(Arthur) Leslie Morton (1903 - 1987) was a prolific English Marxist historian. He worked mostly as an independent scholar; for a time in the 1940s he was closely associated with the Historians' Group of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). He is known also for work on William Blake and the Ranters, and for the study The English Utopia.

He was born in Suffolk, and studied at the University of Cambridge. Later he taught at A. S. Neill's school Summerhill.

He was one of a group of London left-wing intellectuals of the 1930s. His friends at that time included Albert. L. Lloyd and Maurice Cornforth; he assisted Victor B. Neuberg. In 1932 and 1933 he was involved in a debate with F. R. Leavis, in the pages of Scrutiny.

His 1938 A People's History Of England was adopted quasi-officially as the CPGB national history, and went through later editions on that basis.

He was one of the group of leading communist historians invited to Moscow in 1954/5, with Christopher Hill, Eric Hobsbawm, and the Byzantine historian Robert Browning .

Works

• A People's History Of England (1938)
• Language of Men (1945) essays
• The story of the English revolution (1949) Communist Party pamphlet
• The English Utopia (1952)
• The British Labour Movement, 1770-1920 (1956) with George Tate
• The Everlasting Gospel: A Study in the Sources of William Blake (1958)
• The Life and Ideas of Robert Owen (1962)
• The matter of Britain: essays in a living culture (1966)
• The World of the Ranters: Religious Radicalism in the English Revolution (1970)
• Political Writings of William Morris (1973) editor
• Freedom in Arms A selection of Leveller writings (1975) editor
• Collected poems (1976)
• Three Works By William Morris (1977) editor
• History and the Imagination: Selected Writings of A.L. Morton (1990) edited by Margot Heinemann and Willie Thompson

Reference

• Rebels & Their Causes: Essays In Honour Of A. L. Morton (1978) edited by Maurice Cornforth