He wrote about seeking to rescue his subject "from the (*) enormous condescension of posterity" in the much quoted preface to his best-known book, which uses sources like popular songs and ignored court complaints to tell the story of trade unionists, Luddites, and other radicals of early industrial Britain.
In one book, this man described his encounter with a farmer named Mr. Noakes whom he described as "the last Muggletonian." That posthumously published book is titled Witness Against the Beast and identifies a central streak of antinomianism in the works of William Blake.  This man largely ignored fantasy novels such as The Water of the Wondrous Isles to focus on his subject's activism in his lengthy biography William Morris: Romantic to Revolutionary. He wrote about seeking to rescue his subject "from the (*) enormous condescension of posterity" in the much quoted preface to his best-known book, which uses sources like popular songs and ignored court complaints to tell the story of trade unionists, Luddites, and other radicals of early industrial Britain. For 10 points, name this English socialist and author of The Making of the English Working Class.
In one book, this man described his encounter with a farmer named Mr. Noakes whom he described as "the last Muggletonian."
E(dward) P(almer) Thompson