Hoggart’s working-class focus excluded the political minorities Williams championed.

Evidence

Richard Hoggart did not directly address these questions and working-class politics did not figure largely in the book. As is well known, Hoggart chose to concentrate on the majority to whom the appeals of the mass publicists were primarily addressed and deliberately downplayed the role of what he called “the purposive, the political, the pious and the self-improving minorities” (Hoggart 1958: 22): contrary to, say, Raymond Williams, who regarded politics as part of the “high working class tradition” and the building of political institutions as among their most outstanding cultural achievements (“an extension of primary values into the social fields” [Williams 1957: 31]). — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 155 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

Category: Definitional Content

Broader Connections

• Hoggart downplayed working-class politics while Williams valorized political institutions #expands (0.80) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 155