Sheila Rowbotham on E. P. Thompson, Feminism, and the 1960s
In an interview, longtime socialist-feminist historian Sheila Rowbotham reflects on her decades on the Left, grappling with the reality of being a socialist from the middle class, and E. P. and Dorothy Thompson and the classic book The Making of the English Working Class.
Members of the National Women’s Liberation Movement, on an equal rights march to mark International Women’s Day, London, 1971. Photo by Daily Express / Hulton Archive / Getty
Sheila Rowbotham is a socialist-feminist historian and the author of many books. She was recently interviewed by staff writer Alex Press and historian Gabriel Winant on Jacobin’s Casualties of History podcast, where she spoke about her history on the Left and her relationship to E. P. and Dorothy Thompson.
You can listen to Casualties of History by subscribing to Jacobin Radio here, and you can listen to the episode with Rowbotham here. The transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
Alex N. Press
You came into the Left in the early 1960s in the environment of the disarmament campaign and the lingering aftermath of 1956. How did those years shape your political development?
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