Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 February 2017
It is often suggested that the work of E. P. Thomson played a pivotal role in shaping South African historical writing and provided the foundations for a new school of social history. Thompson's writings – often refracted through many other texts – were one influence amongst many. This article, drawing on my own experiences of key moments of individuals and institutions, argues that the decisive and central role that is ascribed to his work does not accord with much more complex and localised realities. The article touches on numerous other influences that shaped the research and writing of succeeding cohorts of historians. It also suggests that while The Poverty of Theory was an influential publication, it did not initiate new forms of research and writing, but rather contributed to debates that were already well underway. In conclusion, the usefulness of the category of social history is disputed, as in the South African context it lends to a lazy lumping together of a very diverse selection of historians and needs to be rethought or replaced.
Patrick Harries provided me with valuable insights while I was drafting this article, but his tragic death in 2016 means that I am not able to thank him for his help in person. He will be sorely missed. He was a fine, innovative historian who showed great intellectual and personal generosity to both his peers and his students. Author's email: peter.delius@wits.ac.za
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5 Keith Breckenridge and Stephen Sparks, who suggested I sketch my own intellectual history as a paper for the ‘History after E. P. Thompson’ workshop, must take most of the blame for this autobiographical turn.
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43 It would also be a mistake to imagine that Belinda and Charles were always in full intellectual agreement!
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