The Historical Categories of E. P. Thompson

The purpose of this article is to review the specific vision of historical materialism in the work of E. P. Thompson. To this end, his theoretical contribution will be analyzed with regard to two aspects: on the one hand, the notion of class as a subject of political action, on the other hand, the formation of such class as a result of a fundamentally historical process. In this sense, three "efforts" on the part of the author will be considered: the methodological effort (experience), the theoretical effort (the moral economy of the crowd and class struggle), and the reflective effort (notions as processes and relations).