The Experience of War and the Making of a Historian: E.P. Thompson on Military Power, the Colonial Revolution and Nuclear Weapons

Despite the enormous attention that E.P. Thompson has received as both a social historian and anti-nuclear activist, relatively little has been written about the central role of war in his life and thought. The article argues that Thompson was crucially shaped by his experiences in the Second World War. It also argues that he was significantly concerned throughout his life with issues of the anti-colonial revolt. The paper contends that Thompson's understanding of military power has close affinities to that put forward by sociologist Michael Mann. It traces the neglected key role of Thompson's analysis of military power in his masterwork, The Making of the English Working Class. The paper goes on to show how Thompson's thinking about war led him to a critique of the 'Third Worldism' of the early 1960s' New Left movement and to a sceptical view of Fanonian ideas. Thompson's analysis of the 'exterminism' of the Cold War nuclear confrontation is defended as a significant contribution to the study of military power and as a concept of enduring political relevance.