Thompson's Cultural Research Thought

Hall had claimed that cultural studies had no absolute beginning. In some extent, it reflects the complexity and diversity of cultural studies at the beginning of its formation. Richard Johnson has also said that in political and ideological area each cultural studies has its tradition. At the beginning of its formation, cultural studies were ralated to various ideas, theories and disciplines. Thompson, as one of the founders of the cultural studies, the formation of his thought has its unique historical and era factors. His cultural researching methods and ideas have its certain diversity.In our country's intellectual circles, Thompson has been defined as a marxist historian, and his identity as a scholar of cultural research has been ignored by Chinese scholars for a long time. But actually, at the beginning of the foundation of Birmingham Culture Research Center, Thompson, Richard Hoggart and Raymond Williams were called the founders of cultural studies. And"The Making of English Working Class"was thought as foundation work of cultural studies. In the history of cultural research, in the expound of the concept of"culture", Thompson has its indispensable contribution.The paper takes"The Making of English Working Class"as an example. By studying and analysing, the paper attempts to analyze the sources of his thoughts of cultural research, explains its specific thought of culture research, and discusses the important role which he played in the cultural studies. This paper will be divided into four chapters. The introduction includs three contents, the first part is an introduction to Thompson and his literature,the second part presents other scholors'reaserch of Thompson, the third part is an introduction of"The Making of English Working Class",then presents the rest chaptors of this article. They all based on the analysis of the book,and try to intruduce Thompson's thoughts of Class,People and his Cultural ideas.