Who cares about Gregory the Goat Herder?

Article by James Lewis. Edited and Researched by Rob Russell.

Edward Palmer Thompson ruined history.

Let’s face it, history used to be the glorious study of those who really mattered. Think of Hannibal’s conquests across Europe, or Mandela’s quest to end the apartheid in South Africa. These are proper history topics, where key men and women changed the world as we know it. I can think of nothing better than sitting at an old wooden table, parchment and quill in hand, ready to tackle one of the great men or women of history. Who shall it be next: Cleopatra? Lenin? Joan of Arc? All worthy candidates.

And what of the great moments in history? Events that would have telling consequences for both participants and future generations, whether beneficiary or damaging, surely deserve most, if not all, of the attention of historians. The First and Second World Wars; the French, American and Russian Revolutions; the Crusades – all topics rich in political, social and economic upheaval.

And then Edward Palmer Thompson had to go and publish ‘The Making of the English Working Class’ in 1963.

I mean, come on. Who really is interesting in this historical clap trap? Thompson’s mission statement is outlined in an often quoted passage from said title: “I am seeking to rescue the poor stockinger, the Luddite cropper, the “obsolete” hand-loom weaver, the “utopian” artisan, and even the deluded follower of Joanna Southcott, from the enormous condescension of posterity.”

‘Poor stockinger’ … ‘Luddite cropper’, the ‘“obsolete” hand-loom weaver’, these people exist in the inconsequential working class that will never seriously affect the course of history. Take the ‘hand loom weaver’ that Thompson insinuates has been incorrectly labelled as ‘obsolete’. They are obsolete! Whoever heard of a handloom weaver going on to change the course of history? No political leader; no great thinker; no master tactician ever rose from the lowly occupation of handloom-weaver. Why should we care about their lives, when there are much more important figures to study?

Let’s be honest, these people are forgotten for a reason.

It was Leon Trotsky who popularized the phrase ‘Dustbin of history’. When the Mensheviks, politically akin but not allies of the Bolsheviks, walked out of the Petrograd Second Congress of Soviets in 1917 Trotsky prescribed this damnation, claiming that ‘you are pitiful, isolated individuals! You are bankrupts. Your role is played out. Go where you belong from now on—into the dustbin of history!’ Go on, name a Menshevik. Go on, I dare you (and for anyone who can name a Menshevik, here is a nice little ego boost for you!).

The dustbin of history is heavily populated.

And so it should be. After all, no one changed the world by taking a seat on a bus; no one changed the world by walking to the local square; no one changed the world by going to the race track. Let’s go back to the good old days, with kings and queens and battles and presidents. There is a reason that figures are confined to the dustbin of history, let’s no go rooting through our garbage.

While we’re at it, let’s bring the Empire back – civilize the savages.

• EP Thompson was a Marxist historian and prominent thinker of the British communist party, Thompson was heavily influenced by Marxist thinkers such as Karl Marx and Antonio Gramsci.

• To many Thompson’s The Making of the English Working Class is seen as crucial part of historical discourse and had a huge effect on famous historians such as Eric Hobsbawm and James C. Scott.

• Thompson studied at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, before embarking on a prominent academic career, his major work The Making of the English Working Class was written during his time as a lecturer at Leeds University.

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