1956 and All That

The February 2006 Conference of the London Socialist Historians Group saw academics and activists who came to mark the 50th anniversary of the events of 1956, by presenting historical research on the questions under review and by linking historical inquiry to political activism. The research agenda proposed by the conference is an important one.

Paul Blackledge examined the development of the theory of socialist humanism by E.P Thompson and others as an alternative to Stalinism. Neil Davidson examined the ideas of a forgotten left-wing thinker from this period Alisdair Macintyre, while Christian Hogsberg reviewed the influence of an existing Trotskyist theorist, CLR James around the events of 1956 Of course the conference could not hope to cover the huge range of possible historical issues arising from the 50th anniversary of 1956. The beginnings of the consumer society and the age of affluence; the birth of youth culture and rock'n'roll; British nuclear tests and the origins of CND and campaigns against the bomb; and the new theatre marked by 'look back in anger'. In an introduction, the editor Keith Flett reviews some of these wider trends. However the research agenda proposed by the conference was and remains an important one.