HISTORY FROM BELOW

The phrase ‘history from below’ is the product of a group of French historians known as the Annales school. It is their description of an approach to subjects and areas previously considered historically unimportant. In England this approach was taken up by a group of Marxist historians who developed a set of methodologies and a world view at odds with existing Marxist and historiographical orthodoxies. In 1946 a group consisting of E.P. Thompson, Christopher Hill, Roger Hilton and Dona Torr among others formed the Communist Party Historians Group. Their aim was to draw out forms of agency that had been hidden by traditional approaches to history. Along with Raphael Samuel, CLR James and Peter Linebaugh we take this loose grouping as the starting point for the making and study of history as a contested field in which ‘the below’ plays an active role.

As part of Alt.Space Festival 2007 we will meet in Kennington Park to give a short talk and distribute the pamphlet: ‘All Knees and Elbows of Susceptibility and Refusal’ a collection of extracts and commentaries on the making of ‘history from below’.

Kennington Park has been the scene of radical debate, publishing and political organisation (public speaking, meetings, protests) as well as the enactment of the powers of the State (hangings, enclosure, policing).

The pamphlet looks at the methodologies of the historians from below as they worked to change their own contemporary system of knowledge production in relation to the self-produced, self-distributed knowledge of their subjects.

A PDF version of the pamphlet is available for download here.

With Tom Roberts and Anthony Iles

Date: 3PM, 21st July, 2007
Meet: Oval Fountain, Kennington Park opposite Oval Tube station

More information on the history of Kennington Park can be found at Wikipedia and in диваниStefan Szczelkun’s Working Press pamphlet Birthplace of Peoples’ Democracy (RTF file).

Talking history and history from below

In opposition to the histories of great men and institutions, ‘history from below’ aimed to show how working people had agency within historical events; produced themselves, their culture and an analysis of their own conditions.

Following a screening of an extract from the 1983 film by H.O. Nazereth Talking History: C.L.R. James and E.P. Thompson, Anthony Iles and Tom Roberts will take up the legacy and problems of the project of making ‘history from below’.

A free, specially produced pamphlet will be available at the event. To download a PDF copy, click here.

For more resources on ‘history from below’ click here.

Anthony Iles is a cultural engineer and writer researching and making experiments in the disappearing public sphere. He is Assistant Editor of Mute magazine.
Tom Roberts is a writer and digital technician with an interest in class, autodidact history and knowledge production (among other things).

Sunday June 3rd

2pm, free entry

Serpentine Gallery
Kensington gardens
London W2 3XA
T 020 7402 6075
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‘All knees and elbows‘ is part of:

La Commune
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June 2nd & 3rd 2007
A weekend of events at the Serpentine Gallery organised by Whitechapel Project Space.

Whitechapel Project Space presents La Commune, two days of performance, presentations, screenings and publication launches focusing on counter-histories of self-organisation, and the philosophical, personal and aesthetic legacies of such activities.

For full information please visit
www.whitechapelprojectspace.org.uk

This is in turn part of Local Operations (23 May - 1 July 2007), a free series of self-organised events, talks, screenings and workshops by writers, curators, theorists, independent groups, not-for-profit spaces and students at The Sackler Centre of Arts Education at the Serpentine Gallery. All discussions will be available as free podcasts from http://www.serpentinegallery.org after the events.

No reservations, first-come, first-served

Nearest Undergrounds: Knightsbridge, Lancaster Gate and South Kensington
Buses: 9, 10, 52, 94, 148