Customs in common - E. P. Thompson

Eighteenth-century Britain saw a profound distancing between the culture of the patricians and the plebs. E. P. Thompson explains why in this series of brilliant essays on the customs of the working people, which, he argues, emerged as a culture of resistance towards an innovative market economy.

He discusses 'wife sales' as a form of unofficial divorce, the 'rough music' or ritual mockery directed at transgressors, the ways a rebellious traditional culture fought back against the enclosure movement, 'free markets' in grain and the work-discipline of early industrial capitalism. The result is a vividly original book, a superb companion volume to E. P. Thompson's monumental The making of the English working class.

Attachments

E. P. Thompson - Customs in Common.pdf (30.21 MB)

customs in common complete Part 1.pdf (40.01 MB)

customs in common complete Part 2.pdf (38.83 MB)

Comments

As someone pointed out on

As someone pointed out on Facebook, this book is incomplete, ending at page 375. Anyone got the end?

Related content

Match girls' strike, London 1888

The English working class - Tom Nairn

"The passage of the early English working class from revolt to political integration is often explained solely by Britain's ascendancy as the…

race and iq

Race, education, intelligence: a teacher's guide to the issues

A late 1970s pamphlet from the National Union of Teachers on the bankruptcy of IQ studies and the…

The making of the English working class - E. P. Thompson

E. P. Thompson's monumental study of the making of the English working class, and the development of…

The Enemy is Middle Class - Andy Anderson and Mark Anderson

Controversial book published by Openly Classist in 1998.

Written in flames pamphlet cover

Written in flames: naming the British ruling class - I-Spy Productions

Anarchist pamphlet from 1987 with research and analysis on leading figures in the British ruling…

The moral economy of the English crowd in the eighteenth century - E. P. Thompson

E. P. Thompson's ground-breaking article on the English food riots of the 1700 and 1800s.