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    Thompson Reading

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    EP Thompson's concept of agency changes the way he thinks about class in three key ways: 1) It gives the working class responsibility for their own historical significance rather than viewing them as passive subjects. 2) It rejects the idea that class can be standardized retrospectively and instead places class consciousness within the grasps of the working class. 3) It aims to rescue the personal experiences of the working class from other class studies that undermine them. Thompson's concept of agency frames the working class as protagonists in history guided by their own thoughts rather than merely oppressed.

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    Thompson Reading

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    EP Thompson's concept of agency changes the way he thinks about class in three key ways: 1) It gives the working class responsibility for their own historical significance rather than viewing them as passive subjects. 2) It rejects the idea that class can be standardized retrospectively and instead places class consciousness within the grasps of the working class. 3) It aims to rescue the personal experiences of the working class from other class studies that undermine them. Thompson's concept of agency frames the working class as protagonists in history guided by their own thoughts rather than merely oppressed.

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    EP Thompson's concept of agency changes the way he thinks about class in three key ways: 1) It gives the working class responsibility for their own historical significance rather than viewing them as passive subjects. 2) It rejects the idea that class can be standardized retrospectively and instead places class consciousness within the grasps of the working class. 3) It aims to rescue the personal experiences of the working class from other class studies that undermine them. Thompson's concept of agency frames the working class as protagonists in history guided by their own thoughts rather than merely oppressed.

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    342 views3 pages

    Thompson Reading

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    EP Thompson's concept of agency changes the way he thinks about class in three key ways: 1) It gives the working class responsibility for their own historical significance rather than viewing them as passive subjects. 2) It rejects the idea that class can be standardized retrospectively and instead places class consciousness within the grasps of the working class. 3) It aims to rescue the personal experiences of the working class from other class studies that undermine them. Thompson's concept of agency frames the working class as protagonists in history guided by their own thoughts rather than merely oppressed.

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    S00165700 Zac Boyd

    Hannah Forsyth

    HIST 308 Tuesday 12:00pm 1

    How does EP Thompson's concept of agency change the way he thinks about class?
    If we are to think of Thompsons agency as an analogy for class, inherently linked with this
    comparison is the English working class as the agents. He conceptualises class as an
    independent historical phenomenon that holds fluency, evading analysis if perceived as an
    isolated structure.1 Agency changes the way Thompson thinks about class as it gives the
    subject of the class responsibility for their own historical significance.
    Class, the agency, is made by the man, the agents. This concept rejects beliefs that class can
    be retrospectively standardised. More so it places class consciousness within the grasps of the
    working class, which Thompson believes, is constantly overlooked and undermined in
    statistics and other historical works completed in hindsight. Yet by incorporating some of
    Thompsons later historical discourses such as history from below, his concept of agency
    becomes a challenge [of] mainstream versions of the past, synonymous with agencys
    challenge of conventional discourse on class.2
    Thompsons concept of agency is interconnected to history as we must observe men over a
    period of social change to gain an understanding of their relationships, ideas and institutions.3
    Thompsons work is vital in expanding ideas about class, which aids us in gaining this
    understanding of their relationships. Unlike the myriad of different orthodoxies relating to
    class studies: Fabian orthodoxy, empirical economic historians and Pilgrims Progress,
    agency provokes a sense of rightfully entitled belonging to the English working class.4
    It is unjust to classify the working class as simply oppressed; rather they should be credited as
    protagonists in history, guided by their own train of thought.5 The overall goal of Thompson

    E.P Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class (New York, US: Vintage Books, 1963), 9.
    Staughton Lynde, Doing History from the Bottom Up: On E.P. Thompson, Howard Zinn, and Rebuilding the
    Labor Movement from Below (Chicago, US: Haymarket Books, 2014), xi.
    3
    Thompson, English Working Class, 11.
    4
    Thompson, English Working Class, 12.
    5
    Lynde, Doing History, 6.
    2

    S00165700 Zac Boyd

    Hannah Forsyth

    HIST 308 Tuesday 12:00pm 2

    and his concept of agency, is to rescue the acute personal experiences of those from history
    that have been undermined in other class studies.6

    Thompson, English Working Class, 12-13.

    S00165700 Zac Boyd

    Hannah Forsyth

    HIST 308 Tuesday 12:00pm 3

    Bibliography
    Lynde, Staughton. Doing History from the Bottom Up: On E.P. Thompson, Howard Zinn,
    and Rebuilding the Labor Movement from Below . Chicago, US: Haymarket Books,
    2014.
    Thompson, E.P. The Making of the English Working Class. New York, US: Vintage Books,
    1963.

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