often regarded as being torn between Marxist transnationalism and English traditionalism, articulated by his public roles as a political activist on the one hand and author/historian on the other. By analysing the social networks that were fundamental for his political activity, however, this chapter aims at writing a different story: although his thinking was rooted within a national context, Thompson at the same time was truly global in the articulation of internationalist ideas. His political aim of bringing about a democratic socialist revolution from below, breaking the circle of the nuclear arms race, is paralleled by his academic concept of a “history from below” that takes into consideration the specific local, regional, and national context of people and their agency to understand possibilities of transformation and to make predictions for the future. This internationalism, “earthed” in a history of the ordinary, was central to his political thinking.