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Sixty years after it was first published, five essayists reflect on the legacy, ideas and personal inspiration of The Making of the English Working Class – and plot its place in the present day.

EP Thompson's landmark social history, The Making of the English Working Class, is a book that changed lives. In an academic world where history was primarily concerned with power and political reform, EP Thompson sought to rescue working people from, as he put it, "the enormous condescension of posterity".

It's a book that lies at the root of contemporary social history, of cultural studies, sociology and anthropology, where, in the years after its publication, the idea of agency – the 'making' of the title – came to be a defining touchstone in thinking about culture and society. And it was popular too, even if its easily recognisable blue Pelican covers – and almost 1000 pages – were possibly more dipped into than read cover to cover.

The Making of the English Working Class was written in the years after EP Thompson left the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1956. In this essay, David Aaronovitch explores how, as well as his experience of leaving the Party, EP Thompson's communism was essential to the writing of his great book.