ABSTRACT

The existence and importance of historical work in this Centre was acknowledged in 1973-74, with the formation of a ‘period’ sub-group for two main reasons. First, work on problems in contemporary culture was increasingly being grounded in an analysis of British capitalism since the nineteenth century; second, and more urgently, we lacked an adequate working account, for reference and revision, of basic themes in that development – though Hobsbawm’s Industry and Empire1 went some way towards fulfilling the need.