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.
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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Books etc

UNITE the Union: a history in six volumes

Liverpool University Press and the Marx Memorial Library & Workers’ School have been trying to make trade union history accessible again with a history of UNITE published in six cheap paperback volumes (each retails at £6.99) from 2022 onwards. We reviewed the first two volumes which covered the history of the Transport and General Workers’ Union, the core of UNITE, from 1880 to 1931 in … Continue reading UNITE the Union: a history in six volumes

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Obituaries

Chris Williams (1963 – 2024)

Chris Williams, who has died at the age of sixty-one, was one of the foremost historians of Wales and of the labour movement. Well known as the author of Democratic Rhondda: Politics and Society, 1855-1951, he wrote extensively on Robert Owen, the South Wales miners, and on political cartooning and caricature, and was Head of the College of Arts, Celtic Studies & Social Sciences at … Continue reading Chris Williams (1963 – 2024)

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Events

Labour, Health and Sunshine: The Alpine Sanatoria of the 1920s

From the late 19th century, the Alps were a sanctuary for tubercular patients. Supervised by Auguste Rollier – the ‘Sun Doctor’ – many recuperated through fraternity, labour, and the healing power of the sun… Speaker: Dr Ilaria Scaglia, Aston University.Date: 22 May 2024, 6pmVenue: Birmingham People’s History Archive, 2nd floor, Birmingham & Midland Institute, 9 Margaret Street, B3 3BS.  This talk is free, all welcome, … Continue reading Labour, Health and Sunshine: The Alpine Sanatoria of the 1920s

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Labour History Review

Labour History Review Volume 89 (2024), issue 1

Labour History Review Volume 89 (2024), Issue 1 has now been published. The journal appears both in hard copy and online formats. The Labour Party has always struggled with the need to balance its internationalist principles with policy administration its immigration and refugee policy. Here, Eunjae Park looks at the 1919 Aliens Act in the context of post-war internationalism, and contends that the change in focus from … Continue reading Labour History Review Volume 89 (2024), issue 1

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Labour History Review

Patriotic Internationalists and Free Immigration: The British Labour Party’s Internationalism in Debates on Immigration Restriction, 1918–1931

Author:  Eunjae ParkThis is the abstract of an article published in Labour History Review (2024), 89, (1), 1-20. Read more. As highlighted in the recent controversies over European immigrants and the refugee ‘crisis’ that culminated in Brexit, Labour’s struggle in balancing its internationalist principles with policy administration has been a constant theme in the party’s immigration and refugee policy. This article situates the Labour Party’s discussion on the 1919 … Continue reading Patriotic Internationalists and Free Immigration: The British Labour Party’s Internationalism in Debates on Immigration Restriction, 1918–1931

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Labour History Review

In Defence of Steel: The Expulsion of Alfred Edwards MP and His Campaign against Steel Nationalization, 1948–1951

Author: Christopher MasseyThis is the abstract of an article published in Labour History Review (2024), 89, (1), 21-46. Read more. Alfred Edwards, MP for Middlesbrough East from 1935 to 1950, has been subject to only cursory academic attention during the lifetime of the 1945–51 Labour governments. Consequently, this article provides the first detailed study of Edwards’s parliamentary career. It is argued that Edwards was a significant national figure … Continue reading In Defence of Steel: The Expulsion of Alfred Edwards MP and His Campaign against Steel Nationalization, 1948–1951

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Labour History Review

2023 Labour History Review Essay Prize Winner

Author: Manuel Herrera CrespoThis is the abstract of an article published in Labour History Review (2023), 88, (3), 47-72. Read more. ‘Porque no ha cambiado nada’: The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and the End of the Cold War The relatively new bundle of scholarship gathered under the notion of a ‘global 1989’ has produced an innovative field of research that highlights the necessity of a global … Continue reading 2023 Labour History Review Essay Prize Winner

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Labour History Review

Book reviews in Labour History Review volume 89 (2024), Issue 1

The books listed below are reviewed in Labour History Review (2024), 89, (1), 73-93. Read more. Mike Mecham reviews John Cunningham, Francis Devine, and Sonja Tiernan (eds), Labour History in Irish History: Essays Celebrating Fifty Years of the Irish Labour History Society, Dublin: Umiskin Press, 2023, pp. 451, p/b, £25, ISBN 978 18381 11212 Martin Spence reviews Michael Tichelar, Labour in the Suburbs: Political Change in Croydon during the Twentieth … Continue reading Book reviews in Labour History Review volume 89 (2024), Issue 1

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