Author: EditorMC

I am a former journalist by trade, turned labour and family historian with a special interest in Chartism. I launched the Chartist Ancestors website since 2003, and am currently a member of the Society for the Study of Labour History executive committee, managing its website and social media in my free time.
Labour History Review

Édouard Dolléans: First Modern Historian of Chartism?

Author: Kevin MorganThis is the abstract of an article published in Labour History Review (2024), 89, (3). Read more. Though Édouard Dolléans (1877–1954) was described by Malcolm Chase as Chartism’s first modern historian, his writings on the subject have never been translated into English and are largely unfamiliar to current historians of the movement. This paper discusses the two editions of Dolléans’s history of Chartism, published in 1912–13 … Continue reading Édouard Dolléans: First Modern Historian of Chartism?

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Labour History Review

Exorcizing Dysfunctional Myths: Betrayal, Economic Incompetence, and the Memory of the 1931 Second Labour Government’s Crisis

Author: Giuseppe Telesca This is the abstract of an article published in Labour History Review (2024), 89, (3). Read more. On 23 August 1931, the second Labour government split over the decision to cut unemployment benefits. The next day, a National Government, led by Labour leader Ramsay MacDonald, but largely supported by Conservative and Liberal MPs, was appointed to ‘save sterling’ – only to decide to leave the gold … Continue reading Exorcizing Dysfunctional Myths: Betrayal, Economic Incompetence, and the Memory of the 1931 Second Labour Government’s Crisis

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Labour History Review

From Old Labour to the Third Way: The UK Labour Party’s Social and Welfare Policy Evolution between 1975 and 1997

Author: Ben Williams This is the abstract of an article published in Labour History Review (2024), 89, (3). Read more. In parallel to the emergence and subsequent dominance of Thatcherite ideology across the realm of British politics from the mid-1970s, the UK Labour Party’s social and welfare policy agenda reacted and evolved for over two decades, a simultaneous and often futile process that occurred largely during a sustained and … Continue reading From Old Labour to the Third Way: The UK Labour Party’s Social and Welfare Policy Evolution between 1975 and 1997

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Labour History Review

Book reviews in Labour History Review volume 89 (2024), Issue 3

The books listed below are reviewed in Labour History Review (2024), 89, (3). Read more. Siân Davies reviews Randy M. Browne, The Driver’s Story: Labor and Power in the World of Atlantic Slavery, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2024, pp. 224, h/b, £36, ISBN 978 15128 25862 Andrew Frow-Jones reviews Vic Gatrell, Conspiracy on Cato Street: A Tale of Liberty and Revolution in Regency London, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022, … Continue reading Book reviews in Labour History Review volume 89 (2024), Issue 3

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Labour History Review

Labour History Review Essay Prize

The Labour History Review essay prize 2025 is announced in Labour History Review (2024), 89, (3). Read more. The editors of Labour History Review established this essay prize with the purpose of encouraging a high standard of scholarship amongst postgraduate research students in Britain and abroad. The winner’s prize will consist of: • Publication of the winning essay in Labour History Review • A cash prize of £700 • One year’s … Continue reading Labour History Review Essay Prize

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Books etc, SSLH news

A labour history of Ireland’s film industry

In Screen Workers and the Irish Film Industry, Dr Denis Murphy traces the evolution since the 1950s of screen production industries on the island of Ireland. More specifically he looks at the people who work in its film, television dramas, documentary and animation industries – how they have shaped the work they do and the conditions under which that work is carried out. This is … Continue reading A labour history of Ireland’s film industry

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Obituaries

Tribute: John Shepherd (1942 – 2024)

Professor John Shepherd, one of the founders of the Labour History Research Unit at Anglia Ruskin, died last week. John taught History in the 1980s at the institution which became Anglia Ruskin, serving the university in multiple roles and in recent years became Research Fellow at the University of Huddersfield.  John did his PhD with Eric Hobsbawm at Birkbeck and went on to become a very … Continue reading Tribute: John Shepherd (1942 – 2024)

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Events

Northern Star shines in Leeds once more

One hundred and eighty years after was published in Leeds for the final time, the Chartist Northern Star newspaper now has a blue plaque in the heart of the city marking its importance as a voice of working-class radicalism. Unveiled by Shirley Chase, whose late husband, the Chartist historian Professor Malcolm Chase, long sought to have the paper commemorated in the city where it was … Continue reading Northern Star shines in Leeds once more

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Obituaries

Keiran Jack McGinley (1954 – 2024)

The Irish labour movement, and especially its labour history community, is mourning one of its most respected and recognisable figures, Dr Kieran Jack McGinley who died suddenly on 25 November. Throughout his life, Jack, as he was generally known, was a passionate advocate for workers’ rights either through his trade union activism or public campaigns, all the while giving forty-five years of service to Trinity … Continue reading Keiran Jack McGinley (1954 – 2024)

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Obituaries

Ian Andrew Gasse (1948 – 2024): an appreciation

In 2012, Ian Gasse came to live in Dumfries and Galloway, settling in the Kirkcudbrightshire village of Kirkpatrick Durham. Then aged 64, Ian was guided by several impulses, but retirement as we know it was surely not among them. In his new location, Ian found the local bus service facilitated his genius for connection. It was at a bus stop that he first met his … Continue reading Ian Andrew Gasse (1948 – 2024): an appreciation

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