Edward Palmer Thompson, one of the most influential social historians of the twentieth century, died twenty years ago, in 1993, at the age of 69. His magnum opus, The Making of the English Working Class, arguably the single most important work of social history published in the twentieth century, appeared for the first time in 1963, half a century ago (1). Both anniversaries are being marked with conferences and special publications in different countries, from the UK to the US to Argentina. Thompson’s historical works, theoretical reflections, and political interventions continue to inspire scholars and activists and generate debate and polemics, as they did when he was alive. Several recent studies are evidence of the continuing interest in his life, work, and legacy (2).

We want to contribute to these commemorations by making available to a wider readership a brief paper that Thompson wrote in 1987 under the rather casual title of ‘Reflections on Jacoby and all that’, presented at the History and Society Program of the University of Minnesota during the 1987-1988 academic year. This program was, in the words of sociologist Ron Aminzade, a space for ‘getting faculty from different disciplines who did historically-oriented work to talk to one another’. Aminzade directed the program between 1985 and 1987 and again in 1989-90. Unfortunately, I have not been able to confirm the exact time of Thompson’s visit to Minnesota, although both Aminzade and Kent Sandstrom, a graduate assistant for the program at that time, recall that he and his wife Dorothy spent at least a couple of weeks in the Twin Cities (3). It may have been in the fall of 1987. He had spent part of winter 1987 hospitalized, recovering from what he thought was ‘some bug‘ he acquired in New Delhi (4). In spring 1988 he taught at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada, and delivered the Herbert G. Gutman Memorial Lecture at the New York Public Library in April of that year. Thompson taught and lectured in various countries, including the United States, partly as a way to supplement Dorothy’s salary, then the only regular family income they could count on (5).

Leer más…