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E H Carr. A ‘late’ addition to the British Marxist Historians

In Uncategorized on May 10, 2019 by kmflett

The British Marxist Historians, are mostly post-1945 grouping are well known figures for writing some of the best historical work of the twentieth century. Names like Dorothy Thompson, EP Thompson, Christopher Hill, John Saville and Eric Hobsbawm remain very well known.

Nearly all were members of the Communist Party and the Communist Party Historians Group and nearly all left after 1956 although remaining very much on the left. These were not ‘the god that failed’ people.

It now appears that we can add a name to the group, that of EH Carr.

Carr is well known (he died in 1982) for writing an historiographical guide What is History that remains in print and a series of volumes on the history of the Russian Revolution.

A new memoir by his great granddaugher Helen Carr, published in the New Statesman, reveals that amongst his private papers is a document outlining his political position. He describes himself as a Marxist (although certainly not a CP member). The irony is that as Carr who had been liberal warmed to the positions of Soviet or Stalinist Russia (choose your label) those historians who had supported were becoming very critical of it.

https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2019/05/eh-carr-what-is-history-truth-subjectivity-facts

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