This account of artisan & working-class society in its formative years 1780-1832 adds an important dimension to our understanding of the 19th century. E.P. Thompson shows how the working class took part in its own making & recreates the whole life experience of people who suffered loss of status & freedom who underwent degradation & who yet created a culture & political consciousness of great vitality. "Thompson's book has been called controversial but perhaps only because so many have forgotten how explosive England was during the Regency & the early reign of Victoria. Without any reservation The Making of the English Working Class is the most important study of those days since the classic work of the Hammonds."--Commentary "Mr Thompson's deeply human imagination & controlled passion help us to recapture the agonies heroisms & 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."--Times Literary Supplement
