History Progresses on the Popular Front: A People’s History of England

In the mid-1930s, the Communist Party shifted towards seeking wider alliances in a Popular Front line against fascismFascism, a development which suited Morton temperamentally. His historical materialist work on religionReligion had brought Morton into contact with key figures in the Left Book ClubLeft Book Club (LBC) with whom he would publish his most famous book, A People’s History of EnglandMorton, Arthur LeslieBooks and pamphlets: (1938) (1938). This chapter contextualises A People’s History of England as (effectively) the first Marxist history of the nation, and how the historical materialist framework made it especially distinctive from the usual approaches of historians. This chapter also involves an analysis of A People’s History of EnglandMorton, Arthur LeslieBooks and pamphlets: (1938), showing how different events and themes (e.g., PeasantsPeasants, peasantry’ Revolt, English RevolutionEnglish Revolution, ChartismChartism, growth of the labour movement) were presented in Popular Frontist language replete with implicit and explicit warnings about fascismFascism, ultraleftismUltraleftism, and tactical naivety.