Welcome to the SSLH

Chartism Day 2026: venue, date and call for papers.

Founded in 1960, the Society for the Study of Labour History (SSLH) is the UK’s principal organisation dedicated to the study of labour history.

Membership is open to everyone who would like to learn more about labour history and heritage whether on a professional or amateur basis.

The SSLH publishes the journal the Labour History Review, organises regular conferences and actively promotes the preservation of historical resources connected to the labour movement.

What’s new

Bursary reports

Theo Christodoulidis (University of Dundee) on industrial Dundee’s female migrant millworkers c.1841-1891.

My research investigates female migrant mill and factory workers housed at asylums and poorhouses in Dundee and its environs between 1841 and 1900. I have spent the last four years digging through primary sources, assessing and analysing recorded manifestations of anomic symptoms, and evidence of anomic experience, drawing on data principally from the Dundee Royal… Continue reading Theo Christodoulidis (University of Dundee) on industrial Dundee’s female migrant millworkers c.1841-1891.

Bursary reports

John Russell (Queen Mary University of London) on the Labour Party’s reorientation in Middle Eastern policy following the Suez Crisis.

Financial support from the Society for the Study of Labour History allowed me to fund several research trips to the Labour History Archive and Study Centre at the People’s History Museum in Manchester in 2024 and 2025. These visits were used to research and draft the final chapters of my PhD thesis – an exploration… Continue reading John Russell (Queen Mary University of London) on the Labour Party’s reorientation in Middle Eastern policy following the Suez Crisis.

Bursary reports

Lewis Willcox (St Andrews) on the rural labour movement in Scotland, c.1918-1935.

The ‘Celtic Fringe’ is a somewhat unorthodox location for a labour historian to conduct archival research. Beyond the dynamics of agrarian protest between the 1880s and the 1920s, studied by historians such as Jim Hunter, Eric Hobsbawm, Iain Robertson, and Neville Kirk’s study of industrial unrest in Ballachulish, rural Scotland has received little attention from… Continue reading Lewis Willcox (St Andrews) on the rural labour movement in Scotland, c.1918-1935.

Labour history news

Historical Studies in Industrial Relations 2025 now online

The latest issue of Historical Studies in Industrial Relations (Vol. 46, September 2025) is now available online via Liverpool University Press (subscription required). Table of contents Research Articles’History through Literary Imagination: Portrayals of Worker Representation and Collective Action in Condition-of-England Novels, c.1830-1855’Michael Gold ‘The Rise and Demise of the Institute for Workers’ Control, 1964-1985’Alan Tuckman Essays’Industrial Relations,… Continue reading Historical Studies in Industrial Relations 2025 now online

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