History and Labour Politics
A Conference Supported by the Oxford Labour Network
Monday 9 November 2026, 11am -5.30pm
Gillis Lecture Theatre, Balliol College, Oxford
This day conference addresses the relationship between the writing of history and labour politics. It begins from the premise that writing history in modern Britain was never only a scholarly pursuit for many who influenced its theory and practice. From the theatre of C. L. R. James, the History Workshop tradition of Raphael Samuel, and the memoirs of Harold Wilson to the early years of Past & Present, the work of Christopher Hill, A. L. Morton and E. P. Thompson, writers of different styles and status contributed to history whilst being shaped by, as well as shaping, labour movements around them. At this conference, the term labour politics is defined broadly to include several institutional and intellectual arenas, including adult education, political parties, and trade unions. The aim of the conference is to bring historiographical shifts into dialogue with these contexts. The first session, Radical History, considers how history has been developed and taught outside conventional academic settings through theatre, adult education and historical writing. The second, Social Historians, turns to the institutional spaces and intellectual formation of social and labour history in Britain, from the origins of Past & Present to the approach of Hill and Thompson. The final session, History and Politics, examines the politics of the labour, including the left’s encounter with women’s liberation, the role of worker historians in Thompson’s Making of the English Working Class, and the networks of power surrounding Harold Wilson. All welcome. For further information, message labournetwork@torch.ox.ac.uk
Programme:
Welcome – 11.00-11.30
Session 1 – Radical History – 11.30-13.00
1. Rachel Douglas (University of Glasgow), ‘Making Marxist Theatre from Below: C. L. R. James's The Black Jacobins Play’
2. Geoff Andrews (Open University), ‘Raphael Samuel, Adult Education and the Ruskin History Workshop’
3. James Crossley (University of Cambridge), ‘A. L. Morton and the Transformation of History’
Lunch – 13.00-14.00
Session 2 – Social Historians – 14.00-15.30
1. Mike Braddick (University of Oxford), ‘Christopher Hill and the politics of the British left, 1930-1990’
2. Kevin Morgan (University of Manchester), ‘Marxian transnationalists or contested national history? The origins of Past & Present’
3. Katrina Navickas (University of Oxford), ‘E. P. Thompson and post-Thompsonian approaches to social and labour history’
Session 3 – History and Politics – 15.45-17.15
1. Madeleine Davis (Queen Mary University of London (QMUL)), ‘'Women's Liberation freaks the left?' Negotiating the new politics of women's liberation in the independent Marxist new left’
2. Phil Henshaw (Independent), ‘Gravener Henson in EP Thompson’s Making of the English Working Class’
3. Tom Buchanan (University of Oxford), ‘Harold Wilson: Networks and Power’
