󰡔영국 노동계급의 형성󰡕 다시 읽기―출간 50주년에 부쳐

Abstract

Celebrating fifty years of the publication The Making of the English Working Class written by E. P. Thompson, the author of this paper would like to reconsider its achievements and limitations. First, how much significance did Thompson’s writing have on Korean academics? Why did it contribute to the development of a sustained theoretical and empirical engagement from Korean academic community? Weak points in Thompson’s book and later work on the British Industrial Revolution are examined with respect to two main arguments: (1) Although description of experience of exploitation during the Industrial Revolution occupies a large part of Thompson’s writing, he fails to efficiently present evidence of how the working class experienced such exploitation of their working conditions; (2) Thompson’s arguments do not elucidates sufficiently the various experiences of the working class, how they related with their political involvement and rhetoric. Thompson also fails to recognize the political dynamism of the working class and the relationship between the politics of the middle class and the working class requires further examination and analysis.