Interpreting the British Marxist Historians and Religious Radicalism: From Historical Materialism to History from Below

Driven by the work of the now overlooked A. L. Morton and Dona Torr, the famed postwar British Marxist historians developed extensive research on the historic role of religious radicalism of peasants, artisans, middle-class dissenters, working class, etc. Their explanations of religion were its role in the transformation from feudalism to capitalism and how its progressive ideas were being absorbed into emergent socialism. After outlining the key ideas of the British Marxist historians, this paper looks at their legacy and reception. This discussion includes early receptions focused on expectations of the working class being able to realise the utopianism of historic religious radicalism. The paper then looks at how and why understanding the transformation of class relations was increasingly downplayed in the reception of the British Marxist historians over the twentieth century and why the emphasis shifted to a romanticised history of religion ‘from below.’