After the end of the Second World War, an emerging subfield of
social history gradually became popular in history departments.
Past & Present thus emerged in 1952 as an alternative to mainstream political history journals. It was founded by a combination of
Marxist and non-Marxist historians, including
John Morris. The Marxist historians included members of the
Communist Party Historians Group, including
E. P. Thompson,
Christopher Hill,
Eric Hobsbawm,
Raphael Samuel,
Rodney Hilton, and
Dona Torr.
Gordon Childe was a founder member of the board. The journal previously had the subtitled
A Journal of Scientific History. These figures often advocated
History from Below in explaining the history of class, labour, and social relations. Morris was the editor from 1952 until 1960 and remained as chairman of the editorial board until 1972.
Past & Present was simultaneously influenced by the
Annales school of historians, which aimed to write history in its totality. The History Workshop movement, founded in the 1960s, aimed to become a platform for the study of "ordinary people". The influence of
Past & Present greatly expanded in the historical discipline after the publication of Thompson's
The Making of the English Working Class in 1963. == See also ==