Malcolm Chase (1957–2020)

Abstract

Malcolm Chase, who has died aged sixty-three, was a strong supporter of History Workshop and a great embodiment of its ideals. He was steeped in the work of E. P. Thompson and cared passionately about history from below. One of the distinguishing features of Malcolm’s work was his deeply felt commitment to reconstructing the lives of the poor and taking their politics seriously. Like Thompson, he was particularly strong on the tone of workers’ voices in the past. In a remarkably productive career, over the last quarter century, he became an important historian of nineteenth-century British radicalism and the leading authority (in a crowded field) on