On Thompson's Social Class History Viewpoint

Edward Palmer Thompson (E. P. Thompson, 1924-1993) is the British Marxist historian, who enjoys a good reputation in international history by his book, The Making of the English Working Class. Thompson pays attention to the working class consciousness in the Making of the English Working Class, emphasizes the social class the formation the appearance. In the Making of the English Working Class, Thompson elaborated his social class history viewpoint: the formation of working class is the objective environment and the person's subjective diligently function product; the working class consciousness is the symbol of the working class which finally forms. The theory for the making of the working class has manifested tendency about his cultural history viewpoint. The author carries on the elaboration in this article to Thompson's social class history viewpoint and cultural history viewpoint. At the same time, Thompson pays attention to the lower class people's history, moreover, regarding from their standpoint and viewpoint on explanting history. That has manifested the history of "from bottom to top". The author is separately analysis positive factor and the negative factor to "from bottom to top" history and "from the top downward" history in this article and proposes these two history methods supplementary and comprehensive.