London Socialist Historians Group
Media Release 28th September
Contact Dr Keith Flett 07803 167266
Historians warn guidelines could see E P Thompson’s Making of the English Working Class banned from schools
The London Socialist Historians Group, which organises the socialist history seminar at the Institute of Historical Research at London University, has warned that new Department for Education guidelines could see books like E P Thompson’s Making of the English Working Class banned from schools.
The guidelines prohibit use of material from organisations that take ‘extreme political stances’ and in part say:
a publicly stated desire to abolish or overthrow democracy, capitalism, or to end free and fair elections”; opposition to freedom of speech; the use of racist, including antisemitic, language; the endorsement of illegal activity; and a failure to condemn illegal activities done in support of their cause.
The historians say that there are two key issues involved.
Firstly while the guidelines apply specifically in this version to the relationships, sex and health sections of the curriculum it seems likely that they are intended for wider use.
Secondly a book like E P Thompson’s 1963 classic Making of the English Working Class is actually centrally about how people built relationships and joined together as communities in the first half of the nineteenth century. An extract from it might well be useful in the classroom in understanding how people interacted in the past.
LSHG Convenor Dr Keith Flett said, E P Thompson was a member of the Communist Party until 1956 and later a leading member of CND. Neither organisation one suspects would meet the Government’s new guidelines. However The Making of the English Working Class remains in print and is read all over the world. The one place where it might not be read in future are school classrooms in England.
Guidelines
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/plan-your-relationships-sex-and-health-curriculum
Leave a Reply