E.H. Carr, Isaac Deutscher, Roman Rosdolsky, and the making of history

E.H.Carr and Isaac Deutscher were by any measure the two most important left-wing historians working in Britain during the Cold War. Their work not only led to both to being attacked by both conservatives and liberals at the time. They also found themselves subject in 1963 to a powerful broadside authored by Roman Rosdolsky, the Ukrainian Marxist now living in the USA. In his attack Rosdolsky berated the two together for failing to explain in Marxist terms the role (or otherwise) played by 'accident' and the 'individual' in history. This article examines the Carr-Deutscher relationship, what united and what divided them, and why they found themselves subject to Rosdolsky's detailed critique.