Paul Thompson (oral historian)
Encyclopedia
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
sociologist and oral historian. Prior to his recent retirement, he held the position of Research Professor of Sociology at the University of Essex
University of Essex
The University of Essex is a British campus university whose original and largest campus is near the town of Colchester, England. Established in 1963 and receiving its Royal Charter in 1965...
. Thompson is regarded as a pioneer in social science research, particularly due to the development of life stories and oral history within sociology and social history.
Academic career
Paul Thompson was educated at the University of OxfordUniversity of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
, graduating in 1958 with First Class Honours in Modern History
Modern history
Modern history, or the modern era, describes the historical timeline after the Middle Ages. Modern history can be further broken down into the early modern period and the late modern period after the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution...
. He obtained a D.Phil (also at the University of Oxford) in 1964. This was entitled London Working Class Politics and the Formation of the London Labour Party, 1885-1914. In 1964, having spent three years as a Junior Research Fellow at Queen's College, Oxford, Thompson was appointed Lecturer in Sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
(Social History) at the newly established University of Essex
University of Essex
The University of Essex is a British campus university whose original and largest campus is near the town of Colchester, England. Established in 1963 and receiving its Royal Charter in 1965...
. He was to continue his research and teaching in sociology and social history at Essex, being appointed Research Professor in Sociology, in 1988.
Between 1994 and 2001, Thompson was also the Director of ESDS Qualidata
ESDS Qualidata
ESDS Qualidata is a specialist service of the Economic and Social Data Service , led by the UK Data Archive at the University of Essex, jointly funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee and the Economic and Social Research Council...
, University of Essex, where he actively pursued his interest in the preservation of qualitative research materials for secondary use. In doing so, he deposited most his own datasets there while at the same time he was actively involved in the development of this archival service.
Oral History
Paul Thompson is regarded as one of the pioneers of oral history as a research methodology in the social sciences. In 1971 he founded the Oral History SocietyOral History Society
The Oral History Society promotes the collection, Preservation and use of recorded memories of the past.As well as offering practical advice and support, the Society aims to raise standards in oral history practices across a range of activities and disciplines.Through an annual conference, other...
and the journal Oral History. Between 1970 and 1973 he carried out a project titled 'Family Life and Work Experience before 1918' which was the first national oral history interview study to be carried out in Britain. The project resulted in a number of publications, including Thompson's The Edwardians: The Remaking of British Society, which was published in 1975 and again in revised form in 1992.
In 1987 he also founded the National Life Story Collection (now known as National Life Stories
National Life Stories
National Life Stories is an independent charitable trust and limited company based within the British Library Oral History section, whose key focus and expertise is oral history fieldwork...
) at the British Library National Sound Archive in London. The aim of this new collection was to "record first-hand experiences of as wide a cross-section of present-day society as possible"
Subsequent oral history work includes studies of the family and community life of Scottish fishermen as well as car workers in Coventry and Turin. Recently, Paul Thompson carried out a research project aimed at recording life stories with trans-national Jamaican families and is currently expanding on his work with pioneers of social research.
Selected publications
- Sea-change: Wivenhoe remembered, Stoud: Tempus, 2006
- With Bauer, E. Jamaican hands across the Atlantic, Kingston, Jamaica: Ian Randle, 2006
- With Hussey, S. (eds.) Environmental consciousness: the roots of a new political agenda, New York: Transaction, 2004
- With Bertaux, D. and Rotkirch, A. (eds.) On living through Soviet Russia, London: Routledge, 2004
- With Chamberlain, M. (eds.) Narrative and genre: contexts and types of communication, London: Routledge, 1998
- With et al. Growing up in stepfamilies, USA: Oxford University Press, 1997
- With et al. (eds.) Gender and memory, Oxford: Oxford University, 1996
- With Bertaux, D. Pathways to social class: a qualitative approach to social mobility, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996
- With Courtney, C. City lives: the changing voices of British finance, London: Methuen, 1996
- With et al. Listening for a change: oral testimony and development, London: Panos Publications, 1993
- With Bertaux, D. (eds.) Between generations: family models, myths and memories, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993
- With Samuel, R. (eds.) The myths we live by, London: Routledge, 1990
- With Itzin, C. and Abendstern, M. I don't feel old: the experience of later life, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990
- Living the fishing, London, Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1983
- With Burchardt, N. (eds.) Our common history: the transformation of Europe, London: Pluto Press, 1982
- The voice of the past: oral history, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978
- The Edwardians: the remaking of British society, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1975
- William ButterfieldWilliam ButterfieldWilliam Butterfield was a Gothic Revival architect and associated with the Oxford Movement . He is noted for his use of polychromy-Biography:...
, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1971, ISBN 0 7100 6930 8 - The work of William MorrisWilliam MorrisWilliam Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...
, New York: William Heinemann and Viking Press, 1967 - Socialists, Liberals and Labour: the struggle for London 1885-1914, London: Routledge, Kegan Paul and University of Toronto Press, 1967
- With Kidson, P. and Murray, P. A history of English architecture, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1965
- Architecture: art or social service, London: Fabian Society, 1963