Caution: historian at work. E P Thompson’s study August 1980
A rare picture of the study of socialist historian E P Thompson (1924-1993) appeared in an interview he gave to the New Musical Express in the 16th August 1980 issue.
The picture shows a large number of papers strewn about. A reminder, as is the presence of a typewriter that these were still the days when articles and books were typed on paper and corrected in the same way. Hence no doubt the papers are in part drafts and corrections.
There is also, pre=mobile a dial phone.
Looking back from 2021 some might wonder how Thompson ever produced any work, but he did, including the Making of the English Working Class (1963) which has the best part of 1,000 pages.
The age of the laptop, printer and mobile makes research easier in many ways, but perhaps some of the skills of careful revision and correction have diminished as well.
As ever, work in progress.
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