An Editors' Picnic

This is the first article in our new series Celebrating HWJ 100. This series features radical reflections, discussions and reminiscences which mark the publication of the 100^th issue of our partner, History Workshop Journal.

Originating at Ruskin College, Oxford in 1967, the History Workshop movement sought to democratise the study of history and champion the intellectual value of ‘history from below’. The journal was founded in 1976 and has been run by an editorial collective of historians ever since. The early issues of HWJ were cut and pasted together on kitchen tables and over the past fifty years, it has developed into one of the leading historical journals in the world.

In this introductory article, Barbara Taylor shares her memories of a picnic she enjoyed with other HWJ editors in 1984.

A close up black and white photograph showing three white men, one white woman and one young white boy sitting together on the grass in someone’s garden. They are having a picnic and seem deep in conversation. There is a hedge and a wooden fence in the background. — Alun Howkins, Anne Summers, Raphael Samuel, Daniel Stedman Jones and Gareth Stedman Jones (photo courtesy of Barbara Taylor)

A close up black and white photograph showing two white men and two white women sitting in a circle on the grass in someone’s garden. They are having a picnic and seem deep in conversation. There is a hedge and some flowers in the background. — Jeffrey Weeks, Jane Caplan, Michael Ignatieff and Sally Alexander (photo courtesy of Barbara Taylor)

These photos date from 1984, the year after I joined the History Workshop editorial collective. We held editors’ meetings in each other’s homes. This one was at Stan Shipley’s home, close to Epping Forest.

I remember that at this meeting, as well as discussing articles that had been submitted, we all went for a long walk. And we had a picnic in Stan’s garden. Being an editor was intensely sociable as well as stimulating. I took the photos – I can’t remember who took the ones I feature in. It’s a pity that Stan isn’t in any of them. I suspect that he and his wife Mary were busy acting as hosts and serving the food.

A close up black and white photograph showing two white women and one young white boy sitting on the grass in someone’s garden. The two women are eating from plates of food and are looking at something on their right. There is a brick building and a white car in the background. — Anna Davin, Daniel Stedman Jones and Anne Summers (photo courtesy of Barbara Taylor)

A close up black and white photograph showing two white men and a young white boy sitting on the grass in someone’s garden. The men seem deep in conversation and there is an empty plate between them. In the background is the edge of a building and some paving slabs. There is also a child’s tricycle on the grass behind the boy. — Raphael Samuel, Gareth Stedman Jones and Daniel Stedman Jones (photo courtesy of Barbara Taylor)

Raphael Samuel was the inspiration behind History Workshop. At the time, he taught history at Ruskin College, an adult learning college at Oxford with strong links to the labour movement. We all loved Raphael, and we also argued a lot – about history, its purpose and also which articles we were going to publish.

Several of Raphael’s former students at Ruskin were on the editorial collective – among them Stan, an engineering worker, as well as Sally Alexander and Alun Howkins. It was Sally who rang me the previous year and said: ‘Barbara, we want to invite you to be on History Workshop.’ I was in my early thirties and was just publishing my first book Eve and the New Jerusalem about the Owenite movement and socialism and feminism in the early and mid-nineteenth century. I loved being a History Workshop editor and the intellectual excitement that came with it.

A collage of two close up black and white photographs side-by-side. The left hand photo shows a white woman with short dark hair sitting on the grass in someone’s garden. She is wearing a dress and sandals and is turned away from the camera, seemingly engaged in conversation. On the left a man’s back is slightly visible and there are some plants in the background. The right hand photo shows a white man with fair hair sprawled on the grass in someone’s garden. He is wearing jeans and a dark t-shirt and is looking into the camera. There is an empty plate in front of him and in the background is a back door, a washing line and some plants. — (L) Sally Alexander (R) Alun Howkins (both photos courtesy of Barbara Taylor)

A close up black and white photograph of a white woman with wavy fair hair sitting on the grass in someone’s garden. She is wearing a dress and large sunglasses and is looking directly at the camera. She is holding a plate of picnic food and behind her a group of white men are sat on the grass, seemingly deep in conversation. — Barbara Taylor and, behind her, Raphael Samuel (photo courtesy of Barbara Taylor)

History Workshop Journal was started in 1976. Raphael, Sally and Alun were all founding editors – and so too, among those featured in these photographs, were Anna Davin, Tim Mason, Gareth Stedman Jones and Anne Summers. The child is Sally and Gareth’s son, Daniel. The other editors depicted are Jeffrey Weeks, Jane Caplan, Michael Ignatieff and Jerry White.

A black and white close up photograph of a white man with thick dark hair sat on the grass in someone’s garden. He is wearing dark trousers and a checked shirt and is smiling at someone to the left of the camera. He is holding a plate of picnic food and behind him is a white car and a brick building. — Jerry White (photo courtesy of Barbara Taylor)

A black and white photograph of two white men standing on the grass in someone’s garden. They are both standing casually with their hands in their pockets and seem deep in conversation. Above them is an empty washing line and behind them is a garden hedge, a small tree and a brick wall. — Michael Ignatieff and Tim Mason (photo courtesy of Barbara Taylor)

Of those in the photographs, Anna Davin and I remain editors (there are currently 34 in total); Sally Alexander, Jane Caplan and Gareth Stedman Jones are associate editors. The History Workshop archive at the Bishopsgate Institute in London contains many other photos of the editorial collective and History Workshop events.

A black and white close up photograph of a white woman with short fair hair sprawled casually on the grass in someone’s garden. She is wearing a dark t-shirt and jeans and is staring a something to the right of the camera, seemingly lost in thought. Behind her are some plants, a white car and a brick wall. — Anna Davin (photo courtesy of Barbara Taylor)

Later on in this series, the current editorial collective of History Workshop magazine will be reflecting on their findings from a recent visit to the Bishopsgate Institute.

An Editors’ Picnic

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