Paper proposal accepted at the First Open Conference of the International Commission on the History and Theory of Historiography, Ruhr University, Bochum, 19-21 September 2013 The formative years of the Anglo-Marxist historical tradition were marked by an intense commitment on the part of some among the most promising members of a new generation of professional scholars to the cultural policies of the Communist Party of Great Britain. Even before the constitution of the Party Historians’ Group in 1946, the young intellectuals experiencing the radicalization of the Red Decade tried to bring together into their historiographical practices both the imperatives inherent in their militant stance and the quest for an enlarged paradigm of historical studies, that might obviate to a perceived loss of scientific status and political relevance of academic history. Focusing on Hill’s prominent contribution to a neo-Whig interpretation of the national past aimed to emphasize the role played by conflicts and pressures from below in the development of English freedom, the paper traces the emergence, evolution and final failure of the collective project of a scientific history of the English people pursued by the Marxists between the late Thirties and the 1956 crisis in the international Communist movement, and briefly discusses its subsequent legacies.
The Scientific Historian as a Party Intellectual: the Case of Christopher Hill (1938-1957) / Tagliaferri, Teodoro. - (2013). (Intervento presentato al convegno Historians as Engaged Intellectuals: Historical Writing and Social Criticism, First Open Conference of the International Commission on the History and Theory of Historiography, Ruhr University, Bochum, 19-21 September 2013 tenutosi a Institut für soziale Bewegungen, Haus der Geschichte des Ruhrgebiet, Bochum, Germany nel 19-21, September 2013).
The Scientific Historian as a Party Intellectual: the Case of Christopher Hill (1938-1957)
TAGLIAFERRI, TEODORO
2013
Abstract
Paper proposal accepted at the First Open Conference of the International Commission on the History and Theory of Historiography, Ruhr University, Bochum, 19-21 September 2013 The formative years of the Anglo-Marxist historical tradition were marked by an intense commitment on the part of some among the most promising members of a new generation of professional scholars to the cultural policies of the Communist Party of Great Britain. Even before the constitution of the Party Historians’ Group in 1946, the young intellectuals experiencing the radicalization of the Red Decade tried to bring together into their historiographical practices both the imperatives inherent in their militant stance and the quest for an enlarged paradigm of historical studies, that might obviate to a perceived loss of scientific status and political relevance of academic history. Focusing on Hill’s prominent contribution to a neo-Whig interpretation of the national past aimed to emphasize the role played by conflicts and pressures from below in the development of English freedom, the paper traces the emergence, evolution and final failure of the collective project of a scientific history of the English people pursued by the Marxists between the late Thirties and the 1956 crisis in the international Communist movement, and briefly discusses its subsequent legacies.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
