He worked as an independent scholar; from 1946 onwards he was the Chair of the Historians Group of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB).
He is best known for A People's History of England, but he also did valuable work on William Blake and the Ranters, and for the study The English Utopia.
[2] While at Cambridge, he developed friends from within the university Labour club, including Allen Hutt who became a typographer and Ivor Montagu who was later active in the film industry.
In 1929 he joined the Communist Party of Great Britain and along with his wife, Vivien, remained a member for the rest of his life.
[3] Morton spent most of the 1939–45 World War in the Royal Artillery labouring on construction sites in the Isle of Sheppey.
The collection comprises more than 3,900 volumes, including all foreign-language editions of A People's History of England, many contain hand-written comments by Morton.