E. P. Thompson's Quarrel with Post-1880 Marxism; Correspondence

Abstract

This is just a brief addition to J. Quinn Brisben's admirable review of the last book by E.P. Thompson, my favorite historian (after Karl Marx) about my favorite poet (after none), William Blake (MR, September 1994). I wish to suggest that Thompson's most valuable concept, central to his vision, the history-making reality of human desire and moral self-consciousness, lies outside the tradition, not of Marx, but of post-1880 Marxism and calls out for its revision.

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