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.
Grants, Labour history news, SSLH news

LUP anniversary: labour history conference bursary for early-career researchers

This year, Liverpool University Press (LUP) is celebrating its 125th anniversary. To mark this occasion, it has created a conference attendance bursary for early career researchers in cooperation with the Society for the Study of Labour History (SSLH). LUP and SSLH have longstanding links as the press publishes the society’s journal, Labour History Review as well as its ‘Studies in Labour History’ book series. The bursary is worth £ 300, which can … Continue reading LUP anniversary: labour history conference bursary for early-career researchers

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Books etc, Labour history news

Visions of labour and class in Ireland and Europe: conference proceedings

The Irish Labour History Society (ILHS) embarked on an ambitious programme to mark its fiftieth anniversary involving an international conference in Dublin titled ‘Visions of Labour and Class’ and a collection of essays exploring the role of labour history in Irish historical narratives – Labour History in Irish History (reviewed in Labour History Review). Both were graced by the involvement of Irish President, Michael D. … Continue reading Visions of labour and class in Ireland and Europe: conference proceedings

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Bursary reports, MA & BA bursaries

Callum Campbell (Northumbria) on Unity Theatre and the Spanish Civil War

My dissertation considers how innovative theatre and cinema produced across Spain and Britain during the Spanish Civil War mobilised new audiences to engage with political propaganda. The final chapter considers the actions of Unity Theatre to reach working-class communities and contest national policies of non-intervention. The bursary allowed me to visit four archives in Manchester and London: the Working Class Movement Library (WCML) in Salford, … Continue reading Callum Campbell (Northumbria) on Unity Theatre and the Spanish Civil War

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Commentary

Britain celebrates its first May Day bank holiday, 1978

May Day 1978 dawned cold and wet. In terms of the weather at least, and in typical bank holiday style, it then went downhill from there, as meteorologists reported the rainiest 1 May since records began, while temperatures struggled to rise above 6C. Scotland had enjoyed (if that is the word) a public holiday at the start of May since 1871, but it was not … Continue reading Britain celebrates its first May Day bank holiday, 1978

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Documents & objects, Labour history news

George Lansbury archives are now online

Seventeen volumes of papers, photographs and other records collected by the former Labour Party leader George Lansbury and his biographer and son-in-law Raymond Postgate have now been digitized and made available online by the LSE Library. This vast archive, which covers the period 1877 to 1955 (from when Lansbury turned eighteen until sometime after his death in 1940 at the age of eighty-one), includes both … Continue reading George Lansbury archives are now online

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Events, SSLH news

Remembering the miners’ strike, 1984-85

As events marking the fortieth anniversary of the 1984-85 miners’ strike continue, BBC Sounds has produced a five-part podcast series on the strike presented by the actor, writer and producer Jonny Owen. Among those contributing is Professor Keith Gildart, a member of the Society’s executive committee, and himself a former miner and expert in the historiography of the strike. Listen to Strike on BBC Sounds. … Continue reading Remembering the miners’ strike, 1984-85

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Bursary reports, MA & BA bursaries

Lola Mills (Warwick) on the forgotten history of the Canary Girls

Women who worked in munition factories during the First World War were known as the Canary Girls. The nickname was reminiscent of the effects of the chemical TNT, as it gave their skin a yellow tint. Whilst the fight of their male counterparts  on the front line was at the forefront of the public’s mind, the Canary Girls’ work was hidden within the walls of … Continue reading Lola Mills (Warwick) on the forgotten history of the Canary Girls

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Bursary reports, Research bursaries

Glyn Robbins on Abraham Kazan and trade union housing co-ops in New York City

In 2015, I stumbled across the Amalgamated Housing Co-Operative in the Bronx, the northern-most borough of New York City. As a long-time housing worker, campaigner and trade unionist, I was intrigued by homes of such obvious quality that, I learned, had been built through the efforts of the labour movement. My interest deepened when, in 2021, I lived in the Bronx for six months as … Continue reading Glyn Robbins on Abraham Kazan and trade union housing co-ops in New York City

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Books etc, SSLH news

From Luddites to Suffragettes: a graphic tale of the fight for the vote

A crowdfunded graphic novel on the ‘raw, intense and often shockingly violent’ fight for the right to vote has hit its funding target within a matter of days of going live.  Titled COURAGE: Luddites – Peterloo – Chartists – Suffragettes, the book is the work of Polyp, the Manchester-based illustrator and cartoonist previously responsible for graphic novels on Peterloo and the life of Thomas Paine. … Continue reading From Luddites to Suffragettes: a graphic tale of the fight for the vote

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Books etc, Labour history news

Mills Transformed: new uses for buildings that shaped the North of England

Neil Horsley introduces a project documenting the repurposing of derelict textile mills across the North of England. Over the past three years I have visited, photographed and interviewed mill renovators at thirty-three mill conversions across the North of England for a project titled Mills Transformed. The focus of the project was initially on the physical aspects of building regeneration schemes but what became apparent to … Continue reading Mills Transformed: new uses for buildings that shaped the North of England

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