WEEK THREE DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

What is Marxism and what does it have to do with history?
History is class struggle

Historical Materialism…Historical Dialectic
History is inevitable

Post War history=consensus
Richard Hoftsadter

1960s=radicalism on campus results in
development of the historiographical left and ideological polarization

William Appleman Williams:
The Tragedy of American Diplomacy


Genovese(1965): "Those of you who know me
know that I am a Marxist and a Socialist. Therefore, unlike most of my distinguished colleagues here this morning, I do not fear or regret the impending Viet Cong victory in Vietnam. I welcome it."


In general, Marxist history is determinist. What does that mean? And why is it determinist?

Marxist history also tries to be “history from below.” Why? Who do Marxist historians purport to represent?



3. Readings

Eric Hobsbawm, Interview in Visions of History
1. What is the effect of Marxism on Hobsbawm?

2. “Once, people believed that there were single answers and that you ought to get at agreed single answers; it is now quite evident that, even as Marxists, there are various ways in which you can approach the answer to particular problems.” Explain.
--class relationships
--defining class and class fluidity
--tension, hierarchy
Distinction:
--Marxist versus marxist

3. What pressures did Marxist historians face during the Cold War? Where does Hobsbawm discuss that? Are there any modern parallels?

4. Hobsbawm mentions hegemony, the idea developed by scholars such as Gramsci and Genovese. What is hegemony? How is hegemony historically relevant?
--structure of power
--soft power
--control of ideas

--power so overwhelming that it
polices itself

E.P. Thompson, “Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism,” in Past and Present, no. 38 (Dec.,1967), pp. 56-97.

1. Consider time. How important is time in making your reality? How is time historical?

Are there other “unseen” forces that might be historical when reconsidered?

2. “How far, and in what ways, did this shift in time-sense affect labour discipline, and how far did it influence the inward apprehension of time of working people? In the transition to mature industrial society entailed a severe restructuring of working habits—new disciplines, new incentives, and a new human nature upon which these incentives could bite effectively—how far is this related to changes in the inward notation of time?” EXPLAIN.

3. What does Thompson mean by “clock time?” What are the implications of the extension of clock time?
“It is by no means clear how far the availability of precise clock time extended at the time of the industrial revolution.”

4. Look at the Plowman’s workday. Describe his labor.

5. Look at Crowley’s laws. What do these suggest regarding work discipline?

CROWLEY’S IRONWORKS LABOR LAWS:

Law No 50, 53. 'To hear small differences... which cause waste of time and trouble to Magistrates.' 'No workman was 'to strike an officer, throw stones or snowballs, or by blowing of a horn or otherwise raise a tumult or mobb'.

Law No. 85 requires the work’s treasurer 'to make it his business to Pry and Enquire' into the actions of the work-people 'and when any clerk or servant shall make a Frequent Practice in going much abroad, particularly to Newcastle, which hath been the ruine of several, to inform me'. Strictures against 'morning drinking' followed, and the discharge of guilty workers was to be mandatory.

Law No 113 'Whereas in 1724, taking into consideration the deplorable state of my honest and laborious workmen and their families when visited with sickness or other bodily infirmities, who for want of a proper and speedy relief have languished for a longer time under their maladies than otherwise they would', required that the proprietor accordingly appointed, at his own proper charge, a surgeon skilled in physic as a works' doctor. He was to be a person of sober life and conversation 'not addicted so much to pleasure as to be withdrawn from a due attendance on his business'; he was to give daily attendance in the factory, though he was allowed to have a private practice within 10 miles of it. All workmen who had been in the firm's employ for twelve months and their families were to be attended gratis. 'Yet such hath been the unparallel'd ingratitude of some persons and the villany (sic) of others that they deserve punishment more than the benefit thus intended them, first in obtaining medicines on every light occasion and, on the disorder naturally abating, not only kept them till spoilt but have also destroyed them; others have unreasonably demanded medicines for their children when they have returned indisposed from foreign service and also I have been credibly informed that such hathe been the villany of some others that they have feigned themselves sick or disabled by bodily infirmities and have thereupon obtained medicines which they have afterwards disposed of to Countrey people. Persons abusing the scheme were to be deprived of its benefits.

Law No 97. had a preamble which read 'the raising and continued supporting of a stock to relieve such of my workmen and their families as may be by sickness or other means reduced to that poverty as not to be able to support themselves without some assistance, the teaching of Youth and other matters of so great concern, are so incumbent upon us that there is no avoiding of a General Contribution for the same'. It proceeded to arrange for the appointment, and to prescribe the duties, of 'the clerk for the Poor'. 'He is carefully to teach and instruct the workmen's children and to be constantly in his school', from 8 a.m. to 12 a.m. and from 1p.m. to 4 p.m. during the winter months and from 6 a. m. to 11 a.m. and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. in summer, 'He shall not upon any account of Races, Cock fightings, Rope dancers or Stage Players dismiss his scholars but constantly attend school'; 'he shall not without the consent of the Governors give his scholars ... leave to play or absent himself for more than half an hour in any one day in school hours; he shall carefully teach all his scholars that are capable of learning the Catechism of the Church of England ...' on Court days 'he shall, upon demand, bring two or three lines of the writing of such of the workmen's children as are under his care to lay the same before the Governors that his conduct may be the better judged of', and in association with the works chaplain 'shall bring such scholars to be examined in public in the Cathecism'. Finally, 'he is to take care to make his scholars shew due respect to their superiors and especially aged persons and to correct lying, swearing and such-like horrid crimes'; setting a good example himself in these things since 'example availeth more than precept'.


6. What is the role played by the land owners or factory owners throughout this essay?

7. What role does school play in instilling industrial discipline?

8. How is all of this discipline internalized?
How can the historian access the internal?

9. VII is the thesis, I think. What do you think?

10. Why is this essay a prime example of Marxist history?

Eugene Genovese, The World the Slaveholders Made Part Two, Chapter Three, “The Critique of Capitalism.”

1. Who was George Fitzhugh?
--abandon free trade
--overthrow capitalist system
--debate:
wage labor vs. slave labor
free labor vs. slave labor
(white slavery)

2. What is the relationship between anti-slavery and capitalism? Why is Fitzhugh criticizing capitalism? What is the critique? What problem does Fitzhugh have with capitalism?

3. Discuss the following quote: “Mercantilism ushered in an era of cannibalism, and laissez faire perfected it.” (174)

4. Why does Genovese discuss the labor theory of wages? What does classical economic tell us about wages and how they are set? What is Fitzhugh’s critique of that? (179)

5. Assess this quote: “The moral effect of free society was the destruction of the Christian principle of love-thy-neighbor.”
--contrast that with this—
“The master comes to Christianity because his whole life is spent in providing for the minutest wants of others.” (187)

6. What is Fitzhugh’s answer to the problems of industrial society and worker exploitation?

7. As an historian, consider why Genovese does not do more moralizing here. Why doesn’t he absolutely butcher Fitzhugh’s flawed thinking and arguments?